Happy Boss's Day!

 

"I read your blog, and I think you had a good idea."
"A good idea?"
"Yeah, we should have a dinner for all of us who are STAYING at Standard Publishing."
Well, we didn't have a dinner at work today, but we did have fun! It's Boss's Day, and the good people in the editorial department got together to assemble a whole platform of goodies to celebrate.
People were talking all day about the sugar shot they got from the spread. There WERE a lot of donuts, cookies, and brownies. And they were WONderful!
But I did save the pie in my lunch to eat another day!

Matt Lockhart, Jon Underwood, and Carla Crane led the line for the goodies (top) after five of the bosses (including me, Shawn McMullen, and Lindsay Black) posed in front of the spread.

Another Good-bye

We've been having hot, hazy weather this week, and the rising sun has been beautiful every morning on the way to work. I stopped in the church parking lot to try to capture it today. It was prettier than this, but this will help me remember it.

Today we had another going-away party. Joann VanMeter decided to retire (I think she had toyed with the idea for some time), and we had a surprise farewell lunch for her today at noon. Matt Lockhart expressed the company's appreciation for her 14 years (I think that's the right number) of service, most recently (and most valuably) as our rights and permissions manager. Her skill and knowledge of the whole rights scene has grown with her years of experience. That, plus her knowledge and concern for our customers and contributors and her warm personality and ready laugh all combine to make us very sorry she's leaving.
But she's not the only one to go. A week ago Friday I treated the Magazines staff to lunch so that Shawn McMullen could tell them that he's been recommended by the elders of Lifespring Christian Church to become their senior minister. He'll preach trial sermons at Lifespring's various campuses this month, and if the elders' call is confirmed September 29, he'll begin at Lifespring November 1.

This follows a summer in which we lost Jared Alexander, Robb Faust, Zach Davis, Valaira Hoskins, and a couple of others I didn't know as well and whose names I've forgotten.
Someone came by my desk after lunch today, "You're not planning on leaving, are you?"
"Not planning on it," I said.

Special People

Jason and Vangie Rodenbeck were in the office yesterday and today to work with children's editors and marketing folks on special education emphases in Standard's HeartShaper and VBS curriculum. Shawn McMullen and I had the pleasure of meeting with them awhile this morning to talk about how we could use them in The Lookout and Christian Standard.
What nice people! And what cool things Standard will do on behalf of students with special needs because of our work with Vangie!

A Birthday at Betta's

What's more fun than a new restaurant? Jim Nieman introduced most of us to Betta's Italian Oven close to Xavier University for his birthday lunch today. It's very fine!
The sign in the window proclaims, "The best pizza in Cincinnati," an award bestowed at least once by Cincinnati Magazine. I don't know if I would have labeled it the best, but the margherita pizza I had for lunch was really good. The pizzas are cooked in a wood-fired oven. They have one size and style: 10-inches, thin and crispy crust.
When the waitress brought it to the table, I thought, Well, I'll be taking half of this home. But I managed to eat the whole thing! It's in a part of town I never get to, but sometime I'll make a point of going there just to try something else on their menu!

Sheryl Overstreet, Jim Nieman, Mark Taylor, Shawn McMullen, and Mike Helm
enjoying Betta's for Jim's birthday!

Spent most of the day working on the March issue, which goes to the printer next week: Read proof and talked on the phone to get quotes from Christian college presidents for the editorial I hope to write for that issue. Spent most of my time after supper this evening studying for our men's group's first study in Revelation Thursday morning. I'm so glad I have Matt Proctor's articles, Part One and Part Two, on Revelation as a help to get us started!

Signs and Service

Shawn McMullen has a December  birthday, and we celebrated today at Olive Garden. Good lunch. Big lunch. I was sleepy half the afternoon.

