Sheridan Express Considers Expanding Blog

The Board of Directors of the Sheridan Express Newspaper Cooperative at its October meeting considered a suggestion to open up the Sheridan Express blog for information and opinion contributions from the cooperative's paid members. This would be a right in addition to the rights of democratic election and profit-sharing that already exist under the Articles of Association or Agreement and by-laws. No definite action was taken. Public comment is invited.

Sheridan Express -- Not Just a Paper; A Way of Life

We cover Sheridan, Grant City, Worth, Denver, Allendale, Ravenwood and Parnell along with occasional forays into Southwest Iowa. This is a cooperative newspaper. We are owned and operated by members of the community who wish to see a local area paper thrive. We have almost 30 cooperative members and 450 subscribers and newsstand customers so far. We have a highly engaged audience; our readers read every word of the paper, meaning that anything you publish will be read and talked about. Our papers are passed from person to person much more than usual, meaning that most people in our coverage area have read the paper. Our ownership consists of people of all different political persuasions. That means that we do not merely print one side of the story like more and more corporate media outlets do; we try and offer material for everyone.

We are in our fifth year of existence. Like any business, we need your support to survive. If you mention this post, we invite you to try us out for $20 per year (Good for anywhere in the US). This is good for new and lapsed (at least one month) subscribers who mention this piece. We offer 12-16 pages of local news about your friends and neighbors every week as well as state and national news that has a direct impact on the way we live. If you would like to look us over first, that is fine as well; we sell papers at Country Corners and Hy-Vee in Grant City, Sheridan Grocery and Snakebite Tavern in Sheridan, Emery’s Service and K&T Bar & Grill in Parnell, and Gage Fertilizer & Grain in Ravenwood.

Our goal is to support our way of life. Our goal is also to support our local businesses and fight for a level playing field with the large corporate interests. We stand against any government, corporate, or political policy that would threaten our way of life.

This is no longer a battle of Liberal vs. Conservative or Democrat vs. Republican. This is a battle to protect our basic freedom to live our lives the way we want with minimal government or corporate interference. Let’s use vouchers as an example – if we were to shut down all the public schools and give people vouchers to go to a private school, that sounds good on the surface (Editor -- there is another proposal regarding vouchers in which parents would get vouchers to send children to attend neighboring public schools as well as private schools; that is a whole different debate). But what certain proponents of vouchers miss is that if we were to shut down our public schools, then we would have to send our kids to St. Joseph to LeBlond or St. Joseph Christian to school. There would be all these empty buildings that would have to be cleaned up – it would be the Sheridan Schoolhouse magnified many times over. And that is on top of the fact that vouchers have been held by many courts all over the land to be an unconstitutional government infringement on religious belief. After all, I don’t want my taxpayer dollars to go to support some belief system that is against my values. And even if it were to  be made feasible somehow, as Congressman Sam Graves pointed out one time, the next logical step would be for government bureaucrats to assume control of private schools in the same way that they try to do with public schools by attaching funding to their agendas.

Ron Paul offers an attractive alternative for people fed up with the present two-party system. But the question is, is he cutting for the sake of cutting or cutting what needs to be cut? After all, what would happen if we don’t have enough money for roads and bridges? Then, all of the roads in the country would be like many of the lettered roads around here. Somehow, I don’t think that would fly.

None of us have all the answers, which is why we will, from time to time, present different points of view in the paper. We will try and present as many different perspectives as possible, not just the people that the giant corporate media says are frontrunners. Our system of government was made to function through cooperation. Therefore, we will look at things from a Constitutionalist perspective. The best way to break the grip of the two-party oligarchy on our system is to go back to the values which our country was founded on and which we sometimes take for granted. For instance, freedom of movement is taken for granted here. But in certain parts of the world, a trip from Sheridan to Grant City, 10-15 minutes drive, would take all day because of all the military checkpoints you would have to go through.

