leebarnfield

Would it be a good idea to showcase some local talent in the area.  There are loads of hidden 'stars' who excel in industry, sports, music etc. that people probably either never realised what they did or that they live in the area.

Just in case you missed it on Facebook and Twitter......
SANTA'S BACK!

Can always sort you out with a go on one..... ;)
 
 

The project is actually a material that has PV fibres in weft and battery fibres in warp.  It generates and stores its own power.
 
In answer to your question you could have PV windows and greenhouses.

Poor little orphan Beeches avenue :(

There are a few of us Unltd folk, as mention in HERE

Fine example of community spirit there guys.  Well done and thank you.

I think we all need to be aware that Lee pays for the site out of his own pocket, (server, domain, licenses)  and also spends time making sure no nasty stuff gets onto the site.  We all appreciate what he does as a valuable service to the villages but business advertising on the site doesn't go near what it costs).  It looks like a professionally run thing from an organisation, but there is no financial or other support.  It's won prizes too!

Fantastic evening. Well done Keith Allum and Sue Schofield for all your hard work.

Thanks for the update Sue.
 
Very best wishes to Nick, hoping for a speedy recovery and back home soon.

I have just had a thought about this......
 
It's Community Online's 2nd Birthday on the 12th of October and I was planning a little event to mark the occasion.  It would be open to anyone who wants to come along.....  but what if we specifically put out an invite to UnLtd and the projects it has supported in the area?  Maybe people could do a little presentation to showcase what they have been doing, and possibly and opportunity to discuss any future ideas of support/funding.
 
It would also be an opportunity to put names to faces, meet and greet etc.

Brilliant archery session this morning - thanks to Nic Pickles and helpers.
Sports hall tomorrow and Thursday at 10.00 - 12.00 followed by swimming at 2.00 both sessions £2.

CIRCUS SKILLS FRIDAY 10.00 - 12.00. Ages 8+ FREE.

My daughter had a fab time on Wednesday, thank you.  She's looking forward to Archery on Tuesday (and bringing a friend  :) !!).

One for you Simple Simon??

Is the questionnaire a yes/no type thing?  I might be able to make it into a poll on Community Online.  Will the results be accepted from this website WAYNE?

Hi Lee,
 
       I am a Unltd award winner, just now rolling out practical photography courses for beginners. Im trying to give people who find it hard to get time for themselves (carers) and the older members out there. new hobbies so that they can get out and enjoy new things. First course is being held in St Martins Centre starting Monday April the 8th 10-1pm. everyone welcome, bring your camera along or hire a dslr cmera to use, limited supply. 5 week block course, can guarantee it will be a fun and easy going course.

I think I also put forward the idea, following the fact that you cannot get your car tax from the village Post Office, to make a big thing about helping people do their car tax online at the Institute.  Get them in the door, sell them tea/coffee and a cake :)

I had a similar idea.....  once you have people there make the most of them.  Tea/Coffee etc.  I did also mention that Weston Rhyn would have qualify for Village SOS but it seemed to fall on deaf ears.  Maybe its a bit optimistic but I had the idea of a Community Cafe, internet, tea/coffee, locally sourced produce, make use of the jungle to the side of the building for outdoor seating. 

I am going after an Unltd grant to develop an 'Incredible Edible' movement in the 3 parishes. This is a community action to plant food plants into unused areas of the villages (e.g. like Aqueducks and CRT planting fruit trees along the canal for all to use)  This can be anything from herbs in planters to fruit trees and vegetables in spare plots of land.  They are then for the use of the people who live there,  Part of the project is about linking us back to where our food comes from, and teaching children about how food grows, and what is safe to forage.  It should reduce food costs and of course food miles for us all and every little helps the planet.  It will enlarge the varieties available to those of us who already forage for blackberries and damsons in the autumn. 
 
If you want to know more have a look at this wonderful video from Incredible Edible Todmorden where it all started. http://www.ted.com/talks/pam_warhurst_how_we_can_eat_our_landscapes.html
      There is a facebook page for Incredible Edible in Shropshire http://www.facebook.com/IncredibleEdibleShropshire    I need to get a group together, so can you respond here if you are interested or have ideas.  I won't be contacting anyone officially for permissions until the money comes through for obvious reasons, but we can all make a start now, thinking about what would be possible.     Lets Make this another successful project from Community Online

I assume that is because Gobowen is on the Oswestry exchange and they are being upgraded to BT infinity.
 
