Those of us with military experience are very familiar with times when a change in responsibility is necessary. Two-year command tours are over, it's time for a reassignment and your replacement is on board, or you get promoted and move up to higher levels of responsibility and another person takes your place. It's the same outside the Army in many instances.
For example, AEA recently hired an Associate Editor for Army Engineer magazine, to help me put the yearly issues together for subscribers. She (Beth O'Hara) lives in O'Fallon, Illinois near St. Louis and she came out to beautiful Ridgeway, Virginia near Martinsville...home of the oldest and best NASCAR track around...and yesterday, we spent a day together planning out how we'll work to eventually transition the editor's responsibility from me to her by the end of 2012...at least that's the plan. Up until now, I've been doing this all alone (like forever it seems) and I have to say it's wonderful knowing that there is now someone else available to help do all the work, and then to step in when it's time for me to retire-retire. Beth is not only well qualified technically, but she is an excellent writer. AEA is very fortunate to have found someone with her credentials.
Now, don't get the impression I'm going to sit back and watch Beth have all the fun. No way. I'm going to continue doing what I've been doing, but all the while slowly transitioning levels of work from me to her, so that when it's time for me to say bye-bye, Beth will be at the top of her game. So, while there has not been a magazine change of responsibility per se, it's a work in progress.
