Here at the Sewcialists, we love having our temporary editors groups spend 6 months adding new ideas, fresh perspectives and different skills into the mix. We can’t believe it’s time to farewell the current group — it feels like yesterday that they joined us.
This is our third group of temp editors, so we wanted to try something different in the farewell. Instead of them telling you how they found their time with us, we wanted to write this post to celebrate their work and thank them for all they have brought to the group.
- They gave us their time: as with all volunteer activities, sometimes real life demands more attention. Several of our editors this round needed to take some time for personal reasons, yet still made room to work with us in ways that worked for them — such as Amanda who came back from maternity leave to coordinate posts for our recent Giving Challenge.
- They brought fresh ideas: you should see the conversations we have in our editorial Slack — ideas pinging all over the place! Erin coordinated and thought up some great new Ask the Sewicialists questions, including my favourite about how you finish your seams. I would never get tired of talking (arguing!) about that one!
- They tried something new: in particular, we saw Kate stepping up to run the Sewcialists Instagram account several times when we needed her, despite being a self-confessed non-techy person.
- They showed us different perspectives: Sophy stands out as having brought us another great set of Who We Are posts, one of our favourite ways to spotlight the wonderful community of sewing in which we live. Sophy was also very active behind the scenes, and gave us insight into living in Hong Kong during recent and ongoing protest.
- They wowed us with their enthusiasm! This hands down makes me think of Jacinta and her work on the ‘gram every time! She brought us great posts and stories, including this gem about the all important self-care.
It’s hard for us to capture the unique input and presence of the temporary editors, so I hope the above does some justice to their visible contributions. What it doesn’t cover well at all is how much camaraderie and other stuff there is beyond the posts.
We have sent thirty-seven thousand messages since we moved over to Slack at the start of 2019. We share articles of interest, pictures of dogs, debate controversies (in and out of the sewing domain), talk about whether we miss IG likes, check on each other in times of fire or protest or storm, and just generally love each other.
So to our outgoing editors, thank you! For all you brought and contributed and thought about and shared. We will miss you!
Love from Gillian, Becky, Chloe & the Sewcialists community xxx
Thank you everyone!
Thank you Sophy, Amanda, Kate, Erin and Jacinta! You’ve all been such a pleasure to work with, and we hope to have you back for a round two someday! <3
It’s been real! Such a pleasure to have this experience. This certainly won’t be the last you hear from me <3
My silver lining of these farewell posts is looking back. Before, we were mostly in each other’s periphery, with a comment here and there on Instagram. Maybe some of us have worked together before (heeey Amanda!), maybe some of us already knew each other IRL… but after time spent close together on Slack, conversing and discussing as much as only we know we do… I feel like we truly bond and know each other for real. May our paths cross again and again. <3