We over in Weston Rhyn are coming off the Chirk exchange and I think they still have women plugging in wires to connect calls.
 
I used to find in Weston Rhyn the broadband speeds were very hit and miss, I was getting as low as 120k when the street not 50m away were getting 8mb at exactly the same time.

Our computer genius who runs this site also has other strings to his bow.  Watch this video to find out what he was doing last week in Sweden.
 
http://www.mdcstockholm.com/news/media/article/15

In response to the article, wouldn’t it be great if the sentence in the opening paragraph said, I have also learnt about the sterling work with the youth in this community. However, I don’t believe and I am not sure other people in the village believe that the Quinta should necessarily provide provisions for the youth in this village. I believe it is up to us alone to provide for our youth and invest in the communities’ future. Our youth will be the next Parish Council, the next Weston Rhyn Trust and the next Institute Committee.

I have a worked in various youth activities for over ten years and ran the youthclub in Weston Rhyn for the past four years. The fact that in those four years I have never met the author of this article I think speaks volumes and it appears that they have a somewhat naive idea of how a youth organisation operates. Weston Rhyn youthclub operated with a chairperson, secretary, a treasurer and youth workers all of which are CRB checked. The club was affiliated to the SYA and insured to protect the members and workers. We also got virtually no support from the local council and it also cost us around a £1000 a year to rent a space to run the club despite constant discrimination.

Is it easy to sit at home and think that something should be done in the community, maybe have a little rant, maybe even write an article in your local newsletter about it, but thinking that someone else will do it is not the way forward. I think this was my driving force behind community online and the community forum I created, the aim is that it will allow people to meet, to collaborate, to bring our community closer together and in some way hope that we can make a difference to the community in which we live and make it a better place for everyone.

This all of course requires one major component, that we as a Community make the choice to get out of our armchairs and actually do something in our own community. So my question goes out not just to the author of the article but to everyone....

What have YOU done to make a difference in YOUR Community?

Well said that man!
I know how hard the youth club committee, and Lee in particular, worked over the years to keep the youth club going, despite the lack of support from many in the village. I know how much work goes in to each application for funding, whether or not they are successful. No way is it 'just a couple of 18 year old girls' who are needed. Shropshire council do not give grants out for this sort of thing, other than via the LJC, which has supported the youth club in the past, but nowhere near the levels of funding needed to cover room hire (£1000 from Stute plus various amounts for supposed damage caused by the youth club), Insurances, activities etc etc. It is a bit late in the day for the Quinta to offer use of its facilities to the youth club, maybe this should have been done a few years ago; one costly problem in Weston Rhyn is that transport is needed to get young people to many activities because Weston Rhyn has few local facilities. Mr Bullen seems to have a very naive idea about what is needed to get a youth club running and even more naive idea that there is a plentiful supply of money sitting in 'the council' just waiting to be asked for... I wish! Many of us have supported the fundraising activities in the village over the years, such as a race night, Victorian Fair, etc etc. all of which have taken hours and hours of organizing. The youth club committee were very successful in getting grants too, But in the end it was all too much and the youth club folded this summer. It is my belief that if there had been more support from the village, and the Stute committee in particular, then we would still have a youth club, however, if Mr Bullen manages to get a youth club going again then I will also support his efforts via any fundraising activities etc he plans. Weston Rhyn village should support all its citizens, and that includes the sometimes stroppy teenagers. (I'd be more than stroppy if I was still young and stuck without transport with nothing to do in such an anti-youth village).

Neo,

Fantastic idea, this kind of project ticks a lot of potential funding boxes. Nice idea to get local experts to join the project, this kind of community interaction is a funding gold star.

Sophsmiler - Go for it. Pitch this idea to Andy from UnLtd and see how you get on. Good Luck

:)
Lets all raise a glass (or in my case a cup of tea) to the continuing success of Community Online, and to prove to the world how well Lee, and also all of us who use this site, has done then read this research report from Networked Neighbourhoods. It looked at the viability of online networks in places around England, and is partly the results of online questionnaires. You might remember responding to one several months ago, in which case see if you can spot your responses in the report! Anyhow Community Online comes out with an almost glowing report (although some responses to the questionnaire were negative but I am not sure how they could be sorted out, maybe other readers will have some ideas.).

This link takes you to the introduction and summary of the report from which you can download the full document.
It is well worth a read.

. http://networkedneighbourhoods.com/?p=1137