Submitting photographs to the Finchley Arrow – new instructions.

Taking photographs to send to the Finchley Arrow

For the time being, please do not zoom in too close to your subject as we have to position the main aspect of the photographs a certain way because of technical problems with our new website which will go “live” within the next week or two. Try also to take some of them in landscape mode.

Preparing your photograph prior to sending in to the Finchley Arrow.

Please don’t crop or reduce your photograph in any way. Our photo-editor will lighten, darken or crop your photograph to enhance it to give you, and us, credit for the picture.

Renaming your photograph.

We would, however, be very grateful if you could rename your photograph from the camera given jumble of letters and numbers to something describing the subject of the picture.

How we exchange photographs within the Finchley Arrow

We use Dropbox a lot on the newspaper as it is the simplest way of sending photographs and files within our newspaper. You can get a free account and, by using the following link, you will get not only the usual free 2GB of cloud storage, but an extra bonus of 256MB of extra storage. Link for free bonus: http://db.tt/OMxK6vW

 

As soon as we have managed to fix the problem of our website, we will let you all know, and we can get back to normal.

UPDATE: Finchley Arrow changes – the time line is rapidly reducing.

The Finchley Arrow address now bypasses the old website and goes directly into the newspaper if you live in the Finchley Area. We do get ex-Finchleans living overseas and it can take up to 24 hours for the change to register on all the world’s servers, but the old site will remain in place for those whose servers haven’t changed, at least for a couple of days.

We are working behind the scenes on the new website and the work is going at such a rapid speed that we will be able to reduce the proposed launch date of the end of August to definitely by the end of July.

Thanks to Chris Lockie, who is coming rapidly up to speed with Drupal 7, it could go “live” even earlier. Time will tell.

A big thanks to all our uncomplaining readers for your patience but it will be worth the wait.

The Finchley Arrow want to help their competitors

You may like to know that there is a link on the front page to all the newspapers in Finchley on the Finchley Community website.

The Finchley Arrow, The Finchley Times, The Finchley Press and The Archer.

You may want to bookmark the Finchley Community website (www.finchleycommunity.co.uk) as that could be very useful for you if you are searching for something in particular and want to see what is written in all the local newspapers. In addition to this, there is a link to the Finchley Arrow at the bottom of every page on that website.

To be honest, this is not so much about helping our competitors as helping our residents, and small business, which is what we are all about!

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July events and the July Editorial are now published

The events have moved temporarily, but there is a link for you on the 3-Events page above.

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Changes to the Finchley Arrow throughout July.

The following is an email I sent out recently to everybody who has added their email address in the “Keep in the Loop” section of the Finchley Arrow and we have published it here so everyone can see what is happening

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There are going to be a few changes in July and I will explain below.

First, our web hosts for the Finchley Arrow will come to the end at some time on the 3rd of July so, from the 2nd of July, we will redirect, automatically everybody who clicks on the FinchleyArrow.co.uk address to the WordPress part of our newspaper, you will just lose all the “verbose” instructions for now. To read the newspaper, just click on the Finchley Arrow address as normal, the only difference is, it will take you directly into the actual newspaper.

The Finchley Community website is now fully operational – there may be a few kinks so, if you are willing, we would love you to take a look around and let us know if you find anything wrong, anything you can improve upon, or any suggestions for new information we can add about Finchley. My week, Monday to Saturday 10am to 6pm is now almost all taken up with both websites and this is all voluntary. If you could see fit to help – it shouldn’t take more than a quarter of an hour – I’d be grateful as I sometimes find it hard to see the wood for the trees. I will be 72 on the 19th of July, so it would be a nice present for me if you could do this by that date! I’ll pour myself a drink for everyone who does this 🙂

The footer of the new Finchley Community website appears on every page and we have included a large size link on it for the Finchley Arrow. This means that you can just use the Finchley Community address all the time if you wish. One benefit on this website is we also have links to The Archer in East Finchley and both local commercial papers, the Hendon and Finchley Times, and the Barnet and Finchley Press. So, in one place you can search for anything happening in Finchley. We don’t mind our competition and have included them all to make life easier for everyone in Finchley.

