NEW EDITOR FOR SMG NEWS

With this issue SMG News gets a new editor in the person of me. I take over from John Breslin. The wise and friendly manner that characterised what John wrote was for me one of the pleasures of SMG News and I know that other people felt the same way. This was his second stint as editor, and our thanks go to him.

Whether I shall make as good a job of SMG News as John remains to be seen. At SMG's September forum at Stirling I was a bit startled by the number of people who asked what plans I had for SMG News. When I took on the job I saw it simply as a matter of putting into readable shape the various articles that were snet in, and so questions about 'my plans for SMG News seemed a bit grandiose by comparison. But those questions did get me thinking, and what I decided was this: that as editor I should try to identify with the reader. When a doubt cropped up about including or excluding something, the most important question, though not the only one, should be: Would an SMG member want to know about that?

No sooner had I formulated this princile than a case arose in which I needed to apply it. Some people in SMG are concerned at what they see as overspending in fitting up the new SMG premises in Broughton Street, Edinburgh. Is this the sort of thing that should be reported in SMG News? An should I go out of my way to write about it even though no-one has contributed an article on the subject? I could see that some people might think it unseemly and unproductive to mention the matter, but doing my best to put myself in the shoes of the average member I felt that she or he would want to know that his concern was being felt.
At the same time, though, such disagreements are to be expected in the ordinary course of things,and I didn't want to sap SMG's energies by fanning it into a major row. So my final decision was simply to menion the matter as an example in this, my introductory epistle.

SMG News can only be as good as its contents, and its contents will have the variety and interest that (I take it) readers want only if SMG members throughout Scotland make a habit of sending in their news and their ideas. This is your forum, and don't be shy of making use of it. For myself, I find news and views from individuals more engrossing than statments by officials and committees; I shuspect other readers feel the same. Since I stay in Glasgow and am most familiar with what goes on there, I suppors there could be a danger that SMG News will become too weighted by Glasgow material. This would be a Bad Thinkg. One way to prevent it is for every branch to appoint someone to send SMG News a regular report on the brach's activities. Indeed, a recommendation to this effect was  passed at the September Executive Committee meeting, so that is now An Order, an of course those who fail to compy are fascists (isn't everyone who doesn't do as we would wish?)    Paul Brownsey.