For three reasons :

One – Annelize passed the one year mark on my SharePoint Mentorship Program this month.  She went from being a Project Office Administrator, no SharePoint experience, with one of her projects being to create an intranet site for Nedbank Corporate – to single handedly running the whole site collection for Corporate consisting of over 3000 users and dozens of intranet and team sites.  Not only that, she now manages SPiN (SharePoint in Nedbank evangelism site), which is a site open to everybody in Nedbank (28 000 staff), and coordinates the end user training for many departments.  She designed her own evangelism site called SharePoint in Corporate (SPiC), and wrote the governance rules for the division.  She facilitates some of the beginners training now and is fast becoming an expert on fileshare migration and creating metadata. Researches errors on her own and finds solutions, and manages the helpdesk system with the other core team members. Annelize also runs an internal user group forum (SharePoint for Dummies) which is a forum by the people for the people.  She is a member of the Enterprise Governance Forum and coordinates most of the meetings.  All in one year.

Two – she was given an award this month for her outstanding performance in her new role over the last year.  Considering where she started and how much she has achieved, I can’t tell you how much she deserves this recognition.  The accompanying letter written by her bosses was really personal and left no doubt that everything she does was noticed and appreciated.  More bosses could learn from their example.

Three – last but not least.  I am most proud of my student because she is flying to Sydney, Australia on Saturday to speak at Share2010!  I was contacted by the organiser of the event yesterday, and in 16 hours we got approval for Annelize to go, her visa approved, all expenses paid for by the event, brainstormed what she would present, compiled the PowerPoint presentation and sent it off this afternoon.  Collaboration on steriods!  She’ll present overcoming collaboration challenges by inspiring ownership and training end users.  There is no doubt in my mind whatsoever that she is going to handle it like a champion and I am very excited for her!

Annelize – as I said on your 1st SharePoint anniversary, I am extremely proud of your achievements, dedication and passion for what you do.  You have embraced SharePoint and your new job without any hesitation and took ownership!  I believe you have made a huge difference in the bank with the way you have encouraged collaboration and making people more cost conscious, all the while being super friendly and efficient.  Nedbank is very lucky to have you.   This conference is going to change your whole world and make you an even better SCA.  I can’t wait to see what you do with all the skills you learn whilst there.  I wish you the best of luck, but you won’t need it. You’re a natural.

You are living proof that with the right training and support, business users do care about SharePoint … and I’m going to take full credit for that! 😉

You’ve earned your successes – go get ’em girl!