News: WA Bulletin 2012/01 Friday 6th January 2012

WA Bulletin 2012/01 Friday 6th January 2012

• Contents : First informal meeting of the new WA Kent Group; All Hands 211/3 available to download; Subscription due date 1st January 2011; Website Usage; Website Tips.
• Current total number of WA members worldwide: 443
• 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.

I hope you enjoyed the Christmas and New Year break. Here is some news plus a couple of quick reminders to start the year.

First Meeting of WA Kent Group announced

Alan Jordan has been doing a fanstic job organising the formation of the new WA Kent Group. The group's first informal meeting takes place at The Red Lion, Lenham, Kent on Saturday 21st January from 1200 onwards. There has been a very good response to invitations so far. Members, wives and partners not only from Kent but also from any other county are invited to attend.

These meetings are entirely informal pub lunches. You can download the invitation with full details including road directions, from the Forum here >> WA Kent Group First Informal Meeting or the Events calender here >> Kent Group Meeting.

All Hands 2011/3

The latest edition of our journal has been available to download from the website at this link >> All Hands (2011/3) since 19 December. Our UK printers scheduled production of printed copies just before Christmas so depending on postal services, those of you opting for a printed copy should already have received theirs or will receive it in the next few days. Electronic versions are also with our Australian and New Zealand Branches for printing and distribution to branch members.

If you would like to change your preference to an online version instead of a printed copy future all you need do is to set the All Hands indicator in your website Profile to zero. This will save us printing and postage costs, which increased consideably in 2011. The benefits arefor members are a) all internal pictures, not just the cover pictures, are in colour, and b) it is available to online members earlier.

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.

Reminder to change your annual subscription Bankers Orders

Some members have still not yet got around to amending their bankers order for paying their annual subscriptions. As previously notified, starting in 2012, the new annual subscription due date for all members is 1st January. Branch committees have also ratified this change at their Branch AGMs.

WA Membership Secretary Reg Belcourt has explained the 2012 fee increase in a letter and two forms (see below). You can download these documents via the following links if required. Except for the Australian Branch, the New Zealand Branch and those living in North America where payment is handled seperately, if you have not yet done so please complete and return the forms as soon as possible to the WA Membership Secretary whose address is on the letter.

Letter 17 September	From WA Membership Secretary
Bankers (standing) Order form	Complete and send to your bank
Confirmation of Standing Order	Sign and post to Membership Secretary

Website usage

• The average daily number of unique visitors to the website so far in December has been 115 (111 in November).
• The Warsash Association website now contains: 4,131 names, 162 News articles, 27 Events to date, 1,414 photos in 246 Galleries and 2,5457 Forum posts
• Website uptime in the month of December 2011 was 100% (independantly monitored). There were no outages of the host server (computer) in the mont

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 440 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.