webmaster witterings

Hello, you wonderful people. Here’s an update regarding the IT side of the NABD.

First of all, from the bottom of my heart I’d like to thank everyone who participated in the Online Virtual NABD events we held during COVID Lockdowns. From the Musicians and Comedians, to the compères and most importantly the audiences that joined us, donating so much money & participation to make those events so successful. Those funds certainly saw us through the COVID times financially, but more importantly from a mental well-being point of view, when we weren’t able to be together in a field.

I know we had a couple of technical hitches from time to time, but since it was our first attempts at this sort of event & being thrown into the deep end, I reckon we all did bloody marvellously, considering!

The videos are actually available on the NABD YouTube channel, where you’ll find You’ve Been Nabbed’s Been Nobbled, Smacked Arse Comedy at Virtual Nabdonia 2020, plus all of the musical performances.

It can all be found here: https://www.youtube.com/@thenabd6583

After YBN29 actually went ahead in 2022, the next major project was the introduction of the new Membership Card system, sponsored and provided by Wilton Site Services. The implementation included a Magicard300 Printer and 2000 printed card stock, which we now print the Member details on each time. The pre-printed elements include the colour Logos on front and back, so the Member info can be printed just using a much cheaper black only ribbon.

We had to wait a while for the card stock to be delivered, & when they arrived it was a matter of learning how the software worked to print the right information, the right way up and on the right side of the card!

It has taken some time around our day jobs, but we’ve now printed over 600 cards & have been tweaking the system to ensure that we don’t miss people out or send two cards to the same person!

It’s still not perfect, but far better than it was. So as we move into 2023 I hope there will be fewer queries to the Membership Secretary. Every active Member will get this Open House and a 2023 Year Bar but, if you think you are missing anything, please let the Membership Secretary know on membership@thenabd.org.uk and we’ll get it sorted out for you.

The Portal also shows whether a card has been printed for you and when. If you have a Membership that auto renews - Monthly or Annually - your card will say “Never” as an Expiry date & we won’t have to issue new ones every year. Those that do have an Annual Membership, your card will have your Expiry date on it & you’ll get a new one when you renew.

Once again I must ask everyone to please check that we have the right email address on your Account. We do get a number of bounced emails, but I cannot just list the names of people who’s email is incorrect, due to Data Protection considerations.

Please log in to the Membership Portal and check that your information there is correct, including your address and email. The postal address is where we will send your Open House, so if you didn’t get one and you’re reading a friends, either your account is inactive since you haven’t renewed, or your postal address is wrong and it’s gone to your old address!

You can check everything here : https:// membership.nabd.org.uk You can log on with your email address or your Logon name, which will be Surname + Membership Number for people who were members in 2020 when the system was set up (e.g. Smith11796) If you don’t know your Password or have never logged on before, please use the Lost Password option to set a Password you will then use.

The next job on the cards is to make more use of Office365, which the NABD have available to us as a Non-profit Organisation. It was a huge help when COVID struck, since the NABD files are now held in OneDrive and Julie can work from home as well as the office much more easily than before.

If anyone has technical issues regarding the Websites or Memberships etc, please contact me on webmaster@thenabd.org.uk and I’ll do my best to assist you.

Thanks, Simon