Dear all, 

Stopping by just to thank you all for the support and help in my role as NCSG chair in the past two years. We surely did not face the best of times during the first pandemic years but I am personally thankful for all of you who managed to remain engaged or who at least tried. 

I hope our community continues to flourish and bring in new leadership from newcomers groups just like it happened with a myself and a lot of my current colleagues in the leadership positions. Another of my personal wishes is for us to work more into empowering women and gender nonconforming people both for leadership positions and having a more active voice within NCSG, and the only way we can do it is by being more welcoming and understanding of our differences and backgrounds. No Racism, discrimination or rudeness to each other should be justifiable on cultural backgrounds and - as one of the spaces for academia and civil society within ICANN - our community's main goal is to become more and more a safe space! 

And I am also personally thankful for all that took some time to mentor me, and help me through the newcomer doubts and questions. With the chance that I will forget names, Id like to thank everyone who was by my side since I joined the NCUC EC until today, found time to help me understand my role within this community and as chair. Therefore, my special thank you goes to all the Tatianas, Avris, Farzanehs, Miltons, Rafiks, Renatas, Louises, Olgas and many more of you. 

Last but not least, I wish @Johan Helsingius all the luck as our incoming chair and hope to continue working together with you. Hopefully things will only get better from now onwards and NCSG will achieve even higher places (: 

Thanks again, everyone! 

--
Bruna Martins dos Santos 

German Chancellor Fellow 21' (Bundeskanzler-Stipendiatin) | Alexander von Humboldt Foundation

Visiting Researcher (Gastwissenschaftlerin) | Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung (WZB)

Member | Coalizão Direitos na Rede 
Chair
 | Non-Commercial Stakeholder Group at ICANN
Co-Coordinator | Internet Governance Caucus 

Twitter: @boomartins // Skype: bruna.martinsantos