By KIM ORENDOR
Outgoing Third Vice President

Kim Orendor and friend

The long days, which turn into longer nights, followed by never-ending days. The small staffs and ever shrinking budgets are the icing on the cake.

However, there was little complaining at the small newspaper caucus the opening day of the APSE Convention in Philadelphia. There were a lot of ideas thrown around on what was working with APSE and how they thought it could be better.

The best thing is the benefits would not be limited to small papers. The whole idea behind APSE is that all papers win, not just the big guys.

The first victory is with the Web site. With new stories being added more frequently, there is now more incentive to check out the site and more things to learn.

For smaller papers who can't always afford (financially or logistically) to send some one to a conference the ability to get updated information off the Web is priceless.

Several of the convention sessions will have notes available for downloading or viewing on the Web site. In the future, we may not even have to wait for a convention but individuals with ideas could post them at any time.

In addition, several editors liked the idea of having a place to post questions in a forum or look for roommates for upcoming conventions.

After listening to Ed Storin in the morning, membership was also a topic. For some smaller papers, APSE is a nonfactor because they don't know it exists. As small paper editors we need to find those other small papers near us and encourage them to join. (This also fits in with APSE president Jerry Micco's mandate.)

Other concerns ranged from making sure small papers had access to credentials to "big" events, one-day drive-in workshops and contest restructuring.

A side item of business was my resignation. It has been great to serve APSE as third vice president and even greater still to get to know a lot of the members.

I will miss being part of something that is so worthwhile. I do know that whoever is elected from the three candidates — Greg Brownell, Glen Falls (N.Y.) Post-Star; Jason Carris, Vineland (N.J.) Daily Journal; and Mark Conley, Santa Cruz Sentinel — APSE will be the better for it.

Thank you again for all your support. I felt welcomed from Day One, despite being the editor of a paper that was barely a blip on most radar screens. Being able to chat with editors from the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times and the Dallas Morning News was nerve-wracking at first but then became old-hat.

Getting beyond the circulation differences was easy (I still choke on the staff size of Dallas, however) and finding similarities was even easier.

The Philadelphia convention was a great way to end my stint with APSE. In the coming years, I will work on writing the great American novel, or at least one that is well-written and sells well.

Any similarities between characters who appear in my stories and APSE members is purely coincidental.