Can you help Kirkstall in Bloom?

We’re a new local group looking for volunteers to help us beautify areas of Kirkstall. You don’t have to have green fingers to join, just bags of enthusiasm and an interest in improving Kirkstall.

If you are able to give as little as one hour a month, then we would love to hear from you! We have successfully received funding for two local projects and would welcome your help.

To join Kirkstall in Bloom or to find out more, email kirkstallinbloom@gmail.com of follow us on Twitter @kirkstallbloom

Further information can be found on http://www.london2012.com/torch-relay/

If you’d like to help us out with the website (is anyone a WordPress genius?) or anything else please let us know!

LUU video of Kirkstall Candidates

Have a watch and make sure you cast your vote tomorrow!

Use the parade to promote your group or organisation and have some fun. We would welcome any inquiries from disadvantaged or disability groups who would like to join us and take part. Its a great start to the festival and great fun to be a part of.

If you’d like to take part please contact John, the festival chairman, on jlivers_907@hotmail.com for more details.

(photo by Claire Cliff)

It’ll only take a couple of minutes to fill in, and its a great way to raise funds for your club or charity, and you’ll have thousands (yes, really!) of people passing your stall.

Please note that this is not for catering applications, which are fully subscribed this year (sorry!)

(photo by Mark Jaffe)

Kirkstall Educational Cricket Club is one of the most successful clubs in the Leeds area. We have two senior teams who play in the Airedale & Wharfedale Senior Cricket League, a T20 team which plays in the Headingley T20 league and we also have four junior teams playing in the Airedale Junior Cricket League at under 9s, under 11s, under 13s and under 15s age groups.

The Club is one of the oldest in Leeds. It was formed in 1853 and will celebrate it’s 160th anniversary next year. This season, it will be 155 years since the first game at our current home on Queenswood Drive- just a five minute walk from Headingley Stadium.

Senior matches take place on Saturday afternoons, starting at 1pm and T20 matches are played on Thursday evenings. Senior cricket training takes place every Tuesday night from 6pm, and Junior training starts at 6pm on Mondays throughout the season. New members are always welcome in either a playing or a supporting capacity.

The clubhouse has excellent bar and catering facilities and is available to hire for private functions and events.

If you are interested in joining the club or would like further information, please contact us at kecc1853@hotmail.com or telephone 077586 084539. You can also follow the club blog at http://kirstallfieldofdreams.blogspot.co.uk/ or our groundsman’s blog at http://hodgygroundsman.blogspot.co.uk/

The festival will be on Saturday 14th of July 2012 from 11am at Kirkstall Abbey. We hope to see you there!

We are proud to be where we are now, and it stands as a testament to all those who have been involved over the years.

It is often forgotten, however, that the magazine is produced and distributed entirely by volunteers, who give up their free time to play a part for their community. Many of these volunteers are the same people who help Kirkstall Festival to happen, or plant for Kirkstall In Bloom, or help represent our community to local developers. For many of them, the KVCA is only one part of their local involvement – they may be part of allotment associations, sports committees or other voluntary organisations. Of course they also have their personal lives, careers and families.

They do all of these things not because they are paid to, or are obliged to, or are expected to, but because they want to help our community to flourish.

Despite ongoing calls for help we still do not have the number of volunteers required to continue running the magazine along with the other interests of the association. In short, there are very few pairs of hands to achieve everything that we want. With the time that our volunteers spend on the magazine’s production and distribution we could achieve so much more.

The effort of the KVCA should be placed on finding the most effective way to achieve its core objective: “to promote the benefit of the inhabitants of Kirkstall and the neighbourhood and act as a pressure group on developments affecting Kirkstall”. It is therefore important that we assess whether we can accomplish more for our community by changing the way we engage with it.

Since the magazine was started in 1978 the way that we communicate has changed dramatically. The advent of the internet means that communication is wider and quicker than ever before and news can be delivered instantly. Our own website already has the ability for contributors to write articles directly into it, link these to Facebook and Twitter and gain responses from readers within minutes of it being published.

With such an effort being required to produce the physical magazine our website does suffer however, and it is noticeable that the postings on it are few and far between as time does afford us the ability to do both. We are therefore missing out on engaging with a very wide audience regularly and quickly.

We sometimes find that with KIRKSTALL MATTERS only being produced every 4 months it can sometimes be too late to react to an issue or article raised within it. Our most successful attempts at raising volunteer interest has been gained through electronic communication. By publishing local news, events, opportunities to get involved and articles to our website, everyone in our community can become a contributor, everyone can respond to what others say and everyone can become part of making Kirkstall a more active community.

Of course, not all our members have the internet, and we will need to look at how we can continue to engage with those that do not. However, for the majority this will be a more informative, timely and interactive way of communicating and the effort involved would be spread evenly throughout the year.

A weekly email would be sent to all subscribers which provides a summary of all recent postings and news, and could include a diary of upcoming events and meetings.

Anyone could submit news and articles at any time (although these are moderated to ensure they are appropriate), meaning that we always have an up-to-date view on our community, rather than a 4-monthly snapshot as with the magazine.

We could potentially continue to advertise local businesses on the website, to help raise some funds for KVCA running costs.

We could re-evaluate the need for membership subs as there would be very low associated print costs, attracting many new members who could get involved.

We love the printed version of KIRKSTALL MATTERS but without substantial help and a fully resourced team we need to assess if we can justify the effort required for its production and distribution.

Simon, Editor, KIRKSTALL MATTERS

This issue will be discussed at the KVCA meeting on 27th February at 8pm at Kirkstall Leisure Centre, or you can email us at editor@kirkstall.org.uk or write to us at Kirkstall Matters, 19 Norman Street, Leeds, LS5 3JN

These images will be printed and displayed at the festival in our Photo Forest, creating The People’s Exhibition of memories and experiences from the people of Leeds.

We need lots and lots of photos to go into the Photo Forest. Think about what you love, go and take a picture of it, repeat for as many times as you like, and send the pictures to us at tpeleeds@gmail.com. We’ll upload them to the blog at www.tpeleeds.blogspot.com and print them out to display in the Photo Forest. You’ll be included in the credits and retain all rights to your picture, don’t worry, we’re not vultures!

Organised by Kirsty Ware, who also did the People’s Exhibition at 2011 Light Night, the Kirkstall Festival Photo Forest will display your photos in an innovative setting in the festival grounds, its going to be incredible and we’d love your photos to be part of it – remember, your photos can be anything and everything!

(photo right by Dawn Cobe)