We’re reorganizing our website because we have so much new stuff going on, including a growing block of blogs on different subjects (mostly written by me, but that too is changing), and I was sorting through a folder of “Website ideas” on the train to DC yesterday. I came across this, from a 2002 email:

Subject: Wacky, wild, and welcoming

Karen,

Here are a few more things you might add for the Against the Grain article:

* Flexible schedules for working parents
* A welcoming environment for kids who need to accompany parents to work
*Power meetings to air issues and to come up with visions for the future
* Massages
* Company canoe and scooter
* Dumpling party

Marcy

[Ross]

I can see that there are a few things in that list that readers might wonder about, and I’ll be glad to explain, some rainy day, about the massages (by long-time Berkshire pal Tom Pemberton of Back To Life) and the provenance of “power meeting” to describe our planning sessions. I’ll bet Marcy, too, would be happy to explain. Her note was written when I was doing a Q&A with Tom Gilson, reference editor at Against the Grain. Coincidentally, I’ve just agreed to guest-edit an issue of the journal, the December/January ALA Midwinter Issue, and our focus, in short form, is simply innovation. In publishing and librarianship. Please write to me if you have questions we should be addressing!

And even though all the things Marcy mentions are true, I wouldn’t want anyone to think that things have been always been perfectly harmonious at Berkshire Publishing. Sometimes people haven’t seen eye to eye, or had the same values or priorities. But as the company has evolved, things get better and better–and we do manage to have a lot of fun, even between chair massage days.


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