News: WA website Bulletin 2010/14 Sunday 25th July 2010

WA website Bulletin 2010/14 Sunday 25th July 2010

• To use the links below, first login then press the Ctrl key on your keyboard whilst you click a link in this bulletin.
• It's easy to generate a new password yourself - simply use the link in Welcome box on the Home page and follow the instructions.
• Please read "Website Tips repeated" at the bottom of this bulletin and if in difficulty refer to the online Help Forum.

Notice

The Executive Committee is to meet on 2nd August at Portsmouth. One of the items on the agenda is the post of Honorary Secretary vacated recently by the resignation due to ill health of John Downs. John Turner (1962) has kindly volunteered his services. Committee minutes will of course be published on the website in due course. The latest news on John Downs is that he's still in hospital due to various complications.

What's new

Have you got a story to tell? Many members must have interesting and exciting personal stories to tell. If you want your life story published on the website let me know.

Andrew Manser has added a story to those of John Lott, Danny Gunn and Barrie Bramhill here at >> Personal histories; in the History section.

Andrew Manser was a Warsash cadet in 1959 and served his time with Royal Mail Lines. He now lives at Larchamp, France where he retired with his wife in 2009. He's provided a first class account here at >> Personal histories of his single-handed passage aboard his 29 foot yacht Ondine from the River Beaulieu in Hampshire to La Roche Bernard near the Brittany port of Lorient. Apart from the normal rigours of the passage including the Alderney Race, he and his boat survived an arson attack whilst berthed in Perros Guirac marina.

Danny Gunn's story: The fourth and final part of Danny's story is now available to read or download at >> Personal histories.

Andrew Manser has uploaded 8 photos taken on passage in his yacht Ondine, here >> Pastimes, holidays and family.

Russell Urry has uploaded 2 new photos here >> UrryR50. These two photos and others in his personal Gallery were taken during his cadet course at Warsash in 1950.

Sounds from Warsash A new page has been added in the History section here >> Sound Recollections. This page includes audio recordings of three bugle calls, Reveille,Sunset and The Last Post and two traditional hymns played by the Band of The Royal Marines, The Last Post/ Abide With Me and Eternal Father Strong to Save.

Bugle Calls were used at Warsash (throughout 1935-1971?). You either loved or hated them but cadets at the SoN could not get away from them! Many ex-cadets retain strong recollections of cadet buglers of varying degrees of proficiency. I'm sure we all tried our best!

If you have any similarly reminiscent sound recordings you associate with Warsash please email me at webdirector@warsashassociation.net.

Website usage

• The number of unique visitors to the website in July has so far averaged 39 June (39 throughout June)
• There are 1,910 posts in the Forum, 1,097 photos in the Gallery, 4,122 names in the database including about 375 members.

Kind regards,

Chris Clarke 1959

REMINDERS FROM EARLIER BULLETINS

Online All Hands Editions

If you don't need a printed All Hands you could set an indicator in your website Profile denoting this, which will save us printing and postage costs. Unless you decide to change the default 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 should also let Neil Martin know.

All Hands Journal: The Summer 2010 edition is due to be published later this week, edited as usual by Ron Caine.

All Hands download times - The time taken to download All Hands from the website depends on size and the speed of your Broadband connection at the time. You may need to wait patiently sometimes especially as Broadband speeds vary so much. I usually indicate download times based on 5 Mb Broadband speed at which speed journals with few exceptions, download within 1 1/2 minutes and most under 40 seconds. There are a couple of exceptions but even so its well worth the wait.

TRY YOUR HAND ON THE WEBSITE (even if not computer experienced - you won't break it!)

Put more in - get more out of the website!

Try your hand in the Forum. It's not difficult and you'll find plenty of guidance here >> Forum.

We have a number of Forums where you can raise and discuss a host of issues for anyone to read and respond to. You can ask questions, start discussions or try to track down out of touch colleagues. See an excellent example here >> Warsash legends. Further examples:

• To help trace long lost colleagues visit one of these e.g. Ex-School of Navigation, Ex-College of Maritime Studies or Ex-Warsash Maritime Academy.
• To relate your experiences with a particular shipping company visit here >> Shipping companies. If your company name is not shown let me know and I'll create a new sub-forum.
• In need of a laugh? Then visit here >> Have you heard the one about? for the latest humorous entries. Try this one for size >> Navy Recruiting Office! Better still create your own entries.
• What do you get up to in your spare time? Tell all in this forum >> Pastimes and hobbies. It might be golf, reading, sailing, dancing, climbing - even train-spotting (once had a friend who read old train timetables before going to sleep)!

Fancy a challenge?

• Go to Gallery Home > Where in the world is this? for a picture quiz. Five photos, only two solved so far, both by John Marshall 1959. Clues added. See if you can identify any of them.
• Upload your own photos to this gallery for others to identify. But don't give any clues in the name of the file uploaded which could give the game away!

WEBSITE TIPS REPEATED

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 notify after the new password has been generated.
• Remember - passwords are case sensitive.

Step by step website instructions

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