We’re thrilled to announce a huge - and overdue - step for the Community: the launch of our formal Community All Stars program. Please join us in recognizing our founding All Stars and celebrating their many and longstanding contributions to the Community, our technical expertise, product experience, and best practices. If you’ve spent any time here or ever posted a question in the Community, you’ve already seen them in action. They are indispensable sharing their time, experience, ideas, and feedback Our All Stars@Robert Horowski @dude @Onno van den Berg @Erase4ndReuseMedia @Jos Meijer @Mohamed Ramadan @Nikos.Kyrm Just in time for SHIFT 2025, you can hear directly from several of our All Stars in our series of podcast interviews about their perspective on career paths in data protection, emergent industry trends, and the value of Community and knowledge sharing! About the All Stars Program: Where It All Began This initiative started with open conversations - about values, growth, and authentic leadership.The dedicated founding members community members stepped up during the pilot phase to shape this vision.They provided thoughtful feedback, offered new perspectives, and reminded us that evolution doesn’t happen top-down - it’s built together.These early contributors helped design more than a program, they helped build a framework for collective progress.Their feedback over the past few weeks helped us understand what the Community All-Stars Program is about. The main message was that the Community values being seen, being genuine, and growing together.From this, we created five main principles:Everyone feels like they belong Recognition is meaningful and balances rewards with being seen Working together and being responsive are key to making an impact Focusing on mentorship and depth rather than just tracking activity Recognition is open and visible to the CommunityThese insights shaped how we designed the program — one that focuses on real impact and progress, not just titles. Why This Program Matters Community All Stars focuses on collaboration and growth, not hierarchy. Contributors become collaborators. Learning flows both ways. Each All Star becomes a catalyst - someone who helps others succeed while evolving their own leadership journey. In short: this program exists to make everyone better. Looking Ahead - What’s Next?Stay tuned as we continue to promote the launch of our Community All Stars following our SHIFT events. Look out for fresh badges and an evolution of our overall ranks and scoring in the Community, as well as more in-depth profiles and interviews with several of our founding All Stars. (We can’t wait to share those!)And, in the new calendar year, we’ll look forward to sharing more about the future of the program, growth, and how to get involved. These moments of storytelling will showcase not just individuals, but the collective power of our network - and the impact of genuine collaboration.The Community All Stars isn’t the end of a project - it’s the beginning of a new evolution for this Community.A space where recognition meets growth, and where every contribution moves us all forward.This is your space. Your ideas built it. Now, together, we’ll evolve it.Thank you!Roy, Jenn, Damian & The Community Team
