The Blog Team would like to thank Mike and Kevin for all their work and support in the creation and development of our Blog site, parwich.org.
A changing Team
In 2007 there was a meeting to discuss ways of communicating the plans for developing a website to help communicate the progress of the planned new Memorial Hall. The possibilities of a traditional static website and a new fangled idea of a community blog were considered. Mike A was an experience blogger and he convinced everyone of the potential of a blog, though perhaps even he did not realise all the directions it could possibly take. At that meeting it was agree to set up two sites, a community blog and a more traditional static site for material that would not fit easily into a blog.
A very real advantage of blogging software is that it creates a site that can be administered by a group rather than requiring one person managing all up loading. Further it allows people to participate without extensive knowledge of HTML, the coding used in web design. Mike set about teaching a group of us how to use the blogging software. In early 2008 parwich.org was launched.
Although Mike has always been our technical advisor, and has kept an over view of the Blog to ensure a consistent appearance, he has always encouraged us to work as a team of equals where each person has an equal say. Also he has encouraged us to maintain a blog that is responsive to our readers and contributors.
Within months we had an active community blog run by a community based team, which at the time was unique in Britain. As we learned to blog, the more traditional static site became redundant and is now no longer required. It has since been recognised by national groups and cited as an example of good practice. Other groups have come to us for advice in setting up their own blog, and the local press and TV follow us. Even the Archers’ script writers keep an eye on what we do.
It has not always been an easy ride, and trying to cover controversial issues such as the closing of the Shop has not always gone completely smoothly. However even controversy, an occasional troll and a lot of hard work has only seen parwich.org go from strength to strength. Mike has always put a lot of thought into dealing with any difficulties, and it is in no small part due to him that our changing team has always (eventually) reached a consensus over the last six years. Kevin, as well as contributing exceptional photographs, has also been there at difficult times with balanced advice.
Mike’s final work for the Blog “A New Section on parwich.org: Posts of Note” is perhaps a very good marker for all that has been achieved over the last six years.
The active Blog Team is now at its smallest, consisting of Emma Spence, Fiona Hadfield and Peter Trewhitt, so we are very pleased to announce that Lucy Maddocks is to join the Team. However as Mike has been handing over his work to the rest of the Team we are only now realising how much time he has contributed week after week.
Mike has offered to continue to be on the other end of an email or a phone, and we expect to take him up on that offer relatively frequently.
As a Team we would like to thank Kevin and Mike again and wish them all the best in Knaresborough (when all the formalities are completed, hopefully it does not take too long.)
PARWICH.ORG 
Thank you for those very kind words, team. After six years of continuous, almost daily involvement with the blog, taking a back seat is going to feel very strange; I’m already having to resist the urge to scan the Hotmail Inbox for new emails, and to approve new comments as they come through.
When Kevin and I first came up with the idea of running a village blog, I had already been heavily involved in the blogging world for six years, and so I thought I was something of an expert on the medium. How naive I was! As this post points out, we were literally the very first village in the UK to attempt a frequently updated, fully participative community blog, and so there was no road map, no example to follow, and no option other than to learn on the job. And although there were plenty of examples of online “communities” before ours, these were only “virtual” communities, not flesh-and-blood, bricks-and-mortar communities. As I eventually learnt – perhaps rather too slowly – there are huge differences between the two, when it comes to administering your website smoothly and successfully.
I’ve also learnt a lot about teamwork in the last six years. At the risk of sounding too self-congratulatory – never a good look! – I think the blog team has worked together remarkably well. We might start from differing viewpoints, but what we’re really good at is listening to each other’s opinions, taking them on board, and patiently working towards a consensus decision. I’ve worked in plenty of teams during my professional career, and I’ve sat through goodness-knows how many ghastly courses on “effective team building”! – but the Parwich blog team has outdone them all. Long may it continue to do so!