Editorial

by Sheila D'Amico

It’s been a year now since editor Toni Locke retired from her long-time volunteer position. When she did, she passed down the MacArthur Metro files and paper copies of almost 20 years of the Metro and its predecessor publication, the Laurel Reporter. It’s been a delight reading those issues and it quickly became clear that, from the beginning, the Metro has been about building community.

As we continue that mission, we want readers to know a bit more about this community newspaper. We are a nonprofit corporation governed by a Board of Directors. A mostly volunteer staff of 30 writers, photographers, copyeditors, and behind-the-scenes personnel produces the paper. The Metro can be picked up at neighborhood shops, libraries, and businesses. Neigborhood distributors circulate the rest of each run of 7,000 issues.

Over the almost 20 years of Metro publication, we have operated out of our respective homes and personal workspaces. The Metro has never had an office. Yet we’ve managed to put out the publication on schedule. In the early days, Toni would carry the sometimes hand-written copy to the word processor. Now, as with most other modern organizations, electronic communication has facilitated interaction among staff. In fact, the widespread use of instant communication, including listservs and blogs, has motivated us to ask ourselves, is the Metro even necessary? For now, we are still coming back with “Yes” as an answer and that’s where you come in.

The Metro has always looked to the community for volunteers and for ideas. What we found from reading past issues is that we have also always looked to the community for financial support with Money Honeys and Friends donations. We have managed to remain independent by relying on readers along with advertisers to finance the publication.

As we look to the future, we realize that we need more money to operate. One way is to raise funds by applying for grants from foundations and corporations. We’ll be doing that, but meantime, we need your individual tax deductible contributions.

We also ask for your time. As you know we are always looking for writers and other help to put out the paper, so tell us if you are interested. But please know that we have a critical need for organizational volunteers. Please contact us right away if you can serve on our Board of Directors, help with fund raising, or help to plan some observances of next year’s 20th anniversary of the Laurel Reporter and 2009’s 20th anniversary of the MacArthur Metro.

Don’t be shy. E-mail metroreaders\@earthlink.net or leave a message on voice mail at 287-2655.