Who are We?

UpOurWay.com is the creation of SoftMedia Artisans, Inc., a software and web design company based in Hancock, Michigan. Your correspondent is Lynn Torkelson. In 1997, after working many years for various corporations, Constance Petersen (my dear wife and teammate) and I founded our own company, SoftMedia Artisans.

As it happens, I grew up on the shores of Lake Superior, and Constance on the shores of Lake Michigan. My great-grandparents met and married in Pequaming — which was then a far busier place than it is today!

Our professional lives took us south to Atlanta, but we always longed to return home. With the rapid explosion of the internet, we found ourselves able to pack up and follow our hearts. We moved to our present location near Dollar Bay on New Year's Day, 1999.

What's the Idea?

By the nature of our business, we've worked mainly with corporate and government clients. The internet has allowed us to work with clients from coast-to-coast and Alaska. But Constance and I are social beings too, and we've looked hard for opportunities to serve local businesses and organizations.

In fact, we had the idea for UpOurWay.com as far back as the year 2000, intending to develop the site in our spare time as a public service. But with work and family activities, spare time was hard to come by!

Why Now?

Two things changed this year for Constance and me.

• First, the youngest of our three sons has now flown the nest, so we've gained a bit more time to dedicate to special projects.
• Second, in my capacity as moderator of the (now-discontinued) discussion boards of KeweenawNow.com, I began to read a lot of posts concerning the government of Torch Lake Township — my township. And most of them were critical.

In the past, my involvement with local government was limited to serving on the election board in the Quonset hut at Point Mills, a duty that I deemed more than sufficient to discharge my civic responsibilites. I decided I needed to adjust my attitude and become a more responsible citizen.

Stepping Up to the Plate

To that end, we decided to stop procrastinating and bring UpOurWay.com to life. SoftMedia Artisans will host this site as an on-going public service.

We invite everyone to participate, and encourage people posting here to join in identifying and solving real problems in a cooperative manner. To the extent that this web site generates more light than heat, we will have succeeded.