Last month, we heard that Ickenham Church News (ICN) needs various kinds of help. We emailed our members at the time but help is still needed. So, here’s the original plea from Felicity Davies, Rector of St Giles:

ALL GOOD THINGS… (AND WE NEED YOU TO MAKE THEM HAPPEN)

I believe it was Chaucer who wrote, “All good things come to an end” – a saying that my dad would regularly quote when he wanted us to stop playing some amazing game we’d invented, and get ourselves ready for bed.  Well, life has moved on in different ways for each one of the wonderful team who volunteers at the Ickenham Church News and all of the production team will be standing down at the end of this year with the publication of the Dec/Jan edition.  The ICN is definitely a good thing, named recently as one of the “50 Best Things about Ickenham”, and if you’re anything like me, you won’t want it to end.

We now need volunteers to keep the ICN going into 2019 and beyond.  In Sussex I was once told that I was ‘not like the last vicar’, and, quick as a flash, another parishioner turned to me and said, ‘no, but you bring us yourself, and that’s all we ask of you.’  And that’s all we ask of you.  So here’s what we need to keep the ICN going:

An Editor (could be an Editorial Team share) – editing copy (emails, Word files, pdfs) and images into an online document, and sending the print ready version to the printers. During 2018 this was set up to use Lucidpress, an online software, to make the role a lot simpler.The ability to use Word, email and be able to copy and paste is essential. Knowledge of a graphics package (SnagIt, Photoshop etc.) is useful.

An Advertising Assistant – a discrete part of the Advertising role – responsible for finding replacement advertisers as required (usually only a few and usually only annually – most recently done via Facebook) and for invoicing and collecting the money from all the advertisers (done annually).

A Forthcoming Events section editor – now that the Forthcoming Events are entered directly online, this is a discrete section of the editorial requiring a mail merge Word document to be edited into the online format for the printed ICN.

A ‘proof-reader’ – a close detail person who can work within ‘House Style’, check phone numbers and ensure that days/dates make sense as well as spelling and punctuation – this could be done in hard copy or directly online.

‘Copy’ i.e. your articles of local interest from both church and the wider community. If you have a club or team event, or are doing or know something of interest that would make a good story, do send in a few words (around 200-350 words or contact the editor for guidance if longer) and a picture for inclusion in the next ICN. Copy can be sent in anytime but needs to be sent to .

The ICN comes out six times a year: Dec/Jan, Feb/Mar, Apr/May, Jun/Jul, Aug/Sept, Oct/Nov.  It is a great place to showcase and share all that goes on in our community, so let’s continue to ‘big up’ Ickenham and celebrate the amazing achievements and activities that happen here.   If you would like to be part of a new ICN team, please contact John Miller (01895 904556) or Felicity Davies (01895 622970) to find out more.