You can learn a lot about your neighbors simply by sitting down and talking to them, face to face.

Here at the Valley Record, we’ve found that you can discover a lot about the local men and women that make a difference without a press-conference setting, long list of questions or the distraction of a driving ‘hot-button’ issue.

We recently started a series of informal conversations with folks making a difference in this Valley — in schools, government, business, churches, civic groups and so on.

We call these conversations ‘Coffee with.’ Their purpose is to ditch the formality of a traditional interview and to get to know the people shaping the Valley.

Our second installment, which you can read in Friday’s Snoqualmie Valley Living, is a chat with Craig Husa, the recently-appointed Snoqualmie Valley School District board member.

In our first installment of ‘Coffee With’ in the March issue of Living, we sat down for coffee with Snoqualmie Mayor Matt Larson at Isadora’s Books and Cafe.

Chats can reveal the unexpected. How many people know, for example, that Larson is an accomplished sketch artist, or that North Bend Mayor Ken Hearing played a guitar in high school? Thanks to our “Coffee with” session, we learned that Husa was once in charge of a nuclear submarine’s propulsion system.

Chats are good for more than trivia. Getting to know local officials, comprehensively learning their views, background and the experiences that shaped them benefit us all. Larson, for example, moved to Snoqualmie because of its urban design. Defending that design was why he got involved in city government.

Look for our ‘Coffee With’ sessions to continue in the months ahead. Chances are, you’ll learn something about a local figure that you never would have guessed and get a better understanding of the people shaping your community.

• William Shaw is publisher of the Snoqualmie Valley Record. E-mail him at wshaw@valleyrecord.com.