My small society is a year old

Well, so busy, I had missed that it is now over a year since I started blogging. My first blog was May 25th 2011. Much has happened in the big world outside, as far as the title of my blog is concerned, I think it may have lasted longer than the Big Society! Probably more need for volunteers and yet as the cuts bite on the voluntary sector there are fewer paid staff to back us up and less money to train new volunteers and keep us going generally, expenses, equipment, etc. As for me, I have kept up a life outside the blog, travelling, family and friends. The biggest thing for the blog though is being added to the Guardian's Northerner. I have been a Guardian reader since the News Chronicle folded and my father switched papers, so to be even a small part of it makes me very proud indeed. www.guardian.co.uk/uk/the-northerner

My main message is still the same, volunteering is the extra stuff, it is not and should never be a substitute for well funded public services, available to all members of society.