This issue arrives with an innovation—a removable cover wrap giving readers advance notice of our forthcoming special issue on "Friends and Money" (and the opportunity to make a pre-publication order at a discounted rate). Also included is information about a new book we are publishing, Answering Terror: Responses to War and Peace after 9/11/01, offered at a discounted cost as well. Both of these are possible for our very small staff to produce because of the extra help we receive from volunteers, both long-term and interns. Without the wonderful energy of up to seven interns each summer, our fall special issues would be far slimmer. In addition to working on the magazine, they have been compiling articles previously published in the Journal for use in anthologies. Answering Terror is the first of these to be published, and was initially compiled by Alex Koppelman and Sarah Sharpless, then the pages were designed and typeset by Melissa Minnich, interns all. Sharon Hoover, a retired English professor and member of New York Yearly Meeting, volunteered to do the organizational work and book and chapter introductions plus queries at the end of each chapter for this book. Without all this help, we would not have been able to bring together in book form the powerful writing about nonviolence that has appeared in this magazine over recent years.
While on the subject of volunteers, I’d also like to introduce Patty Quinn, who since August 2005 has been coming into our office several days each week, providing editorial and proofreading assistance. While not a Quaker, she comments that she admires Friends values. Her background and education is in writing and she reports that she "is glad to contribute to the robust exchange of ideas that Friends Journal offers its readers each month." We are very glad to have her expert assistance to us!
In recent months we’ve had changes in our staff. Our former marketing and circulation manager, Anita Gutierrez, left us in December to take a full-time position with a business-to-business publisher. Following her departure, Gabriel Ehri was promoted from project and database manager to director of marketing, circulation, and special projects. Gabe is a native of the Pacific Northwest, who grew up attending University Friends Meeting in Seattle. After earning a degree in English from Haverford College, he spent time with an Internet startup before joining the Journal in 2004. He brings superb skills to his new position, and we are delighted with the changes he is making. Gabe’s promotion left a gap in our database and tech support staffing. In February, after considering 64 applicants and interviewing 9, Patricia Boyle was appointed as our new database manager. Patty has an undergraduate degree in Journalism from Temple University and an MS in Information Science and Technology from Drexel University. She was born in Philadelphia, but has lived in a variety of locations (including Germany, Maryland, and the Pacific Northwest). Currently she lives near Philadelphia with her husband and two young sons and is active in her community through various civic and volunteer groups. We are delighted to have her excellent technical skills and warm personality to assist us with the very important work of keeping our databases (and many of our business operations) working smoothly.
On page 35 there is an ad inviting applications to help our Milestones editor, Christine Rusch, with the preparation of that much-loved part of the magazine. If you are interested in volunteering in this capacity, I hope that one day in the not distant future I’ll be sharing a bit about you in this column!