I WAS walking home last Sunday night having a natter with my '6 O'Clock Club' Old Butt, having one of those in depth discussions that you can only have after a visit to your local.

Our discussion centred on Society v Community, or were the two the same thing? A bit deep, you may think, I think we were both surprised that the forecasted snow had yet to arrive, so we were both searching for something else to talk about besides the weather!

Whilst my friend took the stance that both were surely the same, I countered that they were similar (I wanted to maintain our friendship!) but the two were totally different concepts. Society to me could mean a gathering of individuals merely interlinked by their geographical closeness, whilst a community was a gathering of interacting individuals in a geographical area or with a common interest. We decided to carry on our discussion at some later date; we had reached the point where we took different paths (pun?).

To inform our future discussion I would be interested to find out what community means to your readership. This letter is what community means to me.

I care for the well-being of our community. I want to be part of creating it. I am one of those people that is distressed by poor environments where our children cannot flourish, by empty shop fronts and dormant, commuter villages without a heart. You may think I just want 'a local' but I want to help to fulfil the promise of community, a vibrant community, a community with a heart with common purpose at its core.

Along with this comes the knowledge that each of us, myself included, is creating this world because we are here in the 'here and now'. If it is true that we are creating this world then each of us has the power to heal and make good. This is not about guilt, it is about accountability. The community has the capacity to come together, and choose to be accountable it is our best shot at 'making a difference'.

They the community may make the difference by actively supporting their parish council, their church, their youth club, their village hall, their local school; they may simply vote or attend general meetings. The list may be endless. The importance is that they are contributing to the fabric of their community and not just accepting the society that they happen to be geographically in. They are melding their community which will determine the strength of democracy. The least they can do is to vote at elections, poor turnout for such events is becoming the norm.....but this is not for discussion here. I am sure this will be picked at by others.

So what is a community to me? Simply it is the experience of belonging. We are in 'community' each time we find a place where we belong. The word 'belong' has two meanings. First and foremost, to belong is to be related to and a part of something. It is membership, the experience of being at home in the broadest sense of the phase. It is the opposite of thinking that wherever I am, I would be better off somewhere else. Experiencing friendship, hospitality, conviviality is not easy or natural in the world that people live in.....outside the Forest!

The second meaning of the word belong has to do with being an owner: Something belongs to me. To belong to a community is to act as a co-owner of that community. The work, then, is to seek in our communities a wider and deeper sense of ownership; it means fostering in our communities inhabitants a sense of ownership and accountability.

The Ruardean and Pludds community is about to embark upon forming a Parish Community Plan. It is not going to be easy. It will need the community to participate. First and foremost it will need a core Community Steering Group to drive it forward and to meld the future of our community for our children and our children's children. The intent is that we will respect the past, appreciate the present and look to the future through an Action Plan. This in turn will be ratified by the parish council – but make no mistake it will be the 'Community Plan', formed through a questionnaire and consultation with the community in the coming months.

For now, we are looking for volunteers to form the Steering Group and help in the future delivery of the consultation documents. This may simply mean knocking on doors in your street to request return of a completed questionnaire. Perhaps you have special skills we could exploit, or you would like to represent a community group?

Each and every role is important. If you would like to contribute then I ask that you declare your interest on telephone: 01594 543217, email: [email protected]">[email protected] or complete the Contact Form on the Ruardean and Pludds Community website: http://www.ruardeancommunity.btck.co.uk">www.ruardeancommunity.btck.co.uk.

– Rick Seager, Ruardean and Pludds Community Parish Plan.