As the editor in chief of Manufacturing Engineering, I get a lot of emails. Some of them are unsubscribe requests from people who no longer want to receive the magazine. Most of these are pretty routine and I send them on to our subscription manager. The requests are usually polite, but some are not. The latter category includes demands to immediately stop sending a magazine that people are not reading.
Then there’s the unsubscribe request I got earlier this year from Steve Wenning, manager of advanced manufacturing for Emerson Climate Technologies in Sidney, Ohio. It was anything but routine. Here’s what he wrote:
“On Friday, September 27, 2019, I will walk into my office for the last time.
“After picking up the magazine out of a trash can and reading it when I was 13 in 1963 on a job I had with my brother sweeping a small machine shop, it is time to hang it up. I have always loved the magazine.
“When I did finally get the title of a Manufacturing Engineer, I got my own subscription and have continued to read it ever since then. I have been taking it in my bags as I have traveled the world putting in various machining and assembly operations in many different locations.
“I left it in our offices so our teams in these places had something to read and gain more knowledge. But now I would rather sweep white sand out of my trailer than come to the office or shop and sweep chips. I will be 70 in a few shorts months and it is time to relax. Thanks for all the good info and great reading.”
Well, let us thank you, Steve, for eloquently summing up what we do here at Manufacturing Engineering.
We don’t typically get a lot of direct feedback from readers, unless they are upset about something we’ve written or we’ve gotten something wrong, so it was really refreshing to read Steve’s note and learn how he has used Manufacturing Engineering throughout his career.
We try to provide interesting, useful and challenging information each month for our readers and help them navigate the ever-changing world of machining and manufacturing. There’s a lot of behind-the-scenes work that goes on to determine the most important topics to cover, how to cover them, and where to find useful, factual information.
We then work hard to get that information and present it in a readable, engaging format—using both words and images. But it’s up to you, our readers, to decide if we are doing a good job or not. It’s good to know that we got it right, at least in Steve Wenning’s case.
Steve, we hope you are enjoying your well-deserved retirement and if you ever get the urge to read the magazine again, you know where to find us!
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