Dear colleagues,
I am dedicating this issue’s President’s Page to thanking and bidding farewell to Manual Zirm and welcoming Nathalie Wachotsch as new T2M secretary. Both have provided personal messages to you as members.
Dear members of T²M,
After two years, it is time for me to say farewell. My work as T²M secretary has ended and as many of you have noticed in the last few weeks, T²M has had a new secretary! She will introduce herself, but after getting to know with Ms Nathalie Wachotsch, I am convinced that she will do an excellent job for T²M. My work for T²M started with my position as assistance organizer of the annual T²M conference and first summer school in Berlin, 2011. Some months after it, the president of T²M, Hans-Liudger Dienel, asked me to work as T²M`s interim secretary.
This had become necessary after the shutdown of the European Centre for Mobility Documentation in Helmond, the former place of the T²M secretariat. His offer was a surprise, but after a short time of contemplation I decided to undertake the task. And it was a good decision! But it was not an easy beginning for me as a student. In 2012 we had to organize the shift of the secretariat from Helmond to Berlin and we had to reorganize many aspects of T²M. Also, the worldwide financial crisis before our annual conference in Spain did not help our plans to organize a conference there, but, with great effort of the Spanish organizers, we did it. 2013 was much easier, (an important fact because it allowed me to finish my master studies). In the last weeks I prepared the change of the secretariat, a task I hope is now successful complete.
Now we are at the end of this little farewell text and the last lines are reserved for some acknowledgements. First, I want to say thank you to Jørgen Burchardt. In his position as Webmaster, chief of the Bibliography project, as participant of the annual conferences and his many other voluntary activities, we had a close and productive cooperation. I wish him all the best and I am looking forward to seeing the new design of the T²M website soon. Also I want to thank Massimo Moraglio, the former T²M treasurer, especially for his kind and patient support during my settling-in period. It is very important for me to thank to all the other volunteers and supporters of T²M too. Last but not least I give thanks to Hans Dienel for his steadily confidence and the great opportunity.
Now I have come to the end and to my last line. I wish every T²M member (past and present) and volunteer, and T²M itself, a long and successful life and all the best in the future.
Sincerely, Manuel Zirm
Dear T2M-members,
As Manuel mentioned, I will continue his work and be the new secretary for T²M. I am Nathalie Wachotsch and I am doing the master’s degree in Sociology and Technology Studies at the Technical University of Berlin. I am especially interested in transport and mobility studies and I am looking forward to my new responsibilities at T²M and to be part of that interesting international association. Some of you I will meet at this year’s conference in Philadelphia.
If you have any questions, I am here for you: secretary@t2m.org
Kind regards, Nathalie
