ell, this is my final issue of the Newsletter and it's time to lok both back to see what we've done, and forward to see where we're going. When I cam into this job a year ago, I was determined to reinvent the club newsletter and to make a success of it. Happily, most comentators say I have done a good job at it, and I thank them for their encouragement and support. But looking forward, I realize that in this age of constant change and the advent of newer media outlets, that you never get something "just right" and then leave it. Come two or three years, someone — not me — will need to come along and reinvent it again.

But it is time to thank those many contributors that have made the newsletter as successful as it is. First of all, my regular columnists Francine Alvandary (FootNotes), the two coaches Toby Tanser and Joe Yates, Anne Halpern (Healthy Eating), members of the board (Glen Wiener, Brian Hsia, Brian Mayor, and Emily Shuster Snyder) for their timely reports on the state of the club and of course Papa Bear (Advice from Papa Bear), Thank you one and all.

Part of the reinvention of the newsletter was to include in-depth articles on subjects of interest to the club's members. Race reports have migrated to the Blog so these special articles were mostly on big events: the Awards Gala was covered by 5 reports, and we would especially like to thank Amy Mills for her sharing of what goes into putting on that great event — the number one event of the year. The Boston Marathon and the NY Marathon had 3 articles each, mostly written by the Flyers who participated.

Other feature contibutions came from Scott Cohen (three on Triathlons and one on ultras, and with Elle Green, two on Comrades), Joel Matalon (The Chi of Running), Scott Martin, Susan Snyder, Melissa Chase and Papa Bear (for the series Beyond Central Park) and Toby Tanser (Toby Tanser in Kenya).

And last but not least, those members who shared much of their lives (pieces of which were never knew of) for the series of member profiles (Dave Kleckner, Iris Chen, John Whitfield, Susan Hecht & David Cohen, Nina-Parks Taylor, Robert Butler, Sara & Gary Heard, DJ van Hoogstratten, Julie White, Ray Sales, Deanna Culbreath and David Dempsey). I happen to believe that these monthly member profiles are the heart and soul of the newsletter. In fact you could do worse that to just re-read them all when you finish this issue.

And here's wishing the best of luck to Joyce Sturges, who takes the metaphorical pen from me and will be the next Secretary and Newsletter Editor.

And so, till we meet again,
Richard
aka Papa Bear