The end of each year is always a fun and busy time in our office. We send hundreds of boxes of Idaho Spud Bites to clients and contributors. We have our company Christmas party with lots of yummy food (and who knew that four Nerf guns in the annual “steal the gift” game could be such great entertainment?).
Holiday cards and letters show up in the mail. And usually several calendars of various types and styles come from around the country (a special thanks to the Geralds family for the one now hanging by my desk at home).
I always enjoy having a new calendar and starting to pencil in the activities and commitments scheduled for the coming weeks and months.
I have been adding editorial deadlines for the Progressive Forage Grower print and e-newsletter schedule, as well as dates for preparing mail lists for all the publications.
I’ve blocked off time out of the office to attend several shows and conferences and jotted down school schedules, holidays and birthdays.
While the days seem to fill up rather quickly and remind me of how much there always seems to be to do every day, the fact that I get to start with a clean, fresh slate and try to make the new year more productive and better than the last one is exciting and invigorating.
As I put away the previous calendar, it’s a time to reflect and contemplate how I can make improvements in both my personal and professional life.
To that end, we’ve been looking for ways we can make Progressive Forage Grower a more helpful and useful publication for our readers.
We have been listening to your feedback and will be trying to incorporate some of your suggestions in upcoming issues. Some of the changes will be small but hopefully beneficial to you.
In addition to some new editorial topics and contributors, there are at least three other new things in this issue that I’m excited about:
- page numbers for cover article titles, making it easier to find what you’re looking for
- a new “Forage Folks” department, where we’ll be featuring producers and allied industry people involved in the forage industry (click here to link to the article)
- an on-line exclusives section, highlighting articles that appeared only in our e-newsletters
If you don’t already subscribe to our Extra e-newsletters, I’d encourage you to do so. They are delivered to your e-mail address twice per month and contain mostly new material that has not run in the print magazines.
You can sign up or update your subscription at: bit.ly/SubscribeProgressiveExtra
If you’re a social media fan, watch for contests and links to online content on Facebook and Twitter. Find us at facebook.com/ForageGrower and twitter.com/ForageGrower.
For example, coming the first week of January, a new “Where is this?” photo contest. Log on to see if you can guess where the forage picture was taken to win a prize.
In another effort to connect with our readers, I’ll also be starting a Progressive Forage Grower editor’s blog. Come join in the conversation at http://blog.progressiveforage.com and help us name the new site.
What else would you like to see us do in 2012? Are there particular topics you would like to read about? An author you’ve been wanting to hear from?
Or maybe a forage-related question you’d like answered? Send me an e-mail and let us know how we can help you be more productive and profitable in your business.
I hope you will take some time to contemplate the past forage season and what you might be able to do to make some improvements in the coming year.
It doesn’t have to be something big or expensive. Sometimes the small things can make a big difference. But if we are continually looking for ways to make things better, surely it will be so.
May you and your families enjoy a very happy and prosperous new year. We look forward to being a part of it.
