"Will to Survive" Theme; Editor's position request...

Billysse's breakdown is great ... was it meant to be one all-encompassing idea incorporating all of the ideas listed? That's how I took it. "The Will to Survive" sounds like a swell guiding theme with enough room for individual freedom in content...

I'm looking forward to having this work in my portfolio surrounded by other professional pieces.

That being said, weighty/timely topics are what I need to challenge my skills. I'm gravitating towards a focus on economy and/or politics - local affected by national or purely local... I'd like to do an investigative piece that is pertinent to today... here are some of my thoughts provoked by Billysse's outline:

"here's a breakdown:
-the will to survive (the impoverished families in New Paltz)"

A major component of New Paltz business is the farming industry.... Migrant workers live and work in the area in little communities usually right smack in the center of the farm land hidden by the apple trees... Many of these areas are impoverished... our area also hosts a clinics that caters specifically to the migrant worker population... often these families do not drive and are driven to work in buses.... how are some of these families coping? What do they think about New Paltz and New Paltz/state/national politics? What is their life like? How are they affected by the loss of farm land in the area etc... They seem unrepresented in our local media...

Food prices rising... how does the average family make it?... (This winter my household - four working adults - pays over $400 a month for oil to heat our house and water ... this is besides electric, rent, food and car maintenance... we often wonder how a family with just two working adults supporting children is making it right now when we're struggling.)

"-the will to survive (the town and how it fights to keep big chains from invading thier beloved main street)"

-the will to survive (small business owners and how they make ends meet)
Or do they... Blockheads closed down... La Ninnola was forced to close for the season... a store opens and closes back down almost monthly in that one little spot next to 60 Main... how do places like the Bistro and Snug Harbor stick around while others are vanishing around them? How are housing crises affecting (or not) this market? What are the economic trends of this area how does that play into it? Are any of the old-timers feeling the brunt? -- I'd really like to work on this one most... but open to changing if our final overarching theme is anti-economic crisis. I haven't yet written about economy/numbers/business and want to figure it out.

"-the will to survive (an art student who's preparing work for their BFA/MFA show)
-the will to survive (the youth in New Paltz)"
There is a youth center in the center of town on 299 and I've often wondered what services they provide, how they are funded etc...

Also, a new mayor took office in New Paltz recently (Jan?) how's he doing? What changes are ensuing.

Rental property owners... there are a lot of them... how is rent going to be effected by new economic crisis and the coming months of recession. Will rent be going up? Has it gone up? How are they being affected?

The history of New Paltz is a topic that appears often in the local mags and papers... what is something that hasn't been told about the history... some spin that we haven't all heard before... What is the history of the Gay and Lesbian community in New Paltz? What's up with all the super old NYC punk fliers hanging in the Bistro? I heard a rumor about the owner is associated with some of the bands... is it true?

Just some thoughts that rattled around in my head...

The New Paltz Times, The Chronogram, InsideOut Magazine and quite a few others cover, in depth, the arts of New Paltz and although it is a dynamic topic, hard news topics are absent from the local papers and magazines... there must be something out there... I'd like to try to find it and present it.

I'm putting my bid in for an editorial role. I program coordinated for a non-profit org. in my life pre-returning-to-college so I come bearing organizational skills and project management experience (this is like my resume here). Working as a leader with a women's empowerment program in Newark NJ, I'm used to acting like a rubber ball to bounce ideas off of... and would like to see how some of my leadership strenths in that field pan out (or don't) in a newsroom...

I've been a local off-campus resident in the area for 3 years and have worked with local paper and a local magazine so I could be a resource to those unfamiliar with New Paltz and the surrounding areas. I love long walks on the beach.

How do I get hired?

Has anyone thought about groups? Is anyone not down with the "Will to Survive" concept? Subtopics could go a lot of ways from this main point - well illustrated by Billysse.