Saying Farewell In Style
Oh, how I have dreaded writing this post. As most readers know, we have a new editor of Alexandria Stylebook. Leigh is wonderful and will bring new energy and ideas to this publication. I know we are in very capable hands.The problem is, this means we had to say farewell to Madelyn, who has been the editor for more than 4 years. I was introduced to Madelyn by Adrien Cotton of Fitness on the Run when we were all pregnant with our first kids 13 years ago. We all lived in Old Town and would walk to prenatal yoga and then, of course, to eat afterwards.We became fast friends and of course we will remain so. The problem is, I am really going to miss working with her every day. It has been the most enjoyable professional experience I’ve ever had – and that’s saying something - and I am painfully going to miss talking to her as much as I have the last few years.Running this publication is a ton of work. I know folks don’t want to know the behind-the-scenes details, but I am here to tell you it is an extraordinary feat to produce this 5 days a week. Yes, contributors write their own pieces and provide graphics and photos but there are about 100 steps to get from A to B. There is editing (which sometimes means diplomatically rewriting someone’s piece), graphic design, formatting, linking, fixing the web site when it crashes, finding images, posting on social media and so forth - not to mention what it takes to herd all the cats (a gentle metaphor for all of us Stylebook members). Making the calendar, meeting with potential new members, getting the content together, helping with ideas, staying up until all hours of the night because someone sent in a post late and in order to make sure the email goes out on time she is up until midnight. The editor is the only one among us who is truly always looking well down the road and keeping an eye on today’s deadlines. If she doesn’t do both jobs, the whole thing falls apart.She treated this job as if she owned every single one of our businesses. She was passionate about making Stylebook the best it could be and making sure our loyal readers had interesting content and that the stores benefitted from the time and money they put into it.I have always said Madelyn could run a small country, but actually she could run a large one, single-handedly. She is one of the smartest, loyal, creative, diplomatic and hard-working people I know. We are lucky she ever took this project on and she has elevated it to a new level.It only makes sense that someone courted her back into corporate America. Dang them.So for her one last act as Stylebook editor, I thought it would be fun to have Alicia style her for her new job. We always joke that her style has been “skater-mom” lots of sneakers and “dressy” sweatshirts.Of course, she looks amazing and I know she will be the best dressed person in her new office.