First and foremost, THANK YOU for your responses to the October issue of Verse-Virtual, and for the kind comments you sent to the Contributing Editors and to me.

The "Fading Light" theme for the November issue brought many interesting poems and thoughts. As a reflection of the general age of the members of this community, there are concerns for fading parents and fading selves. Autumn and the shortening days also figured in your poems. All in all, a very satisfying issue this month.

Our community continues to grow, with surprisingly few problems (at least that I know about.) Thank you for your kindness to each other. I would like to make an observation here regarding kindness and courtesy, especially as they relate to our monthly poetry readings. People are a mess. I know that. My desire for smooth and seamless functions is seldom met, but I'm okay. And while I don't want the readings to be rigidly formal, I do think that a certain amount of structure is appropriate and will keep the readings interesting for all of us. With that in mind, please consider these housekeeping basics:

• If you sign up for a spot in the open mic, show up or let me or Robbi know as soon as possible that you aren't coming.
• Show up on time as a courtesy to the featured readers and to the rest of the attendees.
• If you need to take a break from the meeting, turn off your video while you're away and turn it back on when you return.
• If you will be joining from a cell phone, let me or Robbi know. I am very reluctant to admit an unreckonized cell phone number to the reading.
• Have your selected poems for the open mic ready to read. Don't change your mind at the last minute and make others wait while you find that "better poem."

SUBMISSIONS for the December issue are open as usual from the 1st to the 10th of November. The OPTIONAL theme for December is "Unexpected," however you would like to approach it.

Lastly, I would still like to find an Associate Editor that I could train to do the things I do each month for the journal. I've had a great many jobs in my life, and in every one of them, the most costly flaw was having a single point of failure and no backup. Life has no guarantees except change, and I don't want Verse-Virtual to come to an abrupt halt if I am ever unable to continue as Editor. The person I am looking for needs to have some experience with hand-coding HTML (or be willing to learn) and the ability to do some basic photo-editing. Contact me if you are interested. This is a completely volunteer position, just as mine is.

Jim