Not sure what you did with your Saturday — sleeping, shopping, homework, watching football, sleeping — but many of us here at The Volante took the day to gather insight about the practice of journalism from a couple members of the profession and to share with each other knowledge many of the Volante veterans have accumulated over the years.

Taking time out of there busy day were Keloland.com’s Web Producer, Jonathan Garcia, and the new Managing Editor of the Argus Leader, Patrick Lalley. These are two gentleman with unique insight into the world of journalism and they chose to impart some wisdom upon members of The Volante today. A big thanks to both of them!

A lot of what was discussed dealt with the nuts and bolts of journalism and would bring you to tears, I’m sure, however, the reason for this post is to simply make the statement that we take very seriously what we do at The Volante. Besides SGA, we tend to generate a large amount of hate mail for one reason or another. This is a relatively large community and you cannot please all the Yotes all the time. It is important to remember however, that The Volante is on-the-job training. We are a serious news organization, but there are some who are new to the journalism fold and they are learning as they go, therefore errors will happen.

Part of what today was about, was a chance to provide even more training that cannot always come from the classroom or the reporter’s beat. We are here to serve the community of USD and also that of Vermillion as a whole. Beginning this fall 2008 semester, The Volante began reporting on day one through our Web site. We will not publish our first print issue until this Wednesday, Sept. 17, but we have already been out there covering the events of USD, trying to better serve the students and live up to our motto: “The students’ voice since 1887.”

We intend to make our print issues even better than years past. Part of that improvement will come from events like today, but more so from a really great bunch of people who call the Neuharth Media Center home, as opposed to their apartment or dorm.

Additionally, on Wednesday, we will have a brand new Web site! This new site will also make our print issue even better by allowing us to deliver news as it happens and then offer greater depth of those mid issue stories in the print edition. This new Web site will work on an around the clock news delivering mentality. The site will have better functionality, allowing a better reading experience for you. At the same time, allowing us to present video, audio, and photos in a way we never could before.

This is my third year in The Volante news room and I have not seen such excitement. There has always been a deep sense of journalistic responsibility at The Volante, but now reporters have more tools available to report their stories and this has generated a buzz in the office.

We hope you feel that same buzz when you get to see the new Web site and get to put your hands on our first print edition on the 17th.