“Can I speak to your eLearning manager? This is Linda English from Save the Children.”
About six years ago, Linda English cold-called a handful of development organizations asking this simple question, and so began the journey that eventually led to the formation of LINGOs. Before long, the one-on-one conversations evolved into monthly conference calls where ideas were shared, then came a November 2004 organizing meeting in Washington DC where the name was created, and then to the incorporation of LINGOs as a non-profit organization. Throughout the timeline of events, Linda has been in the middle of all things LINGOs. Today, marks another landmark in the LINGOs journey as we announce that Linda will be leaving her position as LINGOs’ Director of Membership in the first quarter of 2010.
LINGOs has come a long way since those early phone calls. As you might expect, not many organizations were doing much in distance learning back then and not a single organization (other than Save the Children) had an eLearning Manager. What a difference five years makes! LINGOs now has almost 50 members with over 5000 online courses completed in the last quarter. As was announced previously, Linda’s accomplishments were recognized when she was selected as a Finalist in the Microsoft Alumni Foundations’ Integral Fellows program – one of six people out of a population of 60,000 alumni.
The good news is, we have convinced Linda to stay connected with LINGOs and she will continue to represent the organization to outside people interested in learning what we are up to and hopefully to build on the relationships she has made through the recognition her work has received.
We have begun a search for her replacement and will be posting a job description and announcement on the LINGOs site by the end of the week. We consider this an opportunity to look at all the roles within LINGOs and align our people and resources with our most pressing needs. Ana Raquel Quevedo, our new administrative support person, has now taken responsibility for some of the things Linda was doing. As many of you know, Linda was considered part-time (though as an ex Microsoft employee, I always joked that part-time for her was at least 40 hours per week). We will be looking to replace her with a full time person, so between moving some work to Ana Raquel and adding hours, we expect to actually increase the services and support to members.
On a personal level, I will miss my daily (often many times a day) interactions with Linda. We have been working on LINGOs since its inception and it will seem a bit strange not to get the prodding and praising that were a part of her regular communications with me. Still, I know where she lives and I know her personal cell number and I know her continued interest and passion for the mission of LINGOs, so I don’t think we will be that far out of touch.
I am sure that is true for many of you as well. Linda’s passion for making a difference hasn’t changed – only the vehicle for expressing it. We will be planning an appropriate farewell for Linda once the timelines become clearer (she has agreed to hang around as long as necessary – or at least within reason). For now, please join me in expressing thanks to Linda for all she has contributed to LINGOs and to our lives. Feel free to drop her a note at
Linda@lingos.org. She is currently working from New Zealand so she may be a bit slower to respond but I am sure you will hear from her. If you have any questions or concerns about this note, please contact me directly at
eric@lingos.org.