Ever thought of becoming a citizen journalist? How about joining roster at AM Mayor News?

FROM THE ARMCHAIR NEWS — A note of sincere thanks to those who have hit the Donate button and supported The Armchair Mayor News in the past couple of weeks. Your help is sincerely appreciated.

Please be assured your contributions go towards the operation of The Armchair News and not towards dinner and drinks for The Armchair Mayor.

Word of mouth is also greatly appreciated — it’s the only form of advertising we’ve got. I was in town today and several people — passing on the street, in the coffee shops or in offices — made positive comments about the blog and that’s encouraging. The number of views has increased steadily and that’s because people are telling others about it.

This blog is a living thing and evolves day to day, week to week. Perfection doesn’t happen instantly. I try things, often scrap them quickly, then try something else.

While I attempt to fill this blog with items of interest and opinions on a variety of issues I know there’s much more that could be done.

We’re getting a good roster of contributors: people like Michele Young, Daniela Ginta, Dan and Jody Spark, Jack Knox, David Charbonneau and Peter Tsigaris. And we’re gradually honing contacts with community groups, too.

There’s a lot of writing involved in trying to reflect the community. What if The Armchair Mayor News was to become a collective of community contributors, people who care about Kamloops and like to write or would like to try their hand at writing?

Do you belong to a community group that is planning an event or is working on a project? Could you write an article about it for The Armchair Mayor News?

Do you read books, go to the movies or the theatre or concerts? Would you be interested in writing reviews of what you read and see?

What about your perspective of community issues — political, social, educational?

Maybe you’re planning on attending an event The Armchair Mayor News just can’t get to and you’d consider providing a report for the blog on what happened.

Are there stories or aspects of stories you’d like to see written about? What if I acted as the co-ordinator and we came up with a game plan for a particular story and assigned certain contributors to do various aspects of it and put it all together in a way that would really inform the community?

That’s the way we used to do it at The Kamloops Daily News, by the way. We’d brainstorm and pick out a topic we felt needed to be done in depth. Then I’d develop a strategy and a timetable for researching, writing and editing it.

Sometimes it took weeks, sometimes even months but if you remember our Ajax series, or the one on the pine beetle, or the one on rural healthcare as just a few examples, that’s the kind of thing I mean.

Or maybe it’s just an event that really needs to be covered, or a current issue that can be done in a day or two, or by tomorrow morning. Every story is different and every one needs a different approach.

At this point, unfortunately, I’m not in a position to pay you for your efforts except with warm and fuzzies but maybe something more than that will come later as we build community support.

If you’re interested in helping grow The Armchair Mayor News, please do let me know, at armchairmayor@gmail.com, or with a call at my home at 250-579-8592.

— Mel.