Bill Kisliuk

For the past two months, the boss and I have been on tour.

We have met more than 250 Napa Valley residents, nurses and Realtors, trucking logistics specialists and charity executives, retirees and resort managers.

Sometimes, we’ve met in casual and fairly intimate settings, as on the rainy day when we sat down in the back room of Miguel’s in Calistoga with five members of the Calistoga Kiwanis Club.

Sometimes, we’ve met them by the score, as when we spoke to more than 40 people at the Rotary Club of North Napa meeting at the Wine Train commissary.

The purpose of the tour is to talk to people about the Register, the news business, the people of Napa County and how we live here.

To date, I’ve heard Register Publisher Brenda Speth’s rap eight or nine times. It touches on her college days as a waitress in Madison, Wisc., the role Mark Twain played at our newspaper company, the metrics by which we measure, and then strive to meet, the expectations of our readers and advertisers, and the growth in community newspaper readership in print and online.

Likewise, Brenda has heard my shtick, which is a little more prosaic. It usually involves the American Canyon Fire District, JV water polo players and the broad shoulders of Register Editorial Assistant Diane Montanez.

At each of these meetings, we’ve thanked the members of the club for the service they perform and their support of the Register. As the Napa lawyer Jim Jones said the other night at a meeting of local Boy Scouts officials: “This community, in my opinion — and I’ve lived long enough to have one — is kept together not by government, but by organizations just like this.”

We’ve seen it as American Canyon Kiwanians prepare for a 12-hour day working the crab feed, St. Helena Rotarians spend the spring planning the Winter Ball, Yountville Kiwanians offer their service to the residents of the Veterans Home and Napa Sunrise Rotarians give a standing ovation to the Student of the Month from Valley Oak High School.

Fortunately for the newspaper, we’ve learned a lot about how this county lives and what matters to residents. We’ve also gleaned information helpful to us: How residents perceive the Register, the news business and the role of the Internet, what you think of the monthly DUI list or the editorial page.

If you are a member of a group that might be interested in the best traveling newspaper road show in all of Napa County, contact me at 256-2246 or bkisliuk@napanews.com and we’ll work on the arrangements.