As the new chairman of the board of directors for The Bureaucrat Inc. (publisher of this journal), I'd like to thank you for all the support and encouragement you've given to those involved in our publication. As you can imagine, it's a real labor of love for those unsung heroes who contribute content and expertise to each quarterly issue.

Alan Balutis, who served as board chair for several years, stands out among those unsung heroes. A decorated career civil servant, Alan served his country with distinction for decades before joining the private sector. As with so many of our colleagues, the call of public service remained strong, and he continued his service through his outstanding contributions to The Public Manager as a board member and chair. Alan, thanks! I hope I can build on your great legacy.

Putting together The Public Manager is a team sport, with dedicated full-time staff, a committed group of editorial advisors (I'll talk more about them in a future issue), and a board of directors that sees the publication as a way of keeping faith with those who lead and labor in public service. They, too, deserve recognition, along with a welcome to several new board members who've just been elected. The list of board members, both new and continuing, is included on the masthead; please take a look, and if you meet up with one of them, please thank them.

That team has already had an impact. One of our board members described The Public Manager somewhere between the Harvard Business Review and Popular Mechanics ... we all thought that was humorous at the time, but the more we contemplated it, the more we concluded that that's exactly where we want to be—a journal that provides timely, substantive commentary on the art (and the science) of public management, but always with a practical, "here's how to do it" dimension.

We hope that's where you want us to be, but your feedback is always welcome. Please let us know if the content we're covering meets your needs, and send story ideas to us at [email protected]. We'll be sure our editorial advisors receive your content ideas. In the meantime, thanks again for your continued support and your service!

Ron Sanders

Chairman, The Bureaucrat Inc. Board of Directors

sanders\_[email protected]