More than half the tasks we pull off on a day-to-day basis would never be possible without the tremendous support from a hard-working, dedicated staff and our equally dedicated freelance writers and photographers. So, yes, I am taking this month to dedicate my column to the tremendous efforts my staff has put in, because without them, you wouldn't be reading the magazine you hold in your hands. Many magazines are short-staffed and Truckin' is no exception. Other magazines are run with skeleton crews and have much less pages to turn in on a monthly or bi-monthly basis. Those editors are the ones who know every last nuance that goes on with their respective titles and can cite nearly verbatim the exact amount of color, style, and pages of each feature that went into that month's issue.
Unfortunately, I cannot do that with the amount of pages we must complete on a monthly basis. Toss in the numerous meetings I have with our advertisers and our sales people, and I can easily become dazed as to the amount of features and technical stories we run. That is why I rely so heavily on my staff. Each of our individual editors is very dedicated to specific areas of the magazine. For instance, Travis Noack, our feature editor can tell me pretty much every truck feature and color that went into not only this month but probably three year's worth of back issues. Just as Senior Technical Editor, and purveyor of our Custom Classic Truckin' section, Bob Ryder can tell me just about every classic truck tech story as well as every feature truck and show within that section. Heck, even the new guys Dan Ward and Sean Holman have done more than their fair share to completely immerse themselves in all things Truckin' with the same heart and dedication the rest of the editorial staff does. Without Carl Calvert, Truckin's managing editor and the editor of our sister publication, Truckin's SUV, all of us - including myself - would be lost.
The aforementioned individuals - especially myself - are the ones you as readers most likely see at the numerous truck shows we attend or at shops doing tech shoots. However, it is a full team effort when it comes to this magazine. There are numerous behind-the-scene faces who readily facilitate moving each monthly issue out to the printer on time so you can reap the fruits of our incredible labor. Starting with Shelly Baugh, our incredible art director who makes sometimes-mediocre photography look great, we are lucky to have someone who whips out a story layout faster than anyone on the planet. Group Managing Editor David Jones, Copy Editor Stephane Babcock, and our latest new-hire Colleen Supan make our archaic writing style sound half-way decent and almost like we actually know what we are talking about. Imagine that - being able to translate our tech jargon. And finally, our Editorial Assistant Sergio Euzarraga is the guy who compiles the Happenings section, on a monthly basis, promoting all the events and truck shows, far and wide.
Here is what the past three weeks have been like. We took the entire staff plus a few sales people out of the office to conduct our annual Truck of the Year evaluations, which you will read about further inside this issue. During the conclusion of that event, Travis, Dan, and I were off to Texas for our inaugural show 'n' shine at the new Texas Ski Ranch, which will be covered more in-depth within the pages ahead. Bob Ryder was in an office in Las Vegas for a new Toyo Tire press introduction that highlighted the company's new mud tire which will be available to the general public as of this published date. After all of that, we all returned from our respective trips and packed up again to head to our SUV of the Year competition, along with our sister publication, Truckin's SUV. Guess what? We are back in the office just long enough to write the stories about the Truck of the Year then pack up, yet again, to head out for our ever-growing 5th Annual State 2 State Cruise into Phoenix. Does it sound like I'm complaining? On the contrary. This is just to show everyone out there a day in the life of our fully dedicated editorial team and to further illustrate how dependent we are on each other to make the editorial process come together.
Like I said from the beginning, putting out this magazine each month is done entirely as a team effort, and for that, everyone including myself should be thanking their respective office or cubicle mate because not one of us can get along in this place without the other.