Beloved longtime Guild member Andrea (Andie) Leigh Ptak died on July 16th after a courageous battle with ovarian cancer. A member since at least 2009, Andie served as secretary of our board of directors from 2013 to 2014, and as the marketing committee chair for the Red Pencil conference in 2015, at which she was presented with the Guild's award of excellence. She was a knowledgeable, warm, and welcoming presence in the Guild, remembered by many members for her attentive way of seeking out people who seemed new, unsure, or lonely.

The Northwest Editors Guild community has been deeply saddened by the loss of one of the Guild’s two co-founders, Sherri Schultz.

Sherri and Phyllis Hatfield started what was then called the Northwest Independent Editors Guild in 1997 with just eleven members, and in 1999, as the Guild became a little more formal, Sherri built its first website. She was also the Guild's treasurer for some time, and did most of the administrative work involved in keeping the Guild running in the early years, including securing rooms for meetings and reserving booths at events. In addition to her extensive work in helping the Guild to grow into a registered nonprofit and setting us up to become today an organization with more than 400 members across the United States, Sherri was a passionate educator, organizer, and builder of community.