Ask and Ye Shall Receive . . ., and What Happened to October's Issue? |
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In the Editor's Message column for September, I suggested that volunteering for the newsletter might propel a person to new career levels. To be blunt, I begged for help, and I dangled the carrot of professional growth as incentive. But guess what? It worked! I'm pleased to welcome three new volunteers to our staff. I dare say these kind people have volunteered not for the professional feather but out of a sense of commitment to STC and a desire to make the newsletter the best it can be. So, please help me welcome . . . Jeff Freeman, our new Meeting Review columnist. Jeff, a coworker of mine, will summarize the STC chapter meetings each month, save for the few that conflict with his performances with the men's chorus, the Troubadours. Linda Harrison, our assistant editor. Linda will write articles and help manage each month's content. She'll play a key role in keeping me on track and adding great content to Signature. Susan Gardo, our HTML editor. Susan will put the content into its Dreamweaver HTML pages each month. This is no small task, and I'm grateful to Susan for stepping up, especially since I am not a Dreamweaver whiz and would rather leave this work to the professionals. Without these volunteers, our committed columnists, and our editors and proofreaders, Signature would be merely an idea instead of the thriving, breathing, lively, virtual publication that it is. If you see our new volunteers at a meeting, please stop and thank them for their commitment and hard work. And don't hesitate to write me if you want to volunteer. There's always room for more. And now on to your burning question: What happened to October's issue? I can start by telling you that, in September, I discovered something shocking about myself: I can't do it all. More shocking is the fact that everyone else in my life apparently already knew this. I could blame dear ol' Dad for illuminating this flaw, and I think I will. After undergoing liver resection in early September to remove a cancerous tumor, Dad developed complications that led to three more surgeries, at least 20 units of blood, and one Code Blue. (He's still fighting, but he's still here.) It was somewhere amidst all this drama, perhaps on one of my hasty trips to the Emergency Room or on the midnight dash to the ICU the night Dad coded, that I realized that my "job," for the moment, comprised taking care of my parents, and nothing else. Sympathetic to my circumstances, San Diego STC Chapter President Lance-Robert suggested I skip the October issue. (Apparently, he's one of the people who already knew I can't do it all.) To my own surprise, I quickly agreed. Signature did not suffer alone. In the last 8 weeks, I've chewed up 60 hours of PTO, postponed the launch of another newsletter I publish, and dropped out of an online course I'd been waiting months to take. I regret that I could not get October's issue out, but I don't regret the time with my parents. And I hope beyond hope that my father's travails are behind us and the remaining 8 issues fly to your Inbox without delay. As a parting note, I must thank Lance and the contributors for their understanding and support. Being an editor is an easy gig when I work for such great people. See you next month,
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