Revamping the Republic

Life has been exceedingly hectic of late, and looking at the date of my last post on this blog, I realize just exactly how hectic it has been. I've finally reached the point of maximum overdrive, and so in July I wrote an editorial threatening to shut down The Ester Republic if I didn't find help and a way to deal with the workload. I held a meeting in August to begin reorganizing the paper and book publishing biz along some sort of nonprofit lines, and gratifyingly, eight people showed up.

Whew. I wouldn't have to shut it all down after all.

Well, maybe. We had an excellent discussion, and came up with several ideas and directions to go in, which I described in my August editorial (and also notes from the meeting). I set up a few pages on the whole reorganization on the website, but since then I've been able to do almost nothing on the research I intended or the job descriptions. Jeremiah Shrock has been helping me, and has come up with a couple of draft recruitment posters, but in general, things have gotten even worse, and yours truly is pretty fried.

The paper is two issues behind (one is at the printer now) and about three months' worth of data entry in arrears. October looks to be the most intensely busy month in my entire career with the John Trigg Ester Library (annual membership meeting, seed program launch, final design meetings, grant proposal writing, etc.), but fortunately it is my last one as a board member.

So, November will be devoted to catching up at the Republic. I will be posting job descriptions here and on the revamp pages. Events related to the reorganization will also be posted here and there, and on Facebook. And the fancy new recruitment posters will also be coming up soon.

The Republic ain't dead yet (and neither is the Publisher, although lately she feels like something the cats dragged in). And the Publisher's Deadline will sail at Readers on the Run this weekend, so we aren't sunk yet, either.