New members needed for our Reader Board
I'm not sure if you've noticed some of the changes that have happened at The Sun in the past 12 months, but we've made some and many of them were due in part or in whole to our first-ever Reader Board.
Beginning last March 31, I met with The Sun's News Editor Roxanne Lehman and 14 volunteers from the community to discuss our delivery of service. That means we looked at things like comics, the classified ads section, Prospector magazine, special sections, our coverage of the Iraq war, the sports pages, the religion pages letters to the editor and coverage of youth activities - just to name a few.
We met six times in person and about four times online and all of the Reader Board ideas were presented to management and staff. Here are some of the changes we've made based on their feedback:
-- Expanded Health section on Mondays.
-- Expanded Yuma Region section every day.
-- Separate business section on Sundays.
-- Youth profiles.
-- Multi-generational Yuma family stories.
-- An antique column in the Home & Garden section.
-- Civic group/club stories.
-- Independent film column in "moRe in Yuma."
We've had 14 volunteers from the area help direct The Sun this year, and I'm out looking for fresh views. Hopefully we'll retain some of the people currently on the board, and I'd like to add some new folks as well.
If you're interested in this process, here's all you need to do: Send me a short e-mail telling me a little bit about yourself: your name, gender (if it's not obvious from your name), home address, e-mail address and phone number. Also, your age, tenure here in Yuma, what you do for a living and your reading habits. (Do you subscribe? Read every day? Borrow your neighbor's paper? Buy it out of a rack? Never read?)
Please include some information about why you would like to be on The Sun's Reader Board and what you hope to contribute. The reason I'm asking for so much detail is so I can recruit a well-rounded group of people. We'll meet for the first time in person in a few weeks, and we'll occasionally handle questions via group e-mails.
I will continue to keep readers updated on the contributions of the Reader Board through periodic columns, so you know what sort of an impact they are having.
Please submit your letter of interest by March 26 to me at lstofft@yumasun.com or mail them to 2055 S. Arizona Avenue, Yuma, AZ 85364. I can also be reached at (928) 539-6805.
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Lori Stofft is The Sun's marketing director.
