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Hello Fellow Members, I am now beginning my third year as Guild president, and I apologize that this is the first message that I am writing to you. Ironically, I was an English major in college and had to write papers all of the time. But since then I’ve developed some sort of writer's block, and have had this silly fear every time I started to write one of these messages. This time, however, I shall succeed. There has been a significant change in our magazine. We had the good fortune to have Steve Cohen take the stewardship of the Guild’s newsletter a few years ago and turn it into a first class magazine. He and his staff – Mary Lee, Stephanie Argy and Andrea Van Hook – have all done a great job, and we are truly in their debt for developing and nurturing such a thought-provoking publication. But, now the Guild’s magazine has entered into a transition period that includes the hiring of a new editorial team and bringing the magazine's production process into the Guild’s L.A. offices. To make this transition possible, we’ve retained the services of Sharon Benoit, a highly experienced professional in the world of publishing. She and her staff will guide us through the next few issues, on an interim basis, while we interview and find our next full-time magazine editor. In addition to managing the magazine, the new editor, once hired, will oversee the Guild’s web site and the membership directory. We look forward to seeing what all these positive new changes will bring to our magazine, and ultimately, to you, our members. We have also established an Editorial Policy Committee to include Patrick Gregston as chairperson, and committee members Rachel Igel, John Gilbert, Mark Rathaus and Maggie Ostroff. This new committee will be responsible for establishing the editorial content guidelines (i.e., articles and columns, etc.) that we feel our members might want to see in our magazine. We would appreciate your input, so if any of you feel strongly about certain issues or contents pertaining to the magazine, please send a “Letter to the Editor” to the Guild office in Los Angeles or feel free to contact any of the committee members directly. Again, we are looking forward to producing a well-balanced editorial product that you, our members, can continue to enjoy reading, learning from and contributing to on a continual basis now and into the future. Lisa Zeno Churgin |
