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Introduction
Welcome to the Guild of Copy Editors' annual report for 2016. This report is a little late but will attempt to provide an accurate look back at the year, which was another successful one for improving the quality of writing in articles. Our Blitzes, Drives and Requests page were popular; the backlog was reduced to new lows and the volume of completed Requests increased with significantly lower wait times. Your coordinators have also been active behind the scenes, helping the Guild to run smoothly.
Our regular backlog reduction drives and blitzes continue to keep the backlog trending downwards (see graph to right); albeit with a pronounced yo-yo pattern reflecting the every-other-month schedule of our drives. Much progress has been made this year; we started 2016 at 2,019. According to our monthly records, the level peaked at 2,223 in April, fell to 1,496 in May, bounced to 1,937 and plummeted to a new all-time low of 1,414 at the end of November.
Our week-long blitzes focused primarily (and successfully) on reducing the backlog on our copy-editing Requests page, with an occasional diverting excursion into topic-based groups of articles, including video games and Asian geography and sports.
| 2015 | 2016 | |
|---|---|---|
| January | 2,186 | 1,774 |
| February | 2,432 | 1,981 |
| March | 2,423 | 1,966 |
| April | 2,627 | 2,223 |
| May | 2,022 | 1,496 |
| June | 2,216 | 1,713 |
| July | 2,188 | 1,656 |
| August | 2,322 | 1,886 |
| September | 2,336 | 1,789 |
| October | 2,557 | 1,937 |
| November | 1,849 | 1,414 |
| December | 2,019 | 1,626 |
The Guild attracted over 100 new members during the year. Two members stepped-up as first-time coordinators to help run the Guild.