By Community Affairs

From the Grassroots

Nov 23, 2010 | 12:20 PM

When discussing the possibility of my working for what has become paNOW.com, there were lengthy and detailed dialogues of what the owners and management of Rawlco wanted this media portal to be.

What it came down to was that we wanted to create a news source for you that was immediate, user-friendly and featured what regular people are doing in our community.

Grassroots.

In this format, we are able to go to the groups and organizations, which really make this community tick. We want to know what regular people are doing, whether it is the Quilting Guild, an organization that helps the homeless, artists, boy scouts and so on.

We want to feature what you do and celebrate who you are.

International Spotlight

P.A.'s Howe one of 4 Sask. born players named to Canada's World Junior roster

6h ago

National

Ottawa to remove 30% investment cap for Canadian pension funds

9h ago

Budget woes

Golf and curling centre faces grim season without financial boost

13h ago

For those of you who dealt with media maybe, oh, 20 years ago — I am sure you remember that every local news source would have Community News. Therefore, the secretaries of each and every organization would hand in their weekly or monthly write-up along with pictures — and it was published. It has been a long, long, long time since Community News has been a vital and integral part of any media outlet.

As a result, many clubs, groups and even organizations are suffering because of a lack of communication. Many do have websites, but getting viewers to a website is always a challenge. This is where an organization, like Rawlco, has an upper hand in promoting is news portal on the three local radio stations.

So, paNOW.com is taking that old idea and putting it into a new format, a format that is unlimited in space.

When you go to Community Group News — under the Community Tab — you will find all the recent updates by a variety of local groups. To date we have 102 groups, listed on the right hand side of the page. By clicking any one of them, you can find more information on the group and a compilation of all their entries.

If you have a non-profit group, club or organization in the city, which is not listed, please contact me and we will get you set up and ready to go. Your ongoing commitment is merely to email me updates and send me any newsletters you might have.

Finally, let me use this opportunity to tell you how much I appreciate meeting or re-acquainting myself with all of you. It is the beginning of a long journey and I think the trip is going to be one of exploration.

Please, think of paNOW’s Community Group News as an opportunity to be creative. Entries do not need to be long or earth shattering. Consider entries which feature members or volunteers, entries which feature programs or events.

Contact me at kcay@panow.com or by calling Rawlco at 1.306.763.7421.