In the October issue, the Board of Directors announced that I’d be retiring and that they were looking for someone to replace me as Executive Director and Publisher of The Andover Beacon. Today, four months later, the succession is very much on track, though on a rather different track than the one outlined in the October issue.
One Becomes Three
When we received no inquiries about my position as described in the October issue, we went back to the drawing board, got some really good input from the community, and came up with Succession Plan B – replace my full-time position with three part-time positions:
- a Production Manager to handle all the technology, design, and layout of the Beacon, the Town Report, and the other community publishing projects we’re involved with
- a Bookkeeper to handle the day-to-day bookkeeping functions
- a Publisher/Editor to be the face of the Beacon in the community and to manage the flow of articles, photos, and ads from the community to our production team
The Production Manager and Publisher/Editor are each approximately half-time part-time jobs; the Bookkeeper is closer to 10%. So across the three positions, we will comfortably replace my full-time position.
Plan B is definitely on track. The Board is very pleased to announce that Steve Foley, who has been helping with the production for almost two years, has agreed to step up and become Production Manager. The transition is underway and is going very smoothly.
The Board is also pleased to announce that Shelley Geoghegan (pronounced “gay-gan”) is our new Bookkeeper. Shelley brings a wealth of experience and a passion for non-profits to the team, and with help from Pam Cooper, our volunteer accountant, she’s quickly starting to make a difference.
Down to One
That leaves the Publisher/Editor position to be filled before I can retire. It’s a part-time job (about half-time) with flexibility in terms of which hours you work, the ability to work from home, etc. The full job description is at AndoverBeacon.com/Pub-Ed.
For the right person, this is a very fulfilling job. It offers a chance to work with many people in the community on projects – the Beacon, the Town Report, etc. – that are very important to the community.
The job requires someone who is:
- comfortable working with people from different backgrounds, with different agendas and different levels of expertise
- comfortable with computers and technology being at the center of each project
- willing to embrace the process, procedures, and deadlines that allow our team to produce an extraordinary volume of high-quality work for an organization of our size
If you think that being our new Publisher/Editor might be a good fit, please contact me right away at Charlie@nullAndoverBeacon.com. We’d love to find an Andover resident for this position, but if no one comes forward, then we’ll pretty quickly have to broaden our search.
For me, working at the Beacon has been a life-changing experience, full of exciting challenges, personal growth, and deep satisfaction. If you’d like to see whether it could be the same for you, let’s talk!