It’s Time for a Change

It was five years ago this month when Winfield invited Nate and I to Midtown watering hole Cypress Street Pint & Plate for a couple of happy hour beers one weekday afternoon. Many of you will remember, of course, that Winfield was the site manager of FTRS at the time, and one of its founders along with fellow Reck-driving alumnus BirdGT. At the time, Nate and I had been on staff for around six months after joining to help cover recruiting in the weeks leading up to National Signing Day earlier that year. In our time since joining, we had covered the team's recruiting efforts, and then gone on to write about several other topics (some relevant to Georgia Tech, some otherwise).

When we met with Winfield, he told us that he had taken a new job with a large consulting firm that he was really excited about, but one that would require enough of his time and effort that he wouldn't be able to keep up his duties as site manager at FTRS. In his place, he asked Nate and I to team up and run the site together. In our short time with the staff, we had really had a lot of fun writing, making jokes about one another, and hopefully giving the Georgia Tech fan base somewhere to get informed and form a community. The opportunity to continue doing so, and to be able to help shape the community further into a really special place on the internet, was incredibly exciting. Since that day, I've been charged with stewarding this site and community as site manager.

After a wonderful five years, the time has come for my role here to change. Today is my last as site manager for From the Rumble Seat.

When Winfield told us about his awesome new job, I didn't really understand how it would take up so much of his time that he wouldn't be able to manage the site any more. (As a rising fourth-year student with no major external commitments, there was no way I could have had the perspective required to understand.) I didn't really think there would come a time when I would have similar reasoning for making a similar decision.

It's funny looking back on that now, and considering how life inevitably gets more complicated as you grow up. In the time since taking over the site manager spot, I've...

-- Gone through the hellacious process that is ISyE senior design and graduated with my bachelor's degree.

-- Searched for (and found) my first full-time job after college.

-- Moved 12 hours away from my hometown (Atlanta, of course) to Houston, Texas for that job.

-- Taken on a new role within my company that included significantly more responsibility and travel.

-- Gotten married to the girl I had been with for almost two years when I originally took on the role, and who I’ve been with ever since.

-- Together with my new wife, bought our first house.

-- Taken on yet another new role with my company, involving even more responsibility and requiring even more of my attention.

-- Made plans to go and pick up our new puppy (being given a Georgia Tech-related name, promise) in the next couple of weeks.

So, yeah. Things were much simpler back when I first started with the site, to say the least.

You'll see and understand, too, why I've got to step down as site manager. In recent months, I've been putting off doing this, and dreading the day coming when I did. The site has been a major point of pride for me over the last few years — my “baby”, if you will. In the meantime, the site & staff have suffered from my lack of attentiveness, while Ben has taken on significantly more managerial work behind the scenes to keep the lights on around here. To avoid making a change would be for selfish reasons, and would ultimately result in some undoing of what we've built here over the last five years. In my place, after years of incredible consistency and dedication in producing the Technical Tidbits for every weekday morning, Cade has stepped up and taken on a co-manager role, joining Ben as the primary stewards of the staff and community. As he joins the Georgia Tech student body this fall, he’ll be the perfect compliment to Ben in site management to take this community where it needs to go. Please join me in congratulating Cade on his new role here!

Before I go, though, I want to make one thing clear: this isn't goodbye. In stepping down as site manager, my goal has always been to transfer the associated responsibility to someone who can support Ben by being more attentive to the site and providing leadership on a more consistent basis than I'm able to offer at this point in my life. In Cade, I'm confident that Ben and I have found that someone.

However, that doesn't mean you've heard the last of me. My goal is to go back to doing the thing that I first enjoyed about being on the staff at FTRS: writing. In particular, my goal is to stay on staff as a columnist, offering my thoughts on all things Georgia Tech athletics (as you've seen me do a lot of over the last year or so). I want to thank Ben and Cade for giving me the opportunity to do that. I’ll be doing my best to produce a weekly column during football season, and some other columns throughout the year (which, again, you’ve seen me do plenty of recently).

A few more folks I'd like to thank:

• First off, a huge thank you to my lovely wife Maggie, who has been incredibly supportive as she's had an awful lot of Saturday afternoons and weeknight evenings shaped around my responsibility to the site over the past five years. Without her support, I would’ve been gone a long, long time ago.
• I'd like to thank all of the staff members, current and past, who I've worked with through the years, along with all of the wonderful commenters (and even the non-commenters) who have helped to make this such an incredible community of Georgia Tech fans over the past half-decade. You are the folks that have made FTRS such a great place that has brought me such joy and pride.
• I'd also like to thank Matt Brown, Wescott Eberts, and all of the other folks at the SB Nation mothership, who have provided a ton of guidance and support over the years.

Thanks for letting me serve as your site manager for the last five years. It's been a fun ride, and I can’t tell you how rewarding it’s been in so many ways. But again, remember — it's not over yet. I'm just moving to a different seat on the bus. Until next time...

Go Jackets!