The whitewater pace of the Sedona Red Rock News usually flows a little easier on Fridays.

The newsroom staff meets at 9:30 a.m.

Like Oscar Madison (look it up), only sportswriter Brian Bergner is consistently a few minutes late.

After patting each other on the back (or smacking each other upside the head), we talk over what next week's newspapers are going to look like.

Reporters list story ideas, photojournalists pitch photos, editors chew it all over while copy editors wag their fingers. Then we adjourn.

Off color remarks, jokes and insults provoke the usual laughs and banter.

Staff meetings are where we go to hear all the "off the record" comments of public officials.

We dish the dirt.

The point of the meeting is to make sure all of us are working off the same page and to give story ideas a larger hearing. A colleague's alternative perspective can be very helpful at times.

Staff meetings, like today, usually make for a nice morning.