Finally, all of us who own and operate the paper come at this from many different perspectives. Therefore, as the late Mickey Floyd would have said, I cannot claim to speak for any other board member or cooperative member or agent of the Sheridan Express; the views expressed here are my own and are solely my responsibility. Thank you for your support.

Jesse Stark
Editor & Publisher

Early Deadline for Sheridan Express

Dear friends and correspondents,
Next week, the 4th of July falls on Wednesday; therefore, we will be printing on Tuesday, July 3rd. The printer has requested all pages be sent on Monday. Please submit all copy and advertising by Sunday evening so we can get it in. Copy received on or after Monday will be printed in the July 11th issue. Our schedule will return to normal for the July 11th issue.

Sheridan Express Email Address

Dear friends and supporters,
If you have not done so, please start addressing all e-mail correspondence to express@grm.net. We still use our old address, but it is a personal account and there is much more clutter, meaning that your e-mail is much more likely to be lost. We are in the process of consolidating all of our newspaper e-mail into one place. Thanks for your cooperation.

Sheridan Express Annual Cooperative Meeting

The annual meeting of the members of the Sheridan Express Newspaper Cooperative will be held on Saturday, the 19th day of February of 2011, at 7:00 p.m. at the Community Room of Sheridan Housing, 205 North 4th, Sheridan. The purpose of the meeting will be to elect the Board of Directors for the Sheridan Express Newspaper Cooperative and transact such other business as may properly come before the meeting.

All meetings are open to the public. The Sheridan Express is currently seeking cooperative members. The Sheridan Express is owned by the Sheridan Express Cooperative. Members become part-owners and have a say in the direction of the paper. People may become members of the cooperative by either paying a $100 one-time membership fee or by becoming a regular contributor to the paper or by providing labor as needed. This is separate from the annual subscription price for the paper. Members get a return on their investment under the bylaws of the cooperative should the newspaper receive sufficient profits. For more information, contact Jerry Drake at (660) 564-2321 or 2334.

Sheridan Express Cooperative Meeting for July 16th, 2008

It was noted that seven new paid members have recently joined the Sheridan Express Newspaper Cooperative. This brings the number of paid members to 25, which is in addition to three participating members. One of the new members is a business, and while this is not a problem when dividends are distributed, it will be a problem in voting for members of the cooperative governing body. An amendment to the by-laws was suggested permitting a business to designate a representative as a voting member.
Also discussed was the need to establish a democratic method to choose participating members so that the cooperative governing board would be less likely to perpetuate itself. One suggestion was to amend the by-laws to designate the county clerks or presiding commissioners in the five-county area as an oversight committee to select participating members.
The chess advertisement in last week’s Sheridan Express was discussed. A chess club would be a great benefit to students in local schools, as would a foreign language club. Our community had good chess players and natives of Spanish speaking countries who could be utilized at minimal cost.

Sheridan Express Cooperative Meeting for May 10th, 2008

The meeting of the Board of Directors of the Sheridan Express News Cooperative held on May 10th, 2008 set the following "obtainable goals" in addition to the 1,000 subscribers by January 1st, 2009. The advertising revenue will triple and the number of members (paid and participating) will double by January 1st, 2009. At the present time, there are 18 paid members and 4 participating members.
Improvements in the building where the Sheridan Express is published were also discussed.
A share of stock was distributed to each member present.
The next meeting will be Saturday, May 17th, 2008 at 7:00 p.m. at the Sheridan City Hall. The public is invited.

Sheridan Express Cooperative Meeting for April 25th, 2008

At the meeting of the Board of Directors of the Sheridan Express Newspaper Cooperative held on April 25, 2008, the following items were discussed:
-A cooperative seal was presented for approval.
-Approval was given to a new sign and drop box which was brought to the meeting by Mickey Floyd.
-Discussion was had concerning possible attraction of artists and authors as participating members of the cooperative.
-An "obtainable goal" of 1000 subscribers before January 1, 2009 was set by the board.
Next meeting will be Saturday, May 10, 2008 at 7 p.m. at Sheridan City Hall. The public is invited.