Feeling Grateful

Back in the day when WaterShapes was primarily a magazine and only marginally an Internet entity, I had a group of fine people around me. In fact, at the time we shifted from mostly print to all-digital after releasing our July 2011 edition, the same team had put together every edition of the magazine for more than a dozen years.

It was a merry crew, and one of my most pleasant tasks each year was sending around a Thanksgiving Day message to express my gratitude for their individual contributions to making WaterShapes a great publication. This past Thanksgiving was the first occasion in more than a decade when I haven’t sent around one of those letters, and I must say I missed doing it.

But it occurred to me as the holiday weekend rolled along that I still have much to be grateful for – a sense that started rising in me in talking with friends and contacts on the show floor at the International Pool|Spa|Patio Expo in New Orleans: While the success of the WaterShapes franchise may have been based corporately on the efforts of a dedicated staff, there are many others whose participation through the years has helped elevate WaterShapes (and now WaterShapes.com).

Through much of the past year, I’ve been chipping away steadily at making the vast content of WaterShapes (the magazine) generally available on the web, but straight through that process, several watershapers have regularly contributed fresh content to the web site and to the WaterShapes EXTRA e-newsletter. These include (among many others) Scott Cohen, Paolo Benedetti, Bruce Zaretsky, Randy Beard and Mike Gannon, all of whom have pitched in with great, new material, helped me refine the WaterShapes mission and in various ways have established the tone and pace for what’s to come.

So to all those who’ve patiently assisted my efforts at redirecting WaterShapes into proper digital channels, I say “Thank you” at this gratitude-expressing time of year and wish you all continuing prosperity and happiness throughout the holiday season and in the New Year to come. And do be sure, all of you, to bookmark watershapes.com in your web browser: We have great things coming for 2013 and beyond!