With this year-end edition I will say farewell as editor of the Seashore News. I am taking “early retirement to spend more time with my family…” The Committee has elected our long-time member, Karl Kuhn, to be the new editor. Karl had previous experience as editor when he took over while I was briefly away from Niguel Shores a few years ago during the remodel of my house.
Many thanks to the many volunteers who have staffed this newsletter over the past years and especially to the current committee members: Carol Yocom, our Recreation Committee correspondent and Carol’s Cuisine contributor, has been with me since I started in 2006. Laurel Livesay of Meet Your Neighbor fame and Barbara Milner, who takes us to exotic corners of the world and gives us tips on travel, came a bit later. Michael Harrod and Patti Staudenbaur are the sub-editors who collect the committee reports, and news from the clubs and other activities, edit them and add them to the monthly issues. I am very pleased to report that we have a new member, Curt Swanson, a professional kind of amateur photographer, who has volunteered to be the staff photographer. Karl Kuhn, the new editor, has been an at-large reporter who has written on many subjects of which, more recently, were on city of Dana Point affairs. Kathy Newport graciously volunteers to head up the large crew that collates and delivers the newsletter every month.
We all work together at our monthly meetings to ferret out interesting subjects to feature each month and our staff liaisons, General Manager, Marla Miller, who reports on Niguel Shores affairs in her GM Report and, the indispensable Matt Northrop, hold up the administrative end. Matt is in charge of the Neighborhood Ads and the commercial ads in seeing that they are paid for and properly displayed in each issue. Then, our Board of Directors liaison, John Dougherty, keeps us informed about lofty board discussions.
My experience as editor has given me a great deal of pleasure in working with many staff members over the years, and in meeting so many residents that I would not have met otherwise. The challenge of finding interesting subjects to cover, in finding just the right photo or clip art (yes I admit to that) has been fun, too. I am lucky that writing articles comes easily to me (natural Irish blarney maybe) as I have had no training in that field—not even teaching. So, you have been in the hands of an amateur who had a great time and loved every month of it.
As you can see, I leave a competent group to carry on this long tradition of monthly newsletters. The first issue was in April 1973 and there has been one every month since then for 41 plus years. You will see in the upper right hand corner of this December 2014 issue the number 492 (divide it by 12 and you get 41). I trust that, in one form or another (read digital), it will continue for another 41 years and beyond.
Mary Crowl
Note from Distribution: Still haven’t gotten your Seashore News? There has been a slight delay in distribution due to the holidays and rain but the team is working to get it to everyone ASAP. In the mean time you may pick up a hard copy in the office or view the online version .
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