One of the things we will lose is the Keep in the Loop facility to send these messages. we will, once we have the new Finchley Arrow site up and running later in July, be able to re-instate some form of reminder.

I have made a copy of these addresses and will mail you once we are familiar with the new site. Until then you can add your address on the newspaper site for a reminder when an article is published for a few weeks and see whether you think it is obtrusive or not. When my next email arrives, we will have ceased using the WordPress site so you won’t get any more reminders there – but we will keep the site open for the back issues of articles.

Please don’t hesitate to phone me on 020-8020 3904 or 0794-162 2401 if there is anything you need clarification on. Best between 10am and 6pm.

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Six little hints, tips or snippets the editor has found useful over the years.

When driving in a traffic jam
If there is nothing you can do about it and you are going to be late for work, miss the train, or whatever – tell yourself there is absolutely nothing to do about it. After all, there is nothing you can do about it, is there? Then just relax. You’ll feel better, no matter how important the journey is. And when you arrive there, you’ll be far more able to deal with any problems being late has thrown up.

When working in London or other major city
Go in half to three-quarters of an hour earlier and call in to a local coffee bar and have a coffee and read the newspaper. Then, as you walk into the office on time, and on time every morning, (a) you will be noticed by your boss as always being punctual and (b) you will be totally relaxed having travelled on the “devil-tube” so much earlier. A bonus is, if there is a rail hold-up, you might miss your coffee, but you’ll still be on time.

Why purchase a Kindle?
Apart from the thousands of free books on the Internet, it is so convenient to carry, and so easy to read on the train – you can choose the size of the text. One book at only 86p is “Free books for Kindle: The secrets of how to get the world’s greatest books for a radical price [Kindle Edition] by Chris Graham. He shows how you can get all those books at hundreds of different websites on the Internet. I am reading all those classics again. Aristotle, Ulysses, The history of Zen, The beginning of the Roman Empire, Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe and dozens more. Yes, there are also crime, romances and other types of books. In addition you can read the books on a Kindle App on your smartphone, and also sync them with your Kindle so you are always at the right place.

Giving back to society
This is not as bad as it sounds. It can be money, if you are well off, or it can be time if you aren’t. All through my life I have given something back. I am not very good with the sick and infirm, but I can still do my bit. I have been on the committee of the old Finchley Chamber of Commerce when it used to meet at Avenue House, this was decades ago. I have been members of clubs and societies either on the committee, even as chairman, or willing to take any job on and help. This is what I can do, so I have always wanted to “do my bit”. You can do things for the country, or just for your local community. I have been, in the past, on the National Executive Committee of a political party (without pay), or have helped in my local community. At the moment, at 72, I haven’t stopped and run the local community newspaper and am building up a one stop website for the local Town, history, societies, small business, contacts etc. And it feels good, makes me feel I am a whole person. Try it.

Do you accept cheques?
At the time of writing, banks are cancelling and withdrawing cheque guarantee cards (CGC), so whether or not any card states it is a CGC, it isn’t so if you accept cheques from strangers, just be aware.

Proof-reading by yourself
This may not help with the spelling inconsistencies, but it will help, not only with your grammar, but with the flow of your words to a reader. Go into a room by yourself, close the door, sit down with a pencil, and read through your letter, article or whatever you have written, but read it extremely loudly. Any bad flow of words, or bad grammar will immediately become apparent. Try it, it works.

I will try and continue this over the months to follow. However, at 72 it is sometimes difficult to remember something until I can write it down. I recently reread Sir Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe. The last and first time I read it was when I was six years old. I remembers nearly all of it. Now I find it difficult to remember what I did yesterday. I blame a life of alcohol and debauchery myself!

