Staff changes

Here’s to the staff.
By Tom Stites
Winter 2005 11.1.05

The smiling faces you see above on the left are the Boston staff who bring you this magazine and uuworld.org, the weekly Internet magazine that we launched in August. And the grinning face you see on the right is that of Donald E. Skinner, who writes much of our news from his office in Kansas.

The new complexity of reporting, writing, editing, designing, and producing the Web magazine as well as the magazine you are holding is, for me, an occasion to be in touch with a deep sense of gratitude for my extraordinarily versatile colleagues. And for several of them, the added duties are an occasion for much-deserved promotions:

• Christopher L. Walton, third from the right, has the new title of editor of uuworld.org and has been promoted to executive editor of UU World.
• Kenneth Sutton, third from the left, has the new title of managing editor of uuworld.org and has been promoted to senior editor of UU World.
• Kathy Todd, center, has the new title of technical manager of uuworld.org and has been promoted as advertising and production manager of UU World.
• Sonja L. Cohen, second from the right, has been promoted to assistant editor of both the print and Web magazines.

None of the four knew when hired that the UUA would be starting uuworld.org--yet all happened to have the kind of technical skills a Web magazine requires.

The other versatile people in the photo are Jane Greer, far right, managing editor of UU World and news editor of both the print and Web magazines, and Teresa Schwartz, UU World’s advertising assistant, second from the left, who helped out in several ways as the Web magazine went live. I’m the guy with the white beard.

Don Skinner is versatile, too: For eight years he has been the editor of the much-praised InterConnections newsletter for congregational leaders and has written the Congregational Life column and other articles for UU World. When Katrina struck Don dusted off his twenty years of pre-UUA newspaper experience and sprang into action, delivering one comprehensive story after another for uuworld.org.

This magazine features a major article by Michelle Bates Deakin on the Unitarian Universalist response to Katrina (see page 50), and Don adds a news story on UU generosity to relief efforts and affected congregations (see page 63). The timeliness of the Web magazine now complements the more measured pace of UU World, thanks to the staff pictured here. If you’ve yet to check out the Web magazine, I encourage you to take a look—Don’s fine pieces supplement the articles in this issue. The Web address and its name are the same: uuworld.org.