Keenly observed by our 2013 authors.

• Position: EDITOR'S NOTE - Editorial

The Governance Year in Review issue is our opportunity to reflect on the year just past, with the month-by-month timeline of 2013 (starting an page 27) as the centerpiece of our look back. In thinking of a way to capture the zeitgeist of 2013 for this editor's note. I went a classic route and assembled a top 10 list. Here are keenly observed comments made by authors whom we published last year:

- "My advice regarding social networks is to be more worried about their pitfalls than you are bullish on their opportunities."--Media executive Leo Hindery Jr.'s guidance to directors in his Q1 issue column, "Social Media: The Gorilla in the Boardroom."

* "Stay true to your digital self. You're being asked to join a board because of your specific background, not to see how well you can assimilate to a de facto mindset of how to run things."--Digital entrepreneur and corporate director Alex Schmelkin's advice to the digerati joining boards in the Qi cover story on "Recruiting the Digital Director."

* "The low rate of board member turnover is ruinous to women's progress."--Governance researcher Dan Dalton in the Q2 cover story, "Board Turnover: Low ... and Getting Lower."

* "It is easier to divorce a spouse than to get rid of a bad director":--Board member Dorrit Bern, quoted in the Q2 article, "Ace the Board Interview" by Madeleine Condit and Janet Morrison Clarke. *

"Lee [Iacocca] didn't want to leave. He wanted to be CEO forever. The board, at last, decided it was time for a change."--Auto executive Bob Lutz in the Q2 issue with an excerpt from his new book, Icons and Idiots.

*...