This marks my first edition of the Meridian as Editor in Chief, and I am excited about this new adventure. Thanks to Rick Lindfors-Ackerman for all his dedication to the team and for answering my thousand questions as I embark on this new journey. As Rick mentioned in his last letter, I have a background in financial journalism, but I also have spent the past 11 years in Search and Rescue. I look forward to integrating these two passions of mine. There is so much happening with the Mountain Rescue Association, and the newsletter is here to highlight and support the MRA and its teams. In that spirit, showcasing a new documentary that features Seattle Mountain Rescue was a very fun way to kick off my tenure.
The first big change for Meridian is that we moved from a static, PDF format to a more versatile web format. A web-based format allows us to do a few things. First, it allows anyone to open a single story, rather than the entire newsletter, which will help teams who want to link to specific stories on social media. Second, it allows us to publish more extemporaneously, pushing out newsworthy stories in a more timely way as they happen. We did the first of these such stories when the new MRA board was fully installed. We hope to do more stories like this. In addition, comments are now allowed on stories and all of our sponsors still get showcased in individual stories and across the newsletter. Exciting stuff!
I would like to encourage members to reach out with story ideas, mission reviews and anything else you would like to see in the Meridian. I am happy to field story ideas if you have something you’d like to write and am equally open to ideas that you’d like someone else to write! The Fall issue includes the first section of smaller newsbriefs, so check those out and let me know if you have news that you’d like to see featured in that section. This newsletter belongs to you, the member teams, so I would like to feature as many of you as possible. Shaun Roundy wrote a great piece on many of the changes and how to contribute to Meridian that can be found here.
Molly Williams
Meridian Editor in Chief
Marin County Search and Rescue
