Being the HPO for Suffolk Rivers and one of two East Coast Fleet Captains, it seemed a logical extension of my role to work alongside Pat Dittner to help develop our section of the new website. 

Having agreed to take on the role, training was arranged at the club and whilst at first glance the website editing tool appeared a little daunting, with some basic training and guidance from Chris Smith, I was very quickly able to add content to the site.  There is a myth that you need to be a complete ‘techno wizard’ but nothing could be further from the truth.

I normally access the site around twice a week, spending a couple of hours in total either adding new content or researching for local news and ‘tit bits’ that are worth sharing with members.

Now that the basic framework of the East Coast page has been built, the next challenge is to continually find new and interesting content that I can use to refresh the site and keep it interesting.  Whilst living on the East Coast enables me to provide a certain amount of up to date regional content, I do need the support of fellow East Coasters to feed me news on up and coming events and any topical news that may be on interest.  In particular, stories, photographs and video footage of club rallies not only makes excellent content but also makes my job as regional editor a whole lot easier.

It couldn’t be easier, all members have to do is to send me the information they want to see on the site and I will do the rest.  The website user access statistics clearly show that the site takes far more hits in both the run up to rallies and immediately afterwards.  This is down to the fact that members use the website to glean up to date information about the rallies and then afterwards to read all about what took place and to enjoy the photographs or video footage taken by those attending.

The East Coast page has some useful links to local weather forecasts plus links to other very useful sources of information such as local tides and the Harwich Haven Authorities ‘notices to mariners’.  One increasingly popular means of communicating is using ‘Blogs’ and if you have basic keyboard skills you should easily be able to write one yourself however help is always on hand so please get in touch if you are at all unsure.

The website is our ‘shop window’ to the world and it is vital we maintain a good presence to not only serve the interests of our members but also act as a key enabler in helping us to attract new ones.

Your support is essential if we are to make the website a success so if you are in a position to offer up any content, photographs or video footage, please feel free to contact me at billhughes@btconnect.com