Dear Readers,
It’s been a busy 2015 so far, and there’s no sign of things changing! I have a few things to share with you.
First of all, some adjustments to content …
Drought, groundwater, the BDCP, you name it – there’s just so much going on right now, there is no shortage of things to be covered. Over the past few months, I’ve attended a number of interesting conferences and seminars, and have many other interesting events already scheduled on my calendar. My little black box is full of interesting things to share with you!
Believe it or not, there is only one person behind this blog – me. I choose what to cover, I write the content, I pick the stories included in the aggregations, and I build and maintain the website – all of that. Since there’s only one of me, I feel I need to think like a publisher and to focus on putting up the most interesting content and that which the most of you want to read; what this also means is that I am going to concentrate less on covering agency meetings from top to bottom, and instead pick and choose what portions of those meetings I cover.
I acknowledge this as a bit of a shift in what I have always seen as the core mission of this blog; I’ve always felt meetings were the meat and potatoes of my coverage. However, with so much going on right now, I simply can’t do it all. But what I will do is be posting webcast links now to those meetings at the top of the Daily Digest, I will cover what portions I can, and I will, of course, post links to other outlets that are covering those meetings, whenever I find them.
The new website …
I am completely enamored with the new website, and I hope you are too. The transition has been amazingly smooth. I still have a few things to finish; hopefully won’t have to wait until next Christmas to get them done.
I had hoped to build a survey to try and solicit your opinions about the new website plus ask you about some other things, but I just couldn’t get the time to formulate a survey that would be worthwhile. So if you have any comments, suggestions, or if the new website is not doing something that the old website did and you would like it back, or even if some other website does something you wish mine did, please do send me an email. I build all of this for you, my readers, so your opinions and suggestions are tremendously important to me!
New products from the Notebook …
I built in some cool new capabilities into the website, so its time to start taking advantage of them. Coming very soon, I will be offering two new email products:
Science News: This will be a weekly email arriving on Thursday that will include only the science content posted on Maven’s Notebook, so basically Science News and any science features. In the future, I plan to partner up with other science outlets to expand it to include their content as well, and to eventually develop this into a California aquatic science community weekly newsletter of sorts. But it will start out small at first. You can sign up for it by clicking here.
Weekly Maven’s Notebook: I am also developing a weekly email to arrive Monday morning that will include only the weekly features (Reservoir Conditions, Blog Round Up, Science News, Friday Flashback) and any Feature Articles posted to the blog, as well as important news releases such as the snow survey and important State Water Board announcements. It will NOT include the Daily Digest, News Worth Noting, or any breaking news. It’s more of a light version for the less intense. I will start beta testing that version soon. You can sign up to be a beta tester for the weekly email by clicking here.
And lastly …
Thank you to all who have sent in emails over the past few months. I have had some somewhat overwhelming non-blog issues to deal with, and I have just not been able to reply to all of your emails. I do try to respond to complaints, problems, and donations, but I lately haven’t been able to get beyond that. I really do appreciate every email I receive, and so if you have sent me an email and did not receive a response, please accept my apologies.
Funding for this project remains both a challenge and a constraint, and yet another item to be dealt with on my never-ending to do list. Despite the need, I’ve been so busy with other issues, I haven’t even had the chance. Reader contributions are a main portion of my funding, so please consider making a donation. It’s tax deductible!
Lastly, thank you for being a reader of Maven’s Notebook. I am here because I want to be and because I am passionate about this website and its mission. The biggest payoff for me is the growing number of you, my readers, because it really is all of you showing up here that keeps me showing up here every day, too. I am so incredibly honored that you do so.
With warm regards,
Maven aka Chris Austin
