An Enduring Resource

Eric Herman

Soon after we published our first-ever Resource Directory last December, we received this comment from a reader: “Thanks for pulling this together. I can’t tell you how frustrating it is to work with the big, fat buyer’s guides other magazines put together and sift through all the stuff I really don’t care about to dig out a few important nuggets. I do have a complaint, however: Why’d you take so long to do this? It’s something people who design and build have needed for a long, long time.”

To that point, we weren’t entirely sure that the Resource Directory would become an annual WaterShapes fixture, but comments like that one prompted us to update it for 2010 – and to see if, in doing it again, we might expand on the concept.

As publisher Jim McCloskey pointed out in this space last year, our goal is to generate a resource that stands apart from others by way of its targeted focus on the needs of watershapers and allied professionals who create exterior environments. We seek to provide you with a compact compendium that’s easy to use, free of clutter and packed with supplier information you can use to speed and streamline your work.

This year’s Resource Directory is similar in many respects to last years in that we stuck with a basic approach and structure that clearly worked for many of you. The key difference this year is that the supplier list this year includes more than 680 companies – up from about 610 last year. Frankly, we were a bit stunned as we watched the number grow!

Without reading too much into that showing, I like to think that this indicates the fact that suppliers value our readers and want to maintain easy lines of communication with you. And I’m certain they’re hoping – as do we all – that the phones will start ringing early and often in 2010 and that this Resource Guide will come in handy as the New Year unfolds.

Adding to the helpfulness of the package, we’ve included Indexes to each of the columns and all of the features we published in 2009. We’ll do these short-form indexes in between five-year anniversaries, when we’ll catch up and publish complete indexes reaching all the way back to our premiere in February 1999.

No project of this scope passes without several people deserving credit. As was the case last year, the lion’s share goes to Robin Wilzbach, usually our production manager, who worked doggedly for months in tracking down essential updates and information. And although he rarely steps into the spotlight, I must make Jim McCloskey take a bow for his persistence in assembling the indexes and managing the details of the Resource Directory’s compilation and production.

As we bid farewell (and perhaps good riddance) to 2009, I want to thank you, our readers, for standing by us every step of the way. All that we do is intended to help and support you in your professional endeavors, and I can’t begin to express how appreciative we are for your encouragement – and even the occasional constructive complaint.

Cheers!