A statement from the
Have Your Say committee
Moving Forward
As reported in the last issue, Have Your Say Magazine is currently going through some changes, the biggest being the retirement of our long standing editor, Kath Bates, in early January.
In order to replace Kath the magazine needs to recruit new volunteers to take on the many roles Kath has performed over the last twelve years. Unfortunately we have struggled to find enough willing volunteers to fulfil the necessary roles and so we announced that this issue (35) may be the final issue of Have Your Say.
Since then we have been offered a glimmer of hope, both local regeneration company New East Manchester and Adactus Housing have shown great interest in our plight. As a result of this New East Manchester have kindly awarded a grant, which allows us to employ an expert consultant to work with the Have Your Say management committee in the hope that the magazine can continue.
The committee have chosen to work with consultant David Hierons, who has a record of success in securing funding for similar community projects, and over the next few months he will be helping the Have Your Say team to increase our volunteering base and develop our fundraising strategies.
As we go to print we are in the process of organising a volunteering event to invite local people to meet the Have Your Say team and to learn about the benefits of volunteering with the magazine. We hope that this event will secure enough new volunteers to help produce the next issue of the magazine.
Next Issue
While there are no guarantees, we remain hopeful that Have Your Say will continue in some form. Currently we have enough funds to pay for at least one further issue. However, whatever happens the management committee have agreed that this will not be produced until Autumn 2011, giving us plenty of time to work on fund raising and recruiting volunteers.
We thank you for your continued interest, and as ever would love to hear from you if you are able to volunteer some of your time to work with Have Your Say.