 End of the Apprenticeship
What color do you want for the banner?” This question, posed to me a few weeks ago during an editorial team dinner, suddenly made my upcoming editorship of the Bulletin very real. I have to admit, I had a moment of panic. In some respects it was reminiscent of being informed that my request to go on expatriation had been granted. My wife and I had talked for a long time about living and working overseas and had finally agreed that this is what we wanted to do. When we were informed that I was being offered a position overseas (significantly farther south than we had expected) we immediately looked at each other and thought “What have we done?” As with many things in life, sometimes the idea of something is much more attractive than the reality of having it.
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Anyway, a relatively long expatriation, followed by a few others, turned out well. I am confident that editing the Bulletin will be a good experience, particularly as there is an incredible support team already in place. With the help of the office staff, editor-elect, guest editors, design editor and others, this promises to be a good year.
For the past two years I have had the opportunity to help two excellent editors, Patricia Santogrossiand Michael Forlenza, prepare and publish a monthly Bulletinthat we can all be proud of. Michael had several very interesting articles during the past year and was a major content contributor to the Bulletin. With luck, maybe I can convince him to contribute a few articles to continue his Vintage Geology series. I, on the other hand, am not a prolific writer nor is it something that I particularly enjoy. The prospect of writing ten monthly Editor’s Columns is, in itself, a bit intimidating.
One of the other topics of discussion at the editorial team dinner was how to get additional Bulletincontent from the membership. Some of the ideas tossed around were:
- A section on members’ moves, job changes, etc. For those of you familiar with the Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists, you may remember a section of their publication titled “Revisions, Moves and Gyrations”. If there is interest in having something like this in our Bulletin, please let me know and feel free to suggest a catchy title. The AAPG Explorerhas a similar section.
- A series of articles on who inspired you either in your decision to pursue a career in the Geosciences or had a significant impact on your career.
- A series of articles on forgettable moments in your careers. I will kick this off in a later column and share some moments that were, at best, embarrassing at the time. I think that one of the traits that we all share is the ability to laugh at ourselves. Hopefully, once you have laughed at me, you will be willing to share some of your own experiences.
Members willing to contribute to the Bulletinshould be aware that we have a few deadlines. The most important of these is that material for the Bulletinmust be received by the editor approximately 6 weeks before publication. In other words, material for the September 2014 Bulletin must be received by July 15, and so on for the rest of the year. This deadline is important as it allows us to edit, compile, print, bind and mail the Bulletins, ensuring that members receive them early in the month. As someone mentioned to me when I agreed to become editor, “no one particularly cares if there are grammar or spelling errors, but if the Bulletinarrives one day late prepare yourself for the fallout.” Our goal, as an editorial team, is to deliver the Bulletinon time and with as few grammatical and spelling errors as possible.
The apprenticeship is now over and it is my turn to try to maintain the high standards that Patricia and Michael have set. I look forward to the coming year and hope that we see increased member contributions to the Bulletin.
By the way, Michael made my first editorial decision easy by mentioning that past editors have often chosen their school colors for the banner. This year the banner will be Badger Red, brought to you by the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Take care and see you next month.
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