No filler here.

• Author: Kristie, Jamcs
• Position: Financial crisis of bank earnings - Editorial

THANK YOU, Wall Street Journal, for the article published in September titled, "Brighter Days for Big Banks Arrive At Last." It appeared just as I was sitting down to write this note, one of the last things I do before sending each issue off to press. The WSJ article, which detailed an upswing in bank earnings following the long malaise of the financial crisis, helped affirm my decision to devote a cover story to the topic of bank boards--specifically, the wisdom of agreeing to serve on a bank board, if asked.

I made the decision a year ago to address bank board recruiting in this Third Quarter edition. The way the publishing business works, editors have to come up with an agenda of topics that will be covered in their publications far in advance of when those issues will actually appear. In our case, in September I tee up for the marketing team (and for my own master plan, of course) a fairly robust list of subjects to be covered in the coming year. That is a long lead time to project the "hot topics" in corporate governance that will be front and center in readers' minds in six, nine or 12 months from now. I am enthused about what is on the docket.

A lot happens in September around this editorial office. In addition to wrapping up this edition and sending it off to the printer, and crafting the above-mentioned editorial calendar for the next year, we are deep into planning the 2015 Private Company Governance Summit (PCGS). It promises to be another stellar gathering of expert speakers and top-flight leaders and board members of private companies (see page 11 for an early look at how PCGS 2015 is shaping up).

On both a professional and personal note, September is a memorable month. Check...