The more things change, the more they stay the same
10/11/2022 at 8:06 AM
For 17 years and counting this website has carved out an important role in Westman, especially with its hallmark classifieds service along with the large evolving archive of forum posts with local dialogue on topics of interest among other features.
I wanted to share that in the months ahead with the site in an established and mature state as a sort of “adult” with a life of its own our family will be embarking on a new journey personally in moving to Vancouver Island. At the same time as a business that’s run by phone and email there will be *no* noticeable change to the website that we run, the role it continues to play in Southwest Manitoba on a day to day basis and the commitment it gets from a site management perspective.
As much as at the end of the day the site has grown into being its own independent thing, I am the person that started it and runs it. Born, raised and having spent all of my almost 42 years here, Brandon and Westman have and always will have a big part of my heart… forever and always knowing and having a fondness for the region and it’s awesome people and trademark Manitoba friendliness (well, when we aren’t debating sweat pants or the best location for an oft rumoured international big box store anyway
).
At the same time for family reasons this is a change on the personal side of life whose time has come, with Vancouver Island being one the only place for this kind of change when considering our history of having been married there just over a decade ago and regularly holidaying in an island home that’s been in the family for many years. With being just a few hour flight away, there will zero doubt be many trips back between work trips along with of course visiting family… meaning that as funny as it sounds it’s not unreasonable to expect bumping into more times than you will have over the past two and a half years. Not really a lot different than if the computer I was behind was at our table at our home-based here, I’ll be regularly doing the work I’m so fortunate to be able to do, stepping up with what this site needs of me in terms of managing the classifieds service, regular forum check or chime ins, support form replies and the like. We’ll continue to use local service providers for the business, maintaining the same professional relationships that help us in different aspects of the website. The site has always been run with the idea of usability and the user experience first and that will of course continue to be the case over trying to profit every last dollar, striking a careful balance with advertiser value without plastering with too many ads. Just as there’s been a point to maintain the same rates on paid items for many years (for example a Job Opportunity or Home for Sale ad have had the same price since they were first offered), there are zero plans for any change in that department no matter what inflation tries to tell you
Lastly, out of both a sense of ongoing gratitude for how fortunate we are and as putting money where mouth is in the site’s connection to community we’re also working on plans to make a regular donation to a local cause that will be firmed up in the months ahead alongside our personal plans as they come further into focus.
Thanks so much for reading my little novel, I promise you there'll be more than a few more to come still in the years ahead
thanks also for being part of what makes the site what it is as its evolved into the mature entity in the community that it is. I’m looking forward to continuing to serve you where needed and continuing to make use of this wonderful thing we call tech to do just that to the best of my ability!