About the Network

Welcome to the Community Shops Network website. This site aims to provide a meeting point online for the many people actively involved in community owned rural shops right across the UK.

Whether you are an employee, a volunteer, a member of a management committee or a professional adviser, we hope that you will participate in this website and help it to grow and improve.

This site is designed to act as a platform to enable you to participate actively, by getting involved in the discussion forums, contributing to the body of resources and links that are on the site, and working with the people that have built the site to make it better and develop it in ways that meet your changing needs.

As you look round the site you will no doubt find things that could work better, or content that is perhaps inaccurate or incomplete. We have taken the deliberate decision to publish the site in what is essentially a part-finished state (a beta release, to use the jargon). We have done this because you know best what works for you, what information you need and how you like to work. We will increasingly be giving you the access privileges to let you make those improvements directly yourself. This is your website and your network.

Please let us know what you think! We need your feedback, your ideas and your criticisms, and in return we promise that we will listen and respond. You can use the forum here on the site that we have set up specifically to support this conversation, and/or you can let us know your thoughts - good and bad - via the contact page.