The Viewpoint team holds a special evening to thank everyone
by Yvonne Hill
Photos supplied by Roger Hill
On Saturday 4 th February, the Viewpoint team held a social evening to bring together contributors of the Viewpoint column and to s ay thank you for their articles. The Rev Linda Ricketts very kindly allowed them to use the St Mary Magdalene’s Church Hall. Linda, Susan and Pat laid on a most enjoyable buffet.
Sadly a lot of people were unable to make it which, we believe, was partly due to the bad weather. However, those of us who were there enjoyed some good conversation as well as the buffet.
Rev Peter Paine welcomed everyone and thanked them for coming and for writing for the column. He also thanked, Anne Edwards, the editor of the Yarmouth Mercury and he presented her with some flowers. If it wasn’t for Anne, then there wouldn’t be the opportunity for Christians to write and to have published their thoughts and views in the local paper.
Peter gave account of the financial problems that BWCF is facing and how much is needed to keep everything running including the office. If some of the larger churches could either pay £60 a year or even £5 per month it would be a great help. He said that if the smaller churches  could pay £30 a year or even if a special collection, yearly, it would make such a difference.
Chairman Rev Peter Paine
Network Yarmouth was shown on screen and St Mary Magdalene was used as an example of how the churches can be advertised and how they can link their own websites into the page.
Judith Edmonds, who is the Administrator for BWCF, a webmaster for Network Yarmouth and co-editor for the Viewpoints column, spoke about the web and presented a list on screen showing the web hits during the last year. She pointed out that the hits began with just over 6,500 back in January 2007 but has since grown to over 65,000.
Yvonne Hill, who is also co-editor for the Viewpoint column, a webmaster and a news journalist for Network Yarmouth and Faith representative for GYP, spoke about the Viewpoint.
Judith Edmonds
Yvonne pointed out that back in 2007 she was asked to do a news report at a meeting that was being held at Christchurch. At that time she didn’t know anything about the Viewpoint or for that matter what the meeting was about! However, somehow she ended up becoming a memb  er of the new team that was being set up.
The new team helped make what the Viewpoint is today. They devised a system which means that there is a different writer for each week of the year. This requires good organisation. The Rev Peter Paine agreed to become the chairman and is a valuable member of the team. Sadly the team became smaller leaving just Roger and Yvonne Hill, however, Judith was approached and we were pleased to welcome her on board. Roger is responsible for taking photographs for Network Yarmouth and also for the Viewpoint if re  quired. He also makes a great cup of tea at the meetings which are held in the Hill’s home in Hopton. This team, although small, do work very well together
Yvonne Hill
These meetings occur on a monthly basis and begin with a prayer before and after. The team prays for all writers, for Anne, the work of the co-editors and also for the readers. It was pointed out that people of all faiths, or no faith at all, read these articles. Yvonne said that every word written is precious, because no one knows exactly who reads them or
Yvonne Hill, Anne Edwards and Margaret Bazely
what their circumstances are. These words sometimes give people a lift in one way or another and we know that for certain because we get feedback. Yvonne mentioned her neighbour who has rung up and said
how much they enjoyed reading a particular article and also letters have been put through the church letterbox. The team works very well together both for Network Yarmouth and the Viewpoint column.
Yvonne said that we urgently need to recruit new team members and how nice it would be to have some young people involved (please see end for d  etails). She said that if for some reason she or Judith could no longer run the Viewpoint or even the website then it would all come to an end.
She finished by saying that if BWCF should fold up then it would be a big loss to the Christian community and this is because it is a vital communication tool which brings everything and everyone together.
The Viewpoint is also published on the website and we get feedback sometimes from other countries. On behalf of the team, Yvonne thanked all the writers and also Anne Edwards as without her we would not have the opportunity to reach out to people in the community.
Peter mentioned that we would like to have so me articles for our back-up bank which although they don’t have a particular date to be published, they can be used if for some reason we don’t have an article. He stressed that they would not sit in the bank for longer than 3 months. If there was no emergency or need to use them, then they would be published on the website. At the moment the bank is empty and has been for a long time.
The team would like to thank the Rev Linda Ricketts and her ladies for the buffet and for allowing the church hall to be used.
May God bless all of our writers and those who read the Viewpoint column
JOB DESCRIPTION FOR THE VIEWPOINT COLUMN IN THE MERCURY
Sub-editor
All that you need is to have a computer at hand with a few basic skills such  as email. But more than anything you need to have a burning desire to assist in doing God’s work.
The team creates a list with all information around about August. On this list, at the present time, it is broken up into slots of 3 month periods which the two co-editors work on alternatively for each slot. Judith usually sends out mailings to ask the people on the list if they are willing to write for us. This list, once it has been completed, becomes a very important tool to work from.
It is the responsibility of the sub-editor to make sure that they follow the list and the dates in order to make sure that the articles come in on the deadline date as listed on the list. If you haven’t received it then it may be necessary to make a phone call or send an email reminder.
Once you have received the Viewpoint then it is sent to the Mercury Editor, Anne Edwards, one week before the publication date. It is really easy and once you get into the routine it really doesn’t take up much time at all.
We are certain that the Lord is with us in this work and that there is a blessing involved.
The Bank
This is very simple but very important! What we need is someone to collect about 6 articles from people they know or even to ring around the churches to ask for writers. We place these articles in the bank as back-up in case we have a problem. We will always use these Viewpoints if not in the Mercury then on the Network Yarmouth website. And we will always inform the writer where and when it will be published.
If you are able to attend the monthly meeting then that would be wonderful but we can be flexible with regards to the time.
There is the opportunity to progress and to train as a sub-editor and even possibly a webmaster or reporter.
If you feel that you would like to become involved then please contact one of the following people and we will do everything we can to support you:-
We are a team who work together, pray with one another and quite often we even have a good time together! But the one thing we consider to be the most important is that we love the Lord Jesus and we want to do his work.
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