If you have little simppets I could add to the list, please email them to Andrew.Taylor@FinchleyArrow.co.uk and add your full name if you would like me to credit you with the snippet.

Andrew Ampers Taylor

As Tennessee Ernie Ford once sung: “Another month older and deeper in work”

Or was it “Another day older and deeper in debt”? No matter as what I am trying to say is, it is the end of May and I have just posted June’s editorial to 1 Editorial which you can find right at the top of the page. Whilst I am in “reminder” mode, remeber, I posted the June events a few days ago at 3 Events, also along the top of this page.

It could be argued that this is nothing to do with Finchley – but it could be!

In fact, it affects all of us.

The following video was shown to a Sony Annual Shareholder Meeting in 2009. I have only just come across it and am still undecided as to whether it is exciting, or frightening. But of one thing I am sure of, the information contained within the video affects us all, whether in Finchley UK, Finchley in the USA, Finchley in India or Finchley in China.

The end of another month – a tale of Finchley and Zululand – and why this is relevant for our Community

April is coming to an end, this is the last day of a three day week, which reminded me of the three day weeks when I was a young man – so long ago!

Anticipating an invite to “The Wedding” on Friday – it might have got lost in the post – I finished my editorial a few days early, and Pam also hurried through getting the events up. If the postie can’t find these pesky invitations, we’ll have to watch it on television like everyone else!

Over two billion people around the world will be watching on Friday. That is a third of the world’s population. There is something very positive about this. That is, a third of the peoples on this planet now have electricity and television. I am not too sure if the latter is a good thing to celebrate, but the former certainly is. Let us hope, by the time “Wills” is crowned King, over half of the world will have electricity!

Come along to our editorial this Sunday, full details in 1 Editorial at the top of the page. We are a friendly bunch and you will be made to feel right at home.

I will end with an illustration of what Ubuntu means. Not the computer operating system, the African word which is the same in both the Xhosa and Kwa-Zulu languages. It is a difficult word to describe and it has taken Bishop Tutu 149 words to describe it below:

“Ubuntu is a concept that we have in our Bantu languages at home. Ubuntu is the essence of being a person. It means that we are people through other people. We can’t be fully human alone. We are made for interdependence, we are made for family. Indeed, my humanity is caught up in your humanity, and when your humanity is enhanced mine is enhanced as well. Likewise, when you are dehumanized, inexorably, I am dehumanized as well. As an individual, when you have Ubuntu, you embrace others. You are generous, compassionate. If the world had more Ubuntu, we would not have war. We would not have this huge gap between the rich and the poor. You are rich so that you can make up what is lacking for others. You are powerful so that you can help the weak, just as a mother or father helps their children.”

Andrew Ampers Taylor

Dive in – the waters warm

Stop standing on the sidelines, become involved with our community. If you feel you are not able to help old, blind or infirm people (my wife is able to do this but alas I can’t do it) but you still want to contribute to your community, why not consider working for your community newspaper? If you have writing or administrative skills it could be “your way” of helping make Finchley strong as a community.

There are several ways you can get involved and help The Finchley Arrow, first we’ll mention ways you can help, even without becoming involved. There are:

Tell a friend If you like our newspaper, don‘t keep it to yourself, pass it on.

Link to us Displaying a link to The Finchley Arrow on your website or blog is one of the easiest ways you can help us. The more traffic we can generate, the more influential we will become.

Submit a comment Many of the articles on our blog allow you to comment. We want to create a vibrant forum for local debate. To ensure a lively exchange of views, please keep your comments short, to the point, and avoid gratuitous insults! And, don’t forget our Forum, this is an excellent place for discussing ideas about Finchley.

Send us a donation We can always use a little money to help towards leaflets (we need to constantly leaflet drop to keep people reading our newspaper). And, of course, there are other costs involved such as printing, telephones and all the other items involved in running a non-profit organisation.

