by Keith Bassham
While this is not my final issue as editor of the Tribune, this is likely my final “On the Table” introduction column. Next month a new name and a new face will grace this section of the magazine.
Beginning with this issue, Tribune readers will begin to get to know Randy Harp, the new editor and BBFI Director of Communications. Randy was one of five candidates interviewed for the position, and the Tribune board of directors believed he was the best qualified to fulfill the job description they published during the summer. I agree with this assessment, by the way. His appointment was ratified by the BBFI Committee of Directors and approved during the business meeting held during the September Fellowship Meeting.
BBFI President Eddie Lyons (who also serves as the chairman of the Tribune directors) expressed the board’s appreciation for my work with a nice bonus ($1,000 for each of the 13 years I have served as editor) and the title to the Tribune auto I have been using. My wife received some roses. It was a very generous gesture, and I am grateful. Not all BBFI personnel have been given so gracious a farewell. The night of the presentation, President Lyons asked if I wanted to say something, and I told him I was overwhelmed and at a loss for words.
I hope my waving off the opportunity to make a speech is appreciated and not interpreted as ingratitude. I will have something more formal to say about my departure next month, and I will have an opportunity to give proper recognition to some people then.
We will also be kicking off our annual fundraising effort, what we have been calling the February Tribune Offering the past 20 years or so, and we may keep the name. There is no BBFI meeting in February 2016, however, so we will just have to manufacture a deadline for all the commitments from the pastors, churches, and state fellowship leaders. As you will learn from Editor Harp’s column in this Tribune, the job he has been given is bigger than the one I leave. And we all know what that means.
So, read Editor Harp’s column, go on past the biographical material, and look at the plans. Think of it as a catalog, and think of a dollar amount you want to invest in each of those projects. The sooner the funding is there, the sooner the work can get underway.
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I am the fifth Tribune editor, but I barely knew Editor Smith and Editor Zimmerman. On the other hand, Editor James Combs and Editor Mike Randall were and are well known to me. Both heavily influenced my own work on the Tribune, and I am happy to bring their work back to our pages during this transition time. I believe it is the only time four editors have been represented in the magazine at one time as we all publish our thoughts on giving thanks.
May your Thanksgiving season be blessed.