The Chronicle office will be closed next week and staff will not be responding to phone calls or emails. For the first time in more than three years, Editor/Publisher Guy Page will “unplug” for an entire week. The office will be open for business Monday, April 3.

There will be no emailed edition of the Chronicle next week. However, a limited amount of news and commentary will be uploaded to http://www.vermontdailychronicle by Assistant Editor Tim Page. However he will not be accessible to the public.

In January, VDC added the Barre resident and son of the publisher. Many of the new features you’ve seen in VDC are thanks to him. For example:

1. The Toolbox to Follow and Influence the Legislature. This loaded legislative advocacy toolbox is our response to questions by readers asking how they can stay informed on, and contact legislators about, legislation important to them. Tim’s first job was to adapt information on the Vermont Legislature website to a more user-friendly, all-on-one-page format. He set up and maintains this valuable tool, including:

– ALL of the legislators’ names and email addresses on a single, cut-and-paste sheet. That’s helpful information unavailable anywhere else. 

– An UP TO DATE listing of ALL bills now in the Vermont Senate and House. In many cases we’ve given the bills new names that accurately describe what they’re really about, instead of the sometimes vague verbiage that appears on the Legislature’s website.  

– The YouTube links to ALL Zoom meetings of House and Senate committees and the full assemblies, so you can view meetings them online. The YouTube links also offer transcripts of all conversations in the committee rooms – a VERY helpful feature. This feature came in handy, for example, when many readers watched the Senate Appropriations Committee discuss S.5, the so-called Affordable Heating Act, over a week ago. 

All in all, VDC’s 2023 legislative coverage has been our most thorough and organized ever. Much of the credit goes to this ‘background’ work done by my oldest son and new Assistant Editor. 

2. Original videos. Videos are the political cartoons of the 21st century. A good political cartoon (or video) both informs and provokes. Tim has the skill I lack to assemble fast-paced, attractive, funny, thought-provoking videos on new bills. Not every video producer can match Soviet Army Choir music with a bill on the Regenerative Economy. 

In addition to Tim’s excellent work, VDC has seen increased contributions from veteran reporters and commentators like Mike Donoghue and Rob Roper, and spirited, controversial commentary/reports from newbie legislators Gina Galfetti and Charles Wilson. Aaron Warner is hitting his stride as a regional reporter, breaking NATIONAL stories in Windsor County – such as the refusal of Mid-Vermont Christian School to play against a basketball team with a biologically-male player. 

* * * * * * *

Readers often ask, how is the Chronicle doing? And by the way, how’s its publisher doing, too? I sometimes answer that every weekday I go to my post office box in Montpelier, slip the big, industrial strength key into P.O. Box #1547, Montpelier VT, 05601 and hope to see a letter from a reader. 

Most days, the mailbox is empty. But when it’s not, these letters often carry a double blessing: 

1. a check (typically $108 for an annual subscription, sometimes more, sometimes less), without which I couldn’t continue to publish. 
2. A note of encouragement. Such letters are, as Vermont author Katherine Paterson titled a book, “Bread and Roses, too.” Both means and motivation to keep going to the State House and write the stories that need to be told by someone. 

Just this week I received one such encouraging note from a longtime reader in Vergennes:

“I know how encouraging it can be to receive actual mail in your mailbox! It’s rare for me but when it happens, it is wonderful.

“I just wanted to thank you for all you are doing to keep us informed and providing information we can trust and what isn’t reported any other way. I have been able to inform others who never will be likely to read VDC and it has opened up important conversations. So cool Tim is now working with you too!”

Thank you, readers, for the bread and the roses. And if you haven’t sent either – please think about it! VDC flies on the wings of its readers.
 

Free Speech Forever,

Guy Page

Editor & Publisher, Vermont Daily Chronicle

P.O. Box 1547, Montpelier VT 05601