After work I went to visit Marge Miller at her residence at the Lodge, a retirement community/facility not far from work. Her daughter, Angie, posted on Facebook yesterday that they needed to move Marge to a nursing home; after tomorrow she'll be at a place close to where her son Steve serves in Indiana.
I worked with Marge for years before she retired from Standard Publishing. We traveled together on Ideashops, and I worked with her when she was head of the Christian Ministries Department. I dearly love her, and it's been too long since I've seen her.
I had thought I would take her picture; maybe we'd pose together. But she was resting in a hospital bed, connected to oxygen and accompanied by a companion/nurse. We weren't going to take a picture.
But we had a nice visit. "I'm getting weaker and weaker," she said, but her mind is sharp. She smiled and laughed with me, and we reminisced a bit about travels we shared.
"They talked with me about where I wanted to go," she told me, "and I said, 'Wherever it's the cheapest.' But they said, 'We'll go where it's the nicest.'"
We talked about how glad we are to have kids who love the Lord and love their spouses and are involved in good things. (Marge's three kids are remarkable, dynamic Christians. It's quite something to see three kids from the same family who are each so special. Her son Dale worked with us at Standard for 20+ years before the latest layoff there. He's the newest staff member at our church, Trevor DeVage's first new hire.)
"You just have to keep pressing on," she told me. I have a feeling that's a philosophy that has carried her through her 88 years and will until she's too weak to express it any longer.
I'm glad I got to see her. I'm sorry I haven't seen her more in the last few years.

After our visit, I grabbed a snack and went to church for worship team practice. I'm singing with the group at the 9:30 service Sunday.

Find the Mark

Took two carloads of my coworkers to lunch today--all of them colleagues in our magazines work at Standard Publishing. Forgot to ask the waitress to take our picture, but I got the folks to pose for a picture outside the restaurant, Ferrari's Little Italy in Madeira. Then one of them, our Creative Services Director, Mark Haas, told me to jump into the frame and he snapped a second picture. He offered to Photoshop me into the first picture, but it's easier just to post both pix here. :-)

The lunch was a fun and tasty interruption to a productive planning day Paul and I enjoyed. Tomorrow I'm going to try to follow up on all of the ideas and assignments I've jotted down as a result.

Between Trips

Thursday through Saturday Evelyn and I were at the International Conference on Missions in Indianapolis. I went up Thursday morning in time to present our new student subscription plan to the Christian college presidents meeting before the convention began. I'll need to do some serious follow-up with them, I believe, and that will start next week. Shawn McMullen and I set up and manned the 1-space-wide Standard Publishing booth, which received several comments for its modesty (small size and limited offerings). But I thought we made it look as nice as we could, and we DID get a lot of comments, talk with a lot of people, give away some door prizes, and distribute samplers for much of our curriculum, VBS, etc.

We put Lookouts and Christian Standards on all the main session seats before the Friday-night session. Four CCU students helped us, along with Todd and Lynn Dillon and Shawn's daughter, Kelsey. We treated all our workers to dinner as a thank-you. Evelyn posed with Kelsey after dinner before we returned to our respective booth duties and the main session.

Today I cleaned up details, handled correspondence, prepared copy for this week's e-newsletter, and wrote my column that will be posted at christianstandard.com Thursday. Tonight I paid bills. Tomorrow morning we'll be up and at 'em early, in time to pack and be on the road (hopefully) by 9 a.m. It's over the river and through the woods to the grandkids' house we'll go for a big Thanksgiving weekend back East.

Marking the Day, Measuring My Words

What can I say about Dale Reeves and Shawn Krumm? Many things, but the most timely thing to say is that they are two of six members of Standard Publishing's editorial and creative services departments laid off yesterday as we experienced yet another reduction in force. The other four—Ruth Frederick, Steve Clark, Bob Korth, and Marcy Levering—represent some of Standard's longest-term employees. Dale has been with us for 22 years, and at least three of the above four for much longer.
We received a letter explaining that since year over year sales continue to fall, there is just no choice but to cut back our number of employees. At least it didn't use the word that has been reported to have been uttered by some in upper management. Their category for editorial employees: "overhead."
"I'm sorry about yesterday," CEO Peter Esposito said to me in the hallway today. I hesitated, measuring my response, and said finally, "Well, we're all sorry about it, Peter," and then walked away.
That's all that was prudent to say to him or in this public forum. But since I'm writing a diary, I took Dale's and Shawn's picture today to mark the time when this, not the first disappointment at Standard, has happened. We're praying for wisdom, grace, and joy, and actually it was encouraging to see all three displayed by Shawn and Dale today as they packed up their offices for their last day to work for us.
Meanwhile, I'm not discouraged in my own work, because some positive developments for the future of the magazines seem in store. Shawn McMullen and I are standing at a booth space dedicated primarily to The Lookout and Christian Standard at the International Conference on Missions in Indianapolis this week. I spent time today finishing up preparations for the trip, including two presentations: a workshop Friday and a pitch to college presidents tomorrow for student subscriptions to Christian Standard.