So, having begun on such a positive note, I shall continue as such!

NARC is an attempt to bring together the individuals and groups in the north of England - veggies, vegans, hunt sabs, all of you. Having done a few stalls and demos recently in Newcastle, we realised that AR has a lot of support from the Geordie folk these days....people were even saying that they would like to start getting active, coming on demonstrations, etc.

We're hoping that with a bit of networking between various groups - Yorkshire, Middlesborough, Newcastle, etc. etc. we can get some more regular meetings, stalls and demonstrations happening again!

The website is currently still under construction (narcampaigns.wordpress.com) but is viewable and if there are any questions, suggestions, comments, please don't hesitate to contact us at  narconline@hushmail.com

If you're an individual or part of a group who are active or who want to get active, if you know of upcoming events, presentations, fayres, film showings, or if you would like to be kept informed of any, if you can keep us updated with demo reports, action alerts, targets, new campaigns, run-ins with authorities and so on, please do get in touch.

We can publish any of the above on the website or just help you to contact other northern groups instead of making things public. It's up to you. This network will be run for you, hopefully mainly by you!

We want to be able to keep people up-to-date on what's happening in the north, provide information on regular meetings, stalls and demos, be able to coordinate campaigns against specific targets, help different groups to be able to contact eachother more easily, discuss tactics and recent events and give people the info that they need to be able to get active with their local group.

Also, especially in the Newcastle/Northumberland areas, we need drivers. This would enable us to get stalls out in more places such as South Shields where we've had a good response from people in the past (OK, you can get the Metro to South Shields quite easily from Newcastle, but you get my point) and other areas, spread the message further. It would also enable activists to join other groups in the north on demonstrations or to be able to do mobile demos, hitting several targets in one day. We might even be able to get more people down to national demos....

In our small group, we have an activist that does school talks on behalf of Viva! and Animal Aid. As far as we know, they are the only northern (or at least, north-eatern) activist who does this! Are there any others out there?? Is there anyone who would like to become a school speaker? The best way to get involved is to do a workshop with Viva! or Animal Aid - www.viva.org.uk ( info@viva.org.uk), www.animalaid.org.uk ( info@animalaid.org.uk)

It's late and I've been looking at this computer screen for far too long now. There is probably a lot more (or maybe less) that I wanted to say. As I mentioned, questions, comments and suggestions will be greatefully received and appreciated. Please help us to get AR back into Newcastle and to the north!

Please spread the word. We can't do it on our own up here anymore!

Thanks, Blue