I knew that I was joining a special group of people when I became a contributing author here because of the passion everyone has shown for making NASA the kind of organization we all know it can be.  I consider myself fortunate to be in the company of such a group.

I have learned a heck of a lot in a relatively short period of time about the various perspectives that people bring to the table from all over the space exploration community.  I expected and hoped that would happen, though.  What I didn’t expect was that participating in this electronic forum would lead to even wider, once-in-a-lifetime opportunities.

It turns out that the UN is also considering how it can be a more inclusive organization and some of the people involved in that effort have been reading the blog.  On July 23rd, we will be participating in a forum at UN Headquarters in New York City on new generations entering the workforce, during the 67th session of the International Civil Service Commission. Nick Skytland will be our representative on the official panel, while several of us fellow contributors will sit in the audience and participate in the open discussion after the formal presentations.

We’ve specifically been invited to bring our own unique perspectives to add to those from around the world.  This is an amazing honor that I think speaks highly of the level of discussion we have fostered here at OpenNASA.  We set out to encourage positive change in the way NASA thinks about communication and that has led to the opportunity to contribute to such a discussion on the world stage.

I’m excited to be a part of this and I’m proud of what we have accomplished together.  We’re opening doors that I didn’t even know existed.  I can’t wait to see what comes next.