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Dear PEI Member: After three
decades of writing the TulsaLetter, you’d think I could breeze through them.
But some newsletters are more difficult to write than others, depending on
what I’m trying to say. I don’t know if this is writer’s block, but I do
know that my predicament is absurd. After 761 newsletters, I can’t come up
with words. This one is a bear. Because this is the one where I say thank
you and goodbye.
After I have made my final edits and turned this file over to Rex Brown to
send to our 8,000 readers, I will have written my last TulsaLetter. Although
I will stay on as PEI’s executive vice president through May, I am handing
my newsletter duties to Rick Long, an exemplary writer and extraordinary
communicator. You will enjoy his writing style and insights about our
industry.
I’ll never adequately be able to thank you, the TulsaLetter readers. Over
the past six months since it was announced that I will be leaving PEI, many
of you have roiled my emotions with your amazingly kind and generous emails
and phone calls. You’ve brought me to tears.
I don’t believe newsletter writers are important in the grand scheme of
things. We save no lives, we protect no one from harm, we aren’t teaching
children, we don’t take care of the sick or aged, and we don’t do research
to find miracle cures for insidious diseases. On a list of critical jobs in
a trade association, we are nowhere near the top. But when I open an email
and see a message telling me that I wrote something you didn’t know or I
gave you some food for thought, my goodness, I’m just blown away.
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And really, that’s my payoff. I never gave a flip about winning newsletter
awards or impressing other association executives. I was proud to write for
you. I wanted to serve you and if I gained your approval, that’s all I cared
about. Through it all, you gave me your support and encouragement, you
tolerated my inaccuracies and typos, and you offered criticism that pushed
me to do better.
What matters most to me as I wind down my association with the TulsaLetter
is that you understand that I have been a member of a true All-Star team
here at PEI since 1979. Back in the “good ol’ days,” Margaret Montgomery
would type and retype the newsletter to fit the four-page Kiplinger Letter
style that we tried to emulate. Then the five of us on staff at the time
would go back to the workroom and toil for hours to stuff and post the
newsletter. Although electronically distributing the TulsaLetter has made
our jobs easier, the entire staff still offers articles and proofreads each
issue. Lists are dangerous, because someone invariably is left out. So I
won’t risk that. Just appreciate that I have been in a killer lineup all
these years.
So why now? It’s time, that’s all. Turning the TulsaLetter over to Rick Long
after our Atlanta convention is part of our hand-off plan. Over 750
newsletters. That’s enough. I’m fulfilled.
But there is something else. I occasionally come across some things I wrote
years ago, and I say to myself, “I did that?” And I know in my heart that it
will become more difficult to match that effort down the road. That’s all a
writer needs to know. Now it’s time to turn the page. |
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Copyright © 2016 All rights reserved. |
© 2016
Petroleum Equipment Institute
P. O. Box 2380
Tulsa, OK 74101-2380
The TulsaLetter (ISSN 0193-9467) is published two or three
times each month by the Petroleum Equipment Institute. Robert N. Renkes,
Executive Vice President, Editor. Opinions expressed are the opinions of the
Editor. Basic circulation confined to PEI members. |
