My name is Paul Wade and I volunteer on 'Bishop Monkton Today'.

I do it because I find it a very rewarding experience to see my articles published and am amazed at the number of people who are kind enough to read them. It is also nice to be part of a supportive and capable team. My time contribution is around ten hours a month.

I also believe that BMT makes a genuinely valuable contribution to village life. Given that the statistics tell us that a high proportion of Bishop Monkton residents read it regularly, it would appear that our many readers seem to think that it does form a crucial information channel on important village issues and is a great way of promoting and reporting on local events. It would be safe to say that, if it were not here, it would be missed.

'Bishop Monkton Today' has had the benefit of involvement from two experienced and very capable senior journalists - for many years Richard Field and for the last five years Colin Philpott, who has been Editor for a year. They have both worked very hard on BMT and maybe that gives the impression that, in order for anyone to contribute to our website, you need to be both an experienced journalist and be prepared to commit half of your life to it. Neither is true.

Colin has decided to step down as Editor because of pressure of other commitments and we think that, for the website to be sustainable even in the medium term, we need at least two more people to help on the news and events pages. In principle we do have a new editor. Glenda Hunter, who has been assisting Colin for the last year, has agreed to take overall responsibility, but she cannot do it without further support.

Without such support the continuation of the website as a whole would not be viable and it would have to go into hibernation at the end of May this year.

So we need some help. Not a huge amount but just enough to make a difference. You do not have to be a journalist or have any previous experience (as you can probably tell from my articles!) to become part of the team.

It really is a genuinely interesting, rewarding and valuable thing to do. If you feel you can give a few hours every week please contact either myself, Colin or Glenda via email