News: WA Bulletin 2011/28 Sunday 9th September 2011

WA Bulletin 2011/28 Sunday 9th September 2011

• Contents : Warsash Maritime Academy 2011; Life as a cadet at Warsash 1950; Life as a cadet 1950; Annual subscription increase; Piracy; How fast is your Broadband?; Increasing number of website visitors; Members who crossed the bar; All Hands 2011/2; All Hands preferences; Website Usage; Website Tips.
• Broken website links: Should you come across any website links which do not work please notify me by email >> Chris Clarke
• To use the links below, first login then press the Ctrl key on your keyboard whilst you click the link in this bulletin.
• Thumbnail pictures: click on the picture which will cause it to load up full size in another window.
• Please read "Website Tips" at the bottom of this bulletin and if in difficulty go to the online Help Forum.

Warsash Maritime Academy 2011 - films and information

How many of us know what life is like as a cadet in 2011 at Warsash? How many know anything about the Academy? Apart from the fortunate few who have visited Warsash in recent years perhaps not many. If you do visit Warsash you can be sure of a very warm welcome. Should you contemplate a visit first contact Sue Bowles (PA to the Academy's Director Andrew Hair), who will ensure the necessary arrangements are made.

One thing I have come to appreciate is how very differant life at sea is today for Merchant Navy officers compared with previous generations. In the same way that the School of Navigation was right for its time in the last century, the Warsash Maritime Academy is ideally tuned to the needs of today's maritime industry. Without doubt the Academy is a world-leader in maritime training. Although training today is vastly differant, I feel sure Messrs Wakeford, Stewart, Pursey, Clubb, Pierce, Glass, Blyth etc, being men of their time, would heartily approve.

Here are some links to the WMA website which illustrate it is a worthy successor to the School of Navigation. Alongside for comparison are links to our website Gallery and to a copy of the 1959 Standing Orders issued to all new cadets on joining.

Warsash Maritime Academy		School of Navigation
Warsash TV	Use the scroll bar on the right to view several TV films	Five videos on Youtube
Photo Galleries		Clan Maclean/ Moyana rescue 1956; Coronation Ball 1953; Senior term dinner 1955; Launch of new gig Cater 1959; Graduation Spring 1959; Lady guests from Australia 1959; Inspection by Mayor of Southampton 1964;
Vision & Mission
Facilities		Old ablutions; More ablutions; SoN transport 1959;
Training		Moyana - man overboad drill; Hoisting the Mains'l; Seamanship class 1957; Navigation lesson; South Hill maintenance; Chain gang 1954; Gunnery course HMS Excellent;
Brochures		Standing Orders 1959 An historical insight into the way things were in the "olden days"!

Life as a cadet at Warsash - Bob Greenland 1950

Bob Greenland has writien a vivid account of his year as a cadet at Warsash which you will find via this link to the History section here >> Bob Greenland 1950. Bob also is having an article published in two parts in Sea Breezes which will be put on the website and publicised in a future bulletin.

Increase in annual subscriptions

Annal subscriptions were increased to GBP15 at the WA 2011 AGM on 10 September. All subscription will in future fall due on the 1st January beginning in 2012. There no longer is a joining fee to cover the purchase of a WA tie. Optionally a tie can be bought for GBP10 from the WA Membership Secretary.

WA Membership Secretary Reg Belcourt has explained the reasons for the increase in a letter sent with two forms to all members except those belonging to the Australian Branch, the New Zealand Branch and those living in North America where a new branch is being formed. In case you have not yet received the letter but should have done so, you can download these documents from the links below. Theforms should be completed and returned as soon as possible to the WA Membership Secretary whose address is on the letter.

Letter 17 September	From Membership Secretary
Standing Order form	Complete and send to your bank
Confirmation of Standing Order	Sign and post to Membership Secretary

Branch committees will progress this issue with their own members shortly.

Piracy

You will find a very concerning article Piracy Costs Shipping Industry $9 Billion on the Maritime Executive online newsletter.

How fast is your Broadband? - do a speed test

Have you ever wondered if you are getting the boadband speed promised by your Internet Service Provider (ISP)? I recently changed my ISP and now regularly check the download and upload speeds. If you use the new link inserted at the bottom of the home page to SpeedTest.com you can find out how well your ISP is doing. Furthermore if you register and check the speeds periodically you will be able to build up a history of your broadband performance.

