I'm a blogger using the new ruralnet|online system. I want to embed a slideshare.net presentation into a page I am writing. The 'Embed (wordpress.com)' code provided by Slideshare.net doesn't seem to work. I think this requires a 'plugin' to be installed by you. Do you have plans to provide this? Thanks

I work for a registered charity; we are looking to set up a new project. The plan is to contacting businesses to donate old PC's, offering training for those wishing to become pc technicians (using the PC’s as learning tools) and then passing the rebuilt computers on to clients with a need or other charity groups (hopefully free or at a nominal cost). We have the idea, we has solved software registration problems, found qualifications but no funding for training or staff (we are not a big enough organisation for LSC regional funding) any ideas. The other point I’m not quite sure how to put all these ideas into action?

What can you tell me about starting a charity shop? One of our volunteers in another part of the country has offered to use part of his own stock, and further donated stock, to start a 'charity shop/dress agency' in part of his premises, with us as the benefiting charity. We will provide him with posters, marketing and fundraising materials, but the business is his. Is it as simple as us just accepting the proceeds as a personal donation from him (or a company donation from his business) or is there any other issues or risks we should be aware of?

We have had offers from students undertaking their Duke of Edinburgh community service award to volunteer for us. What sort of insurance will we need to ensure we are meeting legal requirements if they do basic jobs (grass cutting etc) on our premises? And are we legally obliged to supervise them? They are 14 to 15 yrs old.

I am Secretary/Treasurer of a village hall trust in S.E.Cumbria. Our village post office is listed for closure, and our hall has been named as the Host for a three half-day a week Outreach service. Our details have been given on the Post Office's leaflet "Change to your local Post Office branch" despite our not having agreed to this use for the Hall. The Chairman wrote to the Post Office on Feb 28th asking for answers to a number of points before we can even consider the question fully, since the committee is unanimously against the Post Office closure, and we can see a number of objections to the use of the Hall. I can probably get the Chairman's permission to pass copies of his letters to the Post Office to you. Specifically we asked for a response to the first letter by March 18th, which by chance was the date of the Post Offices announcement of this area's PO changes, and of our AGM, and the first committee meeting of the current year. No response was forthcoming, although a phone call said that they still had to get answers to two of our questions.

Following the committee meeting a further letter was sent to the Post Office which should have arrived today, expressing our disappointment at the lack of a reply.

Can you make any comment on what actions are available to us? How can we get a response from the Post Office? and what actions could we take which might in any way influence the Post Office's decision on the closure?

The questions we have asked relate in part to the fact that having the Post Office in the Hall will affect Hall usage over the year, although not on a regular weekly basis. The Hall is one large room with no small subsidiary room which could house the Post Office. Amongst our concerns are the inability to have building work, repairs and decorations carried out readily if the PO are in occupation for part of three days a week (We are in the last stages of grant seeking for an overhaul of the kitchen which will block access to the Hall for several weeks once it starts). The local primary school has no hall and uses our Hall for rehearsals and performance of their Christmas concert (4 full days' use of the Hall). A charity textile collection for the Air Ambulance uses the Hall over two days 3 times a year, and there are other uses which would be restricted, or even become impossible if the PO gets in.

We feel that we are being railroaded into a decision which we don't want. The PO will not tell us what rent they would be prepared to pay if they use the hall, but they obviously expect us to roll over and give in, because of the effect of NOT having a PO in the village.

Personally, I object strongly to the PO - a large business - attempting to force a small volunteer-run body, a registered charity, to provide them with space for their business, when there are still commercial premises in the village which night seem more appropriate for the task, which have not yet been approached.

I would appreciate receiving any comments you could make which might help us with this problem.

As a volunteer social enterprise community group seeking funding for a rural community shop what advice do you have on grant funding. We are registered as a company limited by gaurantee, ( not for profit) We have planning permission and ground lease for 21 years.

As part of our charity's website, I thought it might be a good idea to include a discussion forum to enable local people to talk about regeneration issues. The web designer set up a forum (phpBB)and since it's been set up, it has just caused me a bit of a headache and is on the way to putting me off including some more interactive features in a community website we're planning. Some of the issues have been sorted out now, which were in relation to spammer types posting up pornographic pictures etc. This was done by including a two-step verification process, however, it doesn't stop me being bombarded with attempts at registrations every day by spammers. A result of the complicated registration process has been that many legitimate people have been put off joining the forum.

I would be interested to know what you think about the following so that when we plan our community website, we avoid many of these annoyances:

1. Are the spammers achieving anything more than attempting a registration (which I delete) or are they somehow trying to use the forum for something more sinister?
2. How do other people who instigate features that encourage interactivity - discussion forums, blogs, comments boxes etc avoid this problem of it being hijacked, either by spammers, or by others who just want to write rubbish on it (is it usual to spend a lot of time having to 'moderate' these type of responses?)
3. Do you think that this software is any good or has it got inherent problems?
4. With planning for our future community website in mind, have you any recommendations for things we should consider when briefing a web design company in relation to this issue?

Thanks very much!

We are looking for funding for a replacement Village Hall we would like to also consider adding a play area for young children. Should we be looking at being a Social Enterprise

Please could you advise us on the legislation for electrical checks for village halls. We were under the impression that halls needed a major electrical check every five years and PAT testing carried out annually. A local electrician however has told one of our village halls that they need an annual check of the village halls electrics. Please can you clarify!