A move and other changes

As I write this column, I'm fighting a cold, trying to dig out of a week's worth of mail and e-mail (that's what you get for going to a trade show), plan an industry roundtable in New York, close this issue and pack for a company move—a typical day at the office.What's not typical is our address.

By Jim Crockett, Editor-in-Chief November 1, 2001

As I write this column, I’m fighting a cold, trying to dig out of a week’s worth of mail and e-mail (that’s what you get for going to a trade show), plan an industry roundtable in New York, close this issue and pack for a company move—a typical day at the office.

What’s not typical is our address. CSE and Cahners are relocating in the Chicago area. Our new digs are 2000 Clearwater Dr., Oakbrook IL 60523. Without question, my continued goal is to keep the lines of communication open, so I want to give out my new phone number, (630) 288-8150, and the magazine’s general number (630) 320-7000.

The good news is that my e-mail will remain the same: jcrockett@cahners.com . On that subject, I want to thank the many readers who have responded to my August call for feedback. Please keep it coming. Letters are regularly flowing in, and a war of words has even broke out on a number of subjects, notably school HVAC and power factor. I certainly encourage readers to respond to letters and voice their opinions, however, the practical question becomes, how long can we continue a particular dialogue in the pages of the magazine? In this month’s “Letters” section, for example, we revisit some controversy generated in September, but the subject will have to come to a rest. As always, feel free to send in your thoughts and comments, but for issues which have already been thoroughly discussed, we’ll reserve further correspondence for our web site, www.csemag.com (but including notation here).

In the interim, I’d like to address a sensitive subject breached in this month’s letters page that questions the qualifications of one of our consulting editors. It is a question we’ll give careful consideration, but it also shines an appropriate light on the role of CSE’s consulting editors as a whole. In more recent years, the position has been fairly nebulous. For the most part, it’s simply involved having some of those fine gentlemen pen an article or two. I intend to change that. As I mentioned in my first column, I am not an engineer; I’m an editor. I know my strengths and weaknesses and I intend to actively use our panel of experts as a sounding board to regularly review articles, ideas and the magazine as a whole. That being said, it’s now my job to reach out to these experts and define that role and relationship. The process may bring some new faces, but hopefully will produce a body that will help make the pages of this magazine more technically sound and useful to our readership.

If you, or anyone you know of, would be interested in such a role, please let us know. The lines are still open.