Doctor Scratch wrote:
Peterson's entry continues:
Quote:
From time to time, certain folks like to criticize today’s Interpreter Foundation because its writers and its leadership are preponderantly male. And this is undeniably true. The critics’ insinuation is that, whether deliberately or out of sheer, unreflective, chauvinistic, patriarchal bias, we exclude women.
The subject has come up again lately because of a specific case involving a woman who apparently volunteered for a time to copyedit some of the manuscripts submitted to us. (We don’t have a “staff.” We have no brick and mortar office. We rely almost entirely upon volunteers.) She was, I’m told, a very good editor. Apparently, though, she backed away from volunteering for us, a few months ago, on the grounds that she was just too busy. And now she’s publicly announced that she’s left the Church. (So far as I can tell, her departure is connected to her stance on gay rights and perhaps on gender issues more broadly. I can’t really say; I don’t know her and have never met or, to the best of my knowledge, interacted with her.)
Ah, so I was right: DCP "clarifies" that she was merely a "copyeditor." (At least he admits that "gender issues" may have pushed her out; by his own admission "gender issues" are rampant within Mopologetics.)
Some thoughts: Dr. Peterson states that she "
apparently volunteered for a time to copyedit some of the manuscripts submitted to us." Why the lack of certainty? He goes on to say that "[s]he was,
I'm told, a very good editor." Here he manifests no personal familiarity with her work. He then reports that "
[a]pparently, though, she backed away from volunteering for us, a few months ago, on the grounds that she was just too busy." Again, the distance is evident. (Given these statements, Dr. Peterson’s subsequent disclaimer that he doesn’t “know her and have never met or, to the best of my knowledge, interacted with her” does not surprise me.)
I might suggest that Dr. Peterson, as President of the Interpreter Foundation, make a stronger effort to establish and maintain relationships with those who do the real work at the Foundation. Going forward, he could, for example, call Mr. Wyatt more frequently than "
every once in a while" to check how he's doing as
Interpreter's editor. Or perhaps he, during a spare moment while enjoying a four-night deluxe Nile cruise, could pen a note to a volunteer editor to thank her for her excellent work. (On a personal note, I must confess that Dr. Peterson never reached out to me while I was serving as a volunteer copyeditor for
Interpreter from 2012-2016.) Simple gestures such as these would go a long way in building staff morale and limiting attrition and defections.