Editorial Board

The Olympian

Volunteer for editorial board

Are you interested in serving on The Olympian's editorial board?

Two members of the community are selected to serve on the board every six months. Interested community members submit applications to The Olympian. The editorial board provides the official voice of the newspaper through daily editorials.

Who serves

Four people serve on the board, and all have an equal say in shaping the newspaper's official editorial position.

Editorial Page Editor Mike Oakland and Managing Editor Jerry Wakefield are the two permanent members of the board. They are joined by two community representatives who sit in on every editorial board meeting, ask questions of guests, review draft editorials before they are published and bring suggestions for editorials to the board. They serve six-month terms.

On occasion, community members even write the first draft of an editorial.

For most of the year, the editorial board meets Wednesdays at 10 a.m. Usually we have guests - elected officials or community leaders - who share information about issues of importance in South Sound.

Guests might be city council members updating the board about community planning or construction projects, or the governor sharing his budget priorities for the legislative session.

Democratic process

After the guests leave, board members discuss editorial topics and positions the newspaper will take on those issues. It's a simple, democratic process.

At the end of their service, citizen representatives say they know much more about the people and issues of South Sound and the internal workings of the newspaper.

Anyone interested in serving on the board should send a self-nomination.

Tell us why you want to serve on the board and what you would bring to our deliberations.

Send self-nominations to Editorial Board, The Olympian, P.O. Box 1219, Olympia WA 98507. The e-mail address is news@theolympian.com and the fax number is 360-357-0202.

We look forward to hearing from you.