To The Script,

It has taken me a while to compose my thoughts (and feelings) about Robin Fryer’s departure as editor of The Script. I was both shocked by the news and filled with memories and gratitude.

I’ve read Robin’s “Saying Farewell to the Script” several times. It is classic Robin. As she writes at the start of her farewell that it might be the hardest thing she’d ever done, she placed her own voice in the background. She filled her reflections with her appreciations of the many others with whom she worked during her 50 years overseeing The Script while providing a history of the newsletter and the International Transactional Analysis Association. Robin has lived and knows the history of the ITAA perhaps better than anyone on the planet.

Here, I’m going to place Robin’s voice in the foreground.

It is not easy to hold and foster a sense of community over decades. While Robin always held the official title of managing editor, she has done a hell of a lot more than “manage.” She has been the force and spirit that has infused The Script with its vitality. She has been immersed in the written and social aspects of our transactional analysis (TA) community, bringing the struggles, issues and aspirations of the TA world into print within these pages. I had the privilege and pleasure of being the editor of The Script (the one whose name was in front) for over a dozen years. It was a brilliant and creative partnership with Robin. Together we wrestled with various trends, problems and themes that were stirring in the TA world, to find ways to write about them and invite others to participate in the discussions.

Writing is not easy. Writing well is hard, disciplined work. I learned that discipline from Robin. Editing is also not easy — it is a unique skill. I learned that, too, from Robin. I learned how to listen carefully to the voice of each author and to bring that unique voice more into the foreground. Here, the editor’s voice is always in the background. But Robin, as an editor, has an extraordinary, dedicated skill that I want to bring into the foreground.

Her quiet, persistent efforts have fostered the fabric of community in the ITAA and have profoundly enhanced the quality of our TA literature over the decades. And I am very happy that she will be continuing her work with the Transactional Analysis Journal.