If you don’t want to part with your hard-earned money, we can understand, but there is another way you can help our funds without it costing you a single penny! Full details on how to do this are found in our newspaper.

Submit an article We welcome articles on a broad range of issues about Finchley. Opinion pieces are no more than 500 words, feature articles no more than 1000. Articles are strictly on merit and are usually edited. Please remember we are non-partisan political and we avoid religious matters. Come to one of our editorial meetings, active participation is the true sign of a healthy local newspaper.

Finally, if you want to become physically involved, and we are always looking for volunteers, you can join us and  choose a voluntary position on The Finchley Arrow that best reflects your talents. Most jobs only take a handful of hours each month, at first, and shrink as you get used to whatever it is you choose to do. Our voluntary positions are only a guide to give you an idea as when you join us, we will fit what you do around your own skills, and wishes as to what you really would like to do. We are extremely flexible and once we work this out, we will write a job description so we both know what we expect of each other.

We are particularly looking for skills such as the ability to write, the ability to research using the Internet and following up using the telephone, free time to attend council meetings or magistrate courts, attend events to write them up for the newspaper, sales ability to approach business leaders for contributions, the talents we can use are endless and we’ll create a job around yours.

You can telephone Andrew on 0794-162 2401 at any time, don’t worry if it is too late or too early, if he is asleep or in a meeting, he turns off the phone and you can leave a message and he’ll ring you back immediately he is free (or awake)!

Have your say about the Finchley Arrow

We have polled our “Keep in the Loop” list on a few questions on the Finchly Arrow and found the results so interesting that we have decided to extend the poll to all readers of the newspaper.

Please go to the poll, it doesn’t ask you for your name or contact details, or indeed any personal information so your identity will not be revealed. We hope you will fill it in without holding back so we will see where we are going wrong and where we are going right. One of the questions is whether you feel we should become political.

Most of the “Keep in the loop” members have said No, probably because they fear my politics may not be the same as theirs! I don’t mind stating that my views are not Statist, (believes the government should rule economics and people’s lives) nor are they Centrist. (believes Government should rule economics but not people’s lives) but I am a pure Libertarian, (believe the Government should not rule economics or people’s lives). This definitely makes me anti-Labour, Anti-Conservative and anti-Liberal Democrat. There is no real party for me so I tend to vote for any party for taking us out of the European Union as this is just another layer of Government as far as I am concerned.

Please go to the poll website and fill in the short six question poll so we can get an idea of what you want from us. I will publish the joint findings of the “Keep in the loop” and this poll which closes in twenty days when the poll will be deleted.

February Editorial

I know there’s another day to go, but this is to inform you that the February Editorial is now available above at 1 Editorial where we give a glimpse of a major restructure to take place in July.

January editorial now posted

Andrew has now posted the January editorial on “1 Editorial” above.

EasyFundraising – our statement of account

by Andrew Taylor

I have been looking at our statement and am heartened by the fact that we have now raised £24.58. Not a lot by any means but we have been going for only three months and the amounts coming in are growing. £22.12 has come in from people buying goods through the EasyFundraising link, and £2.20 via the special EasySearch link (this is just for roaming the Internet using the EasySearch search engine).

Those with a mathematical bent will notice a discrepancy of 26p. We have signed up three other charities, and we get 20% of what they make, so they are beginning to do something which accpunts for the missing 26p and, in the long run this will be good for the Finchley Arrow.

On a more negative note, only nine of our readers use this system to make their Internet purchases. All this means is that the large companies get to keep the percentage they might have given us to help our community newspaper.

Think of this, if we can make £24.59 with only nine of our readers, think how we can grow and help the community if a thousand of you bought via EasyFundraising! All excess funds we make goes to the Finchley Community. Look at 8 Funding above for easy instructions on how to help at no cost to yourself.

December’s editorial has now been published

The December editorial has now been published and can be reviewed by checking the 1 Editorial link along the top of this website.

Andrew Ampers Taylor (Editor)