Canon Patrick writes…
I would like to thank the many people who have made donations to support the parish magazine, in response to the envelope included with the February magazines. Donations are still coming in, but more than £2,700 has already been received, which is an excellent start.
But I need to make readers aware of two serious problems facing the Parish Magazine in the coming months.
WE NEED A NEW EDITOR – Derek Bush has done an excellent job of editing the magazine for many years, but it gets harder as you get older and Derek really must steep back from the role over this coming summer. He has already extended his time by several months. We have advertised for new editors several times and have had no response, so the situation is now becoming serious. The job is perfect for someone who is recently retired, has some basic IT skills and wants to engage more with the Lapworth community. By becoming editor, you can suddenly become a key contact for almost every group in the locality! So I feel we should be able to find a volunteer. Please suggest it to people you know. If we can’t find a volunteer, then it is likely the Lapworth PCC will have to pay someone to put the magazine together. Unfortunately, that would completely undermine the financial basis under which the magazine operates, and it is likely that a much small and simpler format would be needed. Please contact me with ideas and suggestions about new editors.
THE DEMISE OF MICROSOFT PUBLISHER – Derek has always used Microsoft Publisher to assemble the parish magazine, but from 1st October 2026 this will not be supported by Microsoft and it will be necessary to use other software. Microsoft promote MS Word as suitable for an 80-page magazine, but it sounds challenging to me. People have recommended Canva and Scribus, but I don’t know anything about these. I’d be very pleased to hear from people with experience of producing magazine style documents with these products.
So let’s pray that we can find a magazine editor. Let’s talk about it with our friends and see who might be interested. And let’s find a way forward.