From the Editor's Desk:
Passing the Mantle (or the .html)

Mariëlle Hoefnagels, Labstracts Editor
University of Oklahoma
hoefnagels@ou.edu

This is my last issue as editor of Labstracts!

Wait.

Did I seem too excited about that? Let me try again. Put the Barbra Streisand song "Memories" in your CD player, and read this:

This is my last issue as editor of Labstracts. At the ABLE meeting this summer, I will pass the sacred Dreamweaver files to my successor, Barbara Stegenga. To explore my emotions about this transition -- they range between excitement and sadness -- I have written a Letterman-esque "Top Ten Reasons I Liked Being Labstracts Editor." Here goes:

10. It's been an important-looking line in my annual Faculty Service Report for the last three years.

9. I like to write, and I LOVE to edit. Give me a few minutes alone with a manuscript (or a cash register receipt, or any other printed material), and I will check it for misspelled words, mismatched subjects and verbs, sentence fragments, and other grammatical sins. I get a tiny, secret thrill every time I find one. Thanks to all of you who obliged my fetish by hiding them in your submissions.

8. I found out that ABLE Webmaster Corey Goldman's email used to send my messages straight to his Junk Mail. (If he hasn't been answering your emails, call and ask him to check there.)

7. I get to post a picture of myself that I actually like on the internet. It makes me look better than real-life.

6. Labstracts is a great project for those cold weekends in October and February.

5. It lets me pretend I have lots of friends who love hearing from me, especially when I need something. If you have come to rely on my semi-annual nagging emails, let me know. I'm sure you have other undone work lying around on your desk that I can bug you about.

4. 50-yard-line seats at ABLE board meetings.

3. I learned to use Dreamweaver, which also came in very handy for my online biology class. Oh, sorry, did you say you wanted to see that class? Sure! It's all out there for the world to see (just click on Weekly Schedule to enter a magical world of online biology assignments).

2. Compiling all of your memories of Charlie Drewes and Roberta Williams for the Fall 2005 issue was both inspirational and humbling. We should all strive to leave such a legacy.

1. With just one click of a button, I get to share ideas with North America's most devoted biology lab instructors.

Thank you to those who have contributed articles or pictures to "my" six issues of Labstracts: Corey Goldman, Don Igelsrud, Carol Budd, Charlotte Omoto, Bill Glider, Dan Johnson, Kathy Winnett-Murray, Ruthanne Pitkin, Miriam Ferzli, Mike Carter, Ann Lumsden, Jean Hancock, Mark Walvoord, Marian Cothran, Ann Yezerski, Kathy Nolan, Jim Hartline, Kerry Holzworth, and the late Charlie Drewes and Roberta Williams.

Thanks also to ABLE's current and former leadership, who contributed board reports and other required items, more or less when I needed them: Carol Budd, Bob Hodson, Alec Motten, Bill Glider, Marsha Fanning, Ruth Beattie, Anne Cordon, Todd Nickle, Maggie Haag, Mary Schaeffer, and Tom Fogle.

Whew, I feel like I just won an Academy Award!

If you want to join this list of contributors to Labstracts, it's easy! Just email me -- or better yet, email Barbara Stegenga, your capable new editor from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She has been with UNC since 1992 as a lab manager, lab director, and now a lecturer. Barbara has attended ABLE conferences since 1993, and since then she's written several lab exercises. She says she enjoys writing and illustrating, and she's looking forward to working with and hearing from ABLE members.

I am confident that Barbara will bring new insights and ideas to Labstracts, and I am very grateful that such a capable volunteer stepped forward. Thanks, Barbara, and good luck!

[All right, you can turn off the CD player now.]