Community endeavors

For a decade, I was manager of the Flagstaff (Arizona) Symphony Orchestra. It was composed of faculty and students from Northern Arizona University, public school teachers and local musicians, both amateur and professional, who made their living at something other than music.

NAU had a thriving music program so we generally had sufficient French horns, oboes, bassoons and strings, the toughest instruments to find. A proud member of the Community and Urban Division of the American Symphony Orchestra League, the FSO earned and spent less than a quarter of a million dollars a year. That's not much for an orchestra that brought in guest soloists and employed 80 or 90 paid musicians, a conductor, manager and full-time secretary.

"Community orchestra" meant something else, too - that we probably did not play all that well. We accepted players not sufficiently proficient for larger orchestras; most sat way back in the second violins and sometimes mimed parts they could not master. We had a great sense of community, though, and those folks loved to play what notes they could. They put the "community" into "community orchestra" and we used to sell out because of them.

I hear lots of complaints about community newspapers, that they make mistakes, don't cover this or that important story, get quotations wrong or misidentify people in group photos. Readers willing to accept the "community" in "community newspaper," however, might agree they still perform some important functions. You won't see photos of contributors to the Fourth of July fireworks fund in the New York Times. Your community paper might have gotten the name wrong of the little girl third from the left in a tutu but you won't see her at all in the Chicago Tribune. Your Eagle Scout son might have been painting a fence instead of a bench but someone did take his picture and print a correction the next day. Sorry you feel you can't send the picture to grandma because of the error but last week the city editor's kid was cropped out of a group soccer picture so at least the errors affect everyone on an equal opportunity basis.

OK, so I am biased. My dad was a linotype operator for the Des Plaines (Illinois) Journal and in those days printers were editors, too. My grandfather owned several community papers in Chicago, including The Chicago Leader which once had a circulation of 5,000, Gramps told me. I love local papers, errors and all, because they are interested in the same people and events I am.

Some fine reporters and photographers move on to bigger cities for larger salaries and that is part of the community paper's role, to furnish venues where people can make mistakes that won't follow them very far or very long. It's like the Flagstaff Symphony Orchestra, in a lot of ways - small papers have to tolerate a sour note or two every once in a while because they give fledgling professionals a chance. The Coeur d'Alene Press probably does not have as many distinguished alumni as the Flagstaff Symphony Orchestra but an orchestra has 80 or 90 musicians and The Press doesn't employ nearly that many writers and photographers.

Should smaller papers ask readers to give them a break? Not on your life. All papers should be held to the same standards as the biggest metropolitan dailies. We should never cut community papers any slack for being small... but it is nice to remember the community part of their job description from time to time. If nothing else, it might make us a bit more loving.

Tim Hunt, the son of a linotype operator, is a retired college professor and nonprofit administrator who lives in Hayden with his wife and three cats. He can be reached at [email protected].