Here at the end of 2011, I just wanted to reflect on the past year and say thanks to all of you who make this community what it is.

Recruited by Wally, I started as the community manager here at ServiceNow in early May, and it's been great getting to know you all and doing my best to serve you.

1. Here are some community highlights from 2011 (counting from May onwards):

• Registered members went from 4940 to 7255 -- that's more than 2300 new users (47% growth) in 7 months.
• Topics posted went from 6553 to 8882 -- that's over 2300 new topics posted (36% growth) in 7 months.
• Total forum posts went from 14451 to 20624 -- that's over 6100 new posts (43% growth) in 7 months.
• We're seeing over 500 unique members logging in to the community each week, with many more visitors who are not logged in.
• Our community blogs have taken off as well. In November, we had 47 blog posts. In December, we're averaging nearly 2 blog posts per day (thanks to guys like SlightlyLoony, SimonMorris, and others)!

2. Things are definitely hopping, and we've made various improvements to the community this year, but expect much more to come in 2012!

My number one priority is making sure more of your questions get answered. I know that the questions asked require expertise, patience, and a lot of goodwill on the part of those who answer. The people who go out of their way to help out deserve far more recognition and incentives than we're currently offering, so that's something I will pursue vigorously.

I'd also like to make this site a more robust platform for people who would like to share, whether it's technical knowledge about the ServiceNow product or general insight that will benefit everyone in our industry. The folks who participate here are super smart and I want to help make you shine, whether it's via our blogging platform or expanding the broader knowledge ecosystem around ServiceNow (including third-party resources).

3. This post would be woefully incomplete without a huge shout out to the true heroes of the community. For example, people like:

• Mark Stanger (with his seemingly magical tips and tricks combined with his incredible generosity, he's like a ServiceNow Santa Claus), Tony Fugere, Wesley Bouwer, Matt Gaide (who has since joined ServiceNow as an employee), and every other community member who has gone out of their way to help out a fellow user in need. I can't list everyone here, but please know that you're appreciated!
• Our amazing crew of volunteer Local User Group managers who organize and host ServiceNow events all over the world.
• The ServiceNow employees and official partners who are active on the community--answering questions, sharing knowledge, and inspiring people to try new things with ServiceNow.
• Our extended community of ServiceNow bloggers, Tweeters, and other smart people--guys like Matt Beran (@mattberan, who also helps produce SnappCast), Arlen Vartazarian (@arlen_v), the incomparable Chris Dancy (@servicesphere), and many others.

This community, and ServiceNow itself, wouldn't exist without our customers, so thank you once again and happy holidays from the Information Development team (where I work, pictured below) and the entire ServiceNow organization!