Wondering where your September/October Journal is?

It mailed – finally – October 4. We know you look forward eagerly to receiving each issue of the Journal.  We take that as the highest compliment you can give, and it is very deeply appreciated by all in the chain of people who put it together.
Here’s what delayed it so long. 
Every year we warn you ahead of time that the September/October issue will be later than usual.  We explain that we have to give time for our reviewer to write the review, we need time to select the best pictures from the hundreds (sometimes thousands) submitted by you, and for our team of graphic designers need time to make the beautiful product you’ve come to expect – which, by the way carries double the number of color pages as a standard issue, all so that we can give you the best and most interesting recap of the convention and the Summer Youth Adventure. That becomes complicated by the Labor Day holiday coming into play about the same time we’re preparing to give the issue to the printer.  In the past two years, the pandemic has played a role as well, extending our typical six-working-days in production to closer to 12.

We didn’t expect it to run this late, though.  The delay is due to all the factors we’ve already described many times, but with the addition of a production issue at our printer.  Our printer told us it was scheduled for mailing by September 30 (tomorrow, as I write this).  And we still have the Postal Service to contend with. It didn’t make it out on September 30. In fact, it didn’t make it to the post office until October 4. So, please be patient and don’t jump on Donna Parker because your Journal is late.  First, she has nothing to do with the printer, the production, or the United States Postal Service.  If you want to jump on someone, my e-mail address is on the masthead of every issue.  If you send me an e-mail asking
about it, I’ll tell you what I know and remind you that it is the “September/October” issue, not the “End of August/First part of September” issue.

Finally, if you live in Florida and were impacted by Hurricane Ian, there is a fair chance that unless you receive your Journal by first-class mail, it may not arrive at all.  If you haven’t received it by the first week in November, we’ll do our best to get another copy to you.  We did not anticipate Ian when we placed the print order, so we have a very limited number of copies available, and it will be first come, first served.  When we run out, we’re out.  That’s it.  Full stop. As always, thank you for your support and understanding.
Mike Bryant