Volume 12, Number 3, Sept 1990, p.4

To the Reader

Chris Stavroudis, who has so ably edited the WAAC Newsletter since September 1987, has resigned from the editorial job leaving the newsletter in excellent shape.

Thanks to Chris's restructuring, a portion of the newsletter is now built by a team of column editors. These column editors create their sections using material submitted by the general membership and regional reporters, as well as from their own sources and the Editor.

Chris brought new kinds of contributions to the newsletter, too: the Health & Safety column, Dear Xylene, Zora's Column, and AYMHM. The newsletter's booklet format and the use of acid-free paper began during Chris's tenure. He also commissioned the newsletter's distinctive front page "banner," which was created by graphic designer Lark London Stavroudis.

Chris even wrote feature articles while serving as editor, most notably an interview with Zora and Edward Pinney in Vol.9, No.3, and "Solvents and Sensibility," co-authored with Sharon Blank in Vol. 11, No. 2.

He strove to make every newsletter interesting and enjoyable reading, and responses from the WAAC membership in the recent questionnaire about the newsletter show that he has been very successful.

The quality of the newsletter depends to a large degree on what is submitted. The column editors and I welcome your contributions, short or long, formal or casual! Please continue to send in technical notes, clippings, news about conservation- related events, queries to other WAAC Newsletter readers, reports about special projects or research, information about training and job opportunities, personal news, conference and book reviews; in short, anything that will elucidate or entertain.

Continuing the work of Chris Stavroudis--as well as the other past editors, Caroline Black Blydenburgh, Gary Wade Alden & Elizabeth Court, and Victoria Blyth-Hill--I hope to make the newsletter a satisfying publication for everyone in the Western Association for Art Conservation.

Communication from WAAC members will help me. Send me your suggestions, comments or complaints about the newsletter by phone, by note, or in person at the Annual Meeting. Your input and ideas will be greatly appreciated.