It’s not unusual for the arrival of children to bring about big changes, not just for families, but for organizations as well. At Friends Journal, we’ve had quite a crop of babies this year! Last spring I told you that Martin Kelley, our former webmanager, was leaving us because of the imminent arrival of his first child, Theodore Kelley Heiland, who was born last August. Martin felt the need to consolidate his part-time work into a job closer to full-time. We understood—and welcomed Herb Ettel to replace him as our webmanager.
This past January, Lisa Rand, our assistant editor, gave birth to her first child, Caroline Christina. We rejoice in this new addition to our staff families and look forward to following Caroline’s progress through life’s developmental stages when her mom shares stories of her during our staff meetings. Lisa has decided not to give up her part-time position at Friends Journal, and we anticipate welcoming her back to her duties at the end of April. Danielle DeCosmo, a very capable intern who joined us last August, is providing coverage for Lisa’s responsibilities in the interim. Danielle graduated in 2001 with a degree in English from Rutgers University, and undertook an internship with us last autumn to hone her editorial skills and to learn more about the publishing field. We are delighted she is able to provide this interim coverage.
When she joined us as project and database manager in May 2002, Melissa Martin had two of life’s big milestones just ahead of her. She was married to her long-time sweetheart, John Martin, the following October. Now they are expecting their first child this May. John’s work is taking them to State College, Pa., too far for Melissa to consider staying on. So, we say farewell to her with a mixture of gratitude for her outstanding organizational and technical abilities and her efficient handling of all that landed in her in-box, sadness not to continue sharing in her life on a daily basis, and pleasure to know that she will have a period of time at home with her new baby and an opportunity to focus on her family life.
Melissa’s departure gives me the occasion to share with you our delight that Gabriel Schoder-Ehri has joined us to take up Melissa’s former duties as project and database manager. Gabe grew up in University Friends Meeting in Seattle, Washington. Active with young Friends in his meeting and North Pacific Yearly Meeting, he came East to attend Haverford College. A 2000 Haverford graduate, he is now a Corporation Associate of the Corporation of Haverford College. Gabe holds a degree in English Literature, but also spent a number of years at Haverford as a computing consultant to other students through the Haverford College Academic Computing Center. After graduation, he went on to become content manager for Hot Neuron LLC, an Internet start-up organization, where he further honed his computer skills and produced a weekly e-mail digest of interesting articles for a mailing list of over 5,000 readers. Gabe is taking over management of our circulation and donor databases and will undertake numerous special projects for me. We are delighted to have him join us, and I am especially pleased to have his assistance with the very large volume of tasks that come my way.
