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Members will be aware that Adam Dawson is standing down as National IT and Internet Officer at the AGM in just over a week’s time. The website and associated IT infrastructure (like bulk email, membership system, forum, etc.) is a vital aspect of the LDWA and underpins all the services it provides. Adam has provided a magnificent service for the benefit of every single member during his period of office and his presence will be greatly missed.

It is of great concern to the NEC that his role has not yet been filled. The NEC remains hopeful that someone amongst the 10,000 members of the LDWA will eventually volunteer to offer their services as National Officer.

In the meantime, on an interim basis, Madeleine Watson, in addition to carrying out her duties as General Secretary, has offered to take on certain aspects of Adam’s role such as reporting to the NEC on broad IT matters, performing high level liaison with our IT supplier (Mobius Media, who provide technical services to the LDWA), and working to initiate the definition of the future requirements.

However, the role of General Secretary is a demanding one and so Madeleine will be limited in the time she can allocate to IT matters and, critically, she is not an IT specialist and so will need considerable expert technical support.

We are fortunate that an LDWA member, Beatrice Therin, has volunteered to provide some general technical and administrative support, taking over from Michael Headley who has excellently provided this service for many years. Further, the NEC has been speaking to Mobius about them providing more detailed technical support when needed. Whilst this is in principle possible, it will come at a cost which will divert from other IT work and/or other LDWA priorities. We would therefore like to utilise the expertise of our members provide as much technical support as possible “in house”, to make best use of our members’ funds.

Whilst Beatrice will be able to provide a good level of support, with the departure of both Michael and Adam, we will be left with some gaps in our ability to provide technical support, at least in the short to medium term.

This note is therefore an urgent call to all members to consider whether they could help Madeleine, and avoid unnecessary LDWA external spend, by joining Beatrice in providing technical IT support until a permanent replacement for Adam can be made.

Anyone with suitable skills and enthusiasm who would be willing to help should contact Madeleine by email at ldwasecretary@yahoo.com to express their interest informally, and to learn more about the role. Your support will help the LDWA through a critically important period, and ensure the long term, online presence of your LDWA.

David Morgan