Magical Metamorphosis:
Evolution of the AUBER Editor

Glitz, glamour, and magic…Oh, did you think I was talking about Vegas? Well, yes, Vegas was nice, too, but I was actually referring to the wonderful editors' sessions at the 2002 AUBER fall conference hosted by UNLV. Don Bagwell and Jason Blackburn of Digital Impact Design brought us up to date on current design trends, showed us how to convert print to electronic publications, and provided a hands-on work-shop at the UNLV campus in the use of PageMaker, InDesign, PhotoShop, Illustrator, and Acrobat.

And, did I mention the informative "From Desk to Delivery" presentation by Nancy Cleveland of UN´V, the excellent funding advice offered by Lee Grehan from the University of Memphis in his "Writing Proposals" session, and the tips from Carol Rogers' (Indiana University) session on "Auto Updating Web Pages?" (By the way, be sure to visit the excellent www.stats.indiana.edu Web site for your state's county profiles, compliments of the Indiana business Research Center.) When all of this is added to the kitty (gambling pun intended), no one has an excuse NOT to add glitz, glamour, and magic to their publications and online products! A huge note of thanks is warranted to the UNLV hosts and the editors' program co-chair, Dee Jones and Carol Griffen, along with their entourage of presenters and chair-persons. We all went home winners, with a wealth of information to share.

We began our sessions learning about what each of the individual bureaus and centers were doing. We finished our sessions developing a future direction, incorporating significant changes both in how we view ourselves as an AUBER group and in the direction we wish to travel. During our 2003 planning session, we discussed our changing and more blended professional roles and the need for sessions to attend to those changes. We discovered we are no longer just "editors," but managers, librarians, supervisors, public relations technicians, project managers, and grant and funding experts as well. Our new names, "Research Communicators," encompasses the diversity of our profession and reaches out to other professional staff within our units. Our proposed 2003 topic list (see below) addresses our diverse cross-training needs.

Under the direction of 2003 AUBER program chairs Marshall Vest and Stephen Smith, AUBER is planning to include a few plenary research communicator and director sessions in New Orleans. Research communication topic suggestions include: current research topic trends, data presentation, increasing survey response rates, Internet research, team project management and production shortcut tips, performing a public relations audit of your center or bureau, selling the bureau/selling the product, and Web site showcase. Make plans now to join us as we embark on our evolutionary journey in the bayous of Louisiana in 2003!

Susan Floyd
University of Florida