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I’m not much to look at, but for those of you who’d like to have a gander anyway, you’ll find me at Orion Bank Monday night, along with some of my compatriots.

Despite what you may have heard, this In The Round is not about The Marco Eagle. It’s about you. We want to hear what you have to say: the good, the bad and the ugly.

There’s plenty of ugly. Just before I arrived on the scene in 2006, the Eagle morphed into a daily newspaper. It was just another in a long line of changes that included turning the Eagle from a tabloid size newspaper, to a broadsheet and back again and the appearance and disappearance of the Marco Daily News.

Even after I took on a leadership role at the Eagle, the changes kept coming. We scaled the Eagle back to twice a week and we made room for a new Sunday feature news magazine, ETC. There’s the good – an issue devoted entirely too feel-good feature stories.

I feel as though cutting back to two issues a week was also a good decision – and an easy one. The advertisers and readers made it – whether they were aware of it or not. Seeing how businesses advertised and monitoring daily pick-up gave us a good idea about what you liked and what you didn’t like. You unanimously said Wednesday and Friday. As we near our one-year anniversary with this print schedule, I feel as though we are in a good place; thanks to you.

Now it’s time for us to take our relationship a step further. We’ve been flirting for a long time, and I believe it’s time for our first real date. A little get-to-know-you, were we can speak openly as friends, with mutual respect. A place where any question is appropriate and honest, straightforward answers expected and deserved.

Like any first date, I expect to answer a lot of questions. Likewise, I plan to ask you some questions. Your likes, dislikes. Maybe even your favorite color.

I hope this date brings us even closer than before. I want this to be the first of many exciting evenings we’ll share together.

See you at 6:30 p.m. at Orion Bank. If you can’t make it, you can always call me or e-mail me at the contact listed in the front of this newspaper and let me know how you’re feeling.