All,

I would like to announce to those who are voting members of the Firebird
Foundation that I have been nominated to run for president of this
organization. There is an Annual General Meeting in progress at this time
and the election will start soon. I am grateful to have been nominated to
run for this position by Magnus Johansson and seconded by Helen Borrie. In
many ways I look to Firebird as one of my contributions as I played a
crucial role in the process of influencing Dale Fuller to open source
InterBase. It was in my personal meeting with him when the light-bulb
turned on that he could open source it and it would really boost the stock
share values of the corporation. He was right and the beautiful part for us
is then we could fork it and go to work on turning it into the amazing
powerhouse database it has always been destined to become.

I don't have huge ambitions to make changes and rock any boats. I believe
if we continue to pursue an honest and steady course, focusing always upon
the stability and reliability of the product, that the greatness of Firebird
will continue to increase in its user base.

I am also contemplating the possibility of moving the development of IB
Objects 5.x under the umbrella of open source within the Firebird SQL
umbrella. I'd love to hear people's thoughts and reactions to this
possibility. And, I would continue to be the primary developer, but this
would allow more hands to get involved and foster a greater number of eyes
inside the code of IBO to help move it along as well.

Also, if you are not a member of the Firebird Foundation, I kindly request
all of my IBO community to consider supporting this financially by becoming
an Associate Member or a Voting Member.

Here is a URL to apply for membership.

https://firebirdsql.org/en/membership/

Thank you all very much for your support over the years.

Jason Wharton
www.ibobjects.com