The Albert Lea Tribune office closes (or closed, depending on when you received your newspaper today) at 1 p.m. today.

Why? Because we are working on our Progress 2015 edition. You might ask yourself, “Why are they working on this so far in advance?”

It’s because Progress editions are that important to us. We take great care in generating ideas, direction and teamwork for the biggest issue of the year, a publication readers won’t receive until Feb. 22.

The building closes because we need all hands on deck. It’s not just the newsroom making a mountain of content. It’s not just selling and making eye-catching customer advertisements. Progress editions are heavy for carriers to carry. There is a lot of inserting and bundling for our mailroom staff do. There is a lot of follow-up work to do in accounting.

So the meeting allows everyone in the building to gather and come up with ideas for every other part of the building and to participate in teamwork exercises.

In fact, Albert Lea Fire Department Capt. Scott Hanna is coming in. He doubles as a motivator for workplaces. You will be able to read about our experience with Hanna in, you guessed it, Progress 2015.

Thank you for reading the Tribune, and thank you for understanding why we closed our doors this afternoon.