FIREWIRE Magazine Winter 2019: Celebrating 5 Years | Page 10

LETTERS FROM THE EDITORS:
RYAN BECKERS
If you’ve worked with me at all over the past five years, I may
have asked you what you like about FIREWIRE, or perhaps what
it means when it arrives in the mail. Or I may have asked: Do you
browse the pictures and a few articles? Are you a cover-to-cover
person? Do you only read an article or look for a photo if you
know you’re featured? Do you have ideas about what this project
can do for our membership?
The reason I engage with you is to get across that this magazine
is not something done by “others.” Rather, it is your project too...
or, at least it could be. The articles you skim, browse or devour
each quarter are generated by anyone within our membership,
and you could very well be next up.
So what would you like to talk about?
Personally, I’d like to get more “cover-to-cover” readers, and I
know the only way to get that is to make the words and pictures
in the magazine match the interests of those who make and
read it. What does that mean to you?
My thought is to start reflecting the passions we discuss at the
morning coffee table in the words of this magazine.
Well, sort of. I mean, imagine what would happen if we printed
all the half-rumors, bluster and utter bat-guano crazy we spout
after two cups of Java on a Sunday morning?
More like this: often, within the utter nonsense and venting that
goes on when we talk, a truth emerges. Or, at least we may stum-
ble onto something worth looking into. Let’s say you have heard
second or third-hand how an issue was handled by another lo-
cal, or department—what if finding out about that practice, and
implementing it, could make our lives better? Are you willing to
look into it a bit? We can help. You don’t have to be an expert
writer to contribute.
This project is meant to share ideas, increase communication,
inspire engagement. What does that mean by your standards?
Are you willing to put your name to an idea or opinion? Imagine
the upside for our membership when good ideas are fleshed out
and put in writing.
If you have any ideas, contact me, or Jeff Allen, or any of the ed-
itors you see mentioned at the back of each magazine. We can
turn ideas into a finished product worth reading.
This special issue of FIREWIRE is meant to look back at our
first five years. But I’m looking forward to the next five, trying to
imagine all the directions we can go.
Can’t do it without you.
In service,
Ryan Beckers
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FIREWIRE • Five Year Anniversary