Increasing number of website visits

There has been a big increase in visitors to our website which averaged 122 per day throughout September, the highest monthy average since publication in July 2009. However this does not necessarily mean increased use by members although thi may be the case. The number has in fact increased monthly since July 2011 (see graph) when, on the suggestion of John Bazely (Head of School, WMA), I set up a WA Page on Facebook where a link to every bulletin sent out from our website is automatically created. So the increase is most likely due to this increased publicity on Faceook, which in itself should be a good thing. FB users using the link are able to read the websie bulletin but without a Username or password, they cannot go from there to protected member's areas of the website. To see our FB page use the link at the bottom of the WA home page.

Crossed the bar

Sadly we have learned that the following members have crossed the bar.

Member	Cadet Year	Crossed the bar
Paul Ogden	1944	7th January 2011
Les Rimmer	1945	5th October 2011
John Foot	1951	5th September 2011
Michael Hammond	1954	6th November 2010
Keith Davie	1954	4th April 2011

All Hands 2011/2 (Summer Edition)

The summer edition of All Hands is available for downloading from the website here >> All Hands 2011/2 and printed copies were posted towards the end of September. Any articles for inclusion in forthcoming issues can be sent to: johndowns@buryhalllane.freeserve.co.uk by email, by ordinary post to 32, Bury Hall Lane, Alverstoke, Gosport, Hants. PO12 2PN, or by email to John Turner: jeturner7@aol.com.'

Preference for the online All Hands journal?

Currently 81% (350) of all members are online (83 not online). Of the total membership (433) 66% (286) have opted for a printed copy of All Hands and 34% (147) have opted for the online copy. This include Australian and New Zealand Branch members although I believe all of them are sent printed copies anyway by the Branch. If these Branch members are excluded 78% have opted for a printed copy and 22% for an online copy.

If you would like to change to the online version instead of receiving a printed copy all you do is to set the All Hands indicator to zero in your website Profile. This will save us printing and postage costs, both of which increased in 2011 due to rising VAT and postal charges. Unless you decide to change the setting you will of course continue to receive printed copies.

To read how to set the indicator go to sub-forum >> Member's Profile then load the Topic Profile - opt for online or printed All Hands. Anyone belonging to our Australian or New Zealand Branches choosing to rely on a downloaded copy only please also let Neil Martin (Australia) and Darrell Daish (New Zealand) know.

Website usage

• The average daily number of unique visitors to the website in September reached a record 122 (91 in August).
• The Warsash Association website now contains: 4,126 names, 153 News articles, 24 Events to date, 1,369 photos in 240 Galleries and 2,440 Forum posts
• Website uptime in the month of September was 100% (independantly monitored). There were no outages of the host server (computer) in the month however due an update of host server software the website was unavailable for a few hours on 14 and 15 September.

Kind regards,

Chris Clarke (1959)

Website Tips

Your first actions after logging in:

• List recent messages and photos created on the website using the function "View" in the top right corner of your screen.
• Click on "View - Posts since last visit".
• Click on "View - All photos last 4 weeks".

Lost your password?

• Generate your own new secure password via the website click "About this website/ Unable to login?" in the drop-down menu.
• This will email to you a link to change your email address and then another email to let you know the new password which has been generated.
• Remember - passwords are case sensitive.

Gallery hints:

• The pictures you see in the galleries are only thumbnails. Hover your cursor over the thumbnail and the caption appears.
• Click on the photo and it'll load up full size showing the caption and ID (Username) of member who uploaded it. Click Username and the member's profile loads up.

Step by step website instructions

• Click here >> Forum Home then place your cursor on the forum "Help".
• Lessons from the "Help" forum are sent out periodically from the website.

Maintaining your own personal details

You will recall our website is what's known as an 'interactive' site, which allows members to create and maintain their own content e.g. personal details, Forum messages, Gallery photos. As an organisation with 430 members worldwide run solely by a handful of volunteers it is important that online members maintain their own personal details.

Each of us from time to time will change our home and email addresses. To help our Membership Secretaries, if you are able to please keep your personal details on the website up to date. Instructions are in the Forum (hover over the 'Help' link and select 'Member's Profile'). If not please remember to let the WA Membership Secretary or Branch Membership Secretary know whenever your details change.

Several email addresses have recently 'bounced' which means those members will not receive website bulletins and other information until they are corrected. Please always keep your email address in particular up to date on the website. If you have any difficulty let me know at wawebmast@warsashassociation.net and I will help you.