Want to serve on a Northwest Herald reader panel?

Most of the tips I receive about subjects for this Community Exchange column come directly from you, our Northwest Herald readers. I appreciate the leads and the opportunity to talk to interesting people throughout McHenry County.

It’s a lot of fun, and I appreciate your feedback. Please keep sending ideas my way.

Today, I’m making another request. In order to make sure the Northwest Herald is meeting your needs, I’m hoping to recruit some of you to serve on a reader panel for which I will soon be recruiting.

The idea for the reader panel is to have a conversation with community members about what the Northwest Herald does well, what we can improve and how we can better serve you.

Some questions the panel will be asked to consider are:

• What are the top items you wish we did differently or provided more of?
• What’s the “voice” of the Northwest Herald? Young? Old? Liberal? Conservative? Neither? Both?
• What’s the No. 1 thing you like about the Northwest Herald?
• Do you feel the paper tackles tough issues? If not, what are examples of stories you think we should be covering?
• Are there organizations or certain happenings you don’t think we cover enough? Or cover too much?
• Are there stories we have produced that you particularly liked? What did you like about them?
• Are there regular features we produce that you look forward to?
• Do you find the nwherald.com website easy or hard to navigate?
• How can the Northwest Herald continue to be a top provider of relevant news and information?

If you are interested, please send me an email explaining a little background about yourself, your age, how often you read the newspaper (either in print, online or both) and why you would be a good member for this panel.

I hope to hear from you.

EARLY CHRISTMAS: Christmas is more than six months away, but that’s not stopping Bob Baker and Mark Chandler from talking about holiday movies on their Festive Foreign Film Fans podcast.

Baker, of Trout Valley, is an attorney for a Chicago tech company, and Chandler, of Cary, is a vice president for an IT management company. On their podcast, they talk about a different Christmas movie from around the world.

“We also listen to a song and discuss the holiday customs from each country,” Bob said.

You can find the podcast online at https://www.buzzsprout.com/2181104/12748927.

It’s also on iTunes, Google, Spotify and other places you find your favorite podcasts. New episodes appear on the 6th and 25th of each month.

• Dennis Anderson, vice president of news and content development for Shaw Media and editor of the Northwest Herald, lives in Crystal Lake. He’s looking to share news about you and your neighbors and special events and happenings. Share your Community Exchange news with him at danderson@shawmedia.com.