Voodoo, Magic, Wizardry, Pixle Dust and All Things IT

VOODOO, MAGIC, WIZARDRY, PIXEL DUST AND ALL THINGS IT

I haven’t written anything for Open House since my introductory piece about 5 years ago, since folks aren’t usually interested in all the behind-the-scenes stuff that makes the National Association for Bikers with a Disability tick. So, I thought I’d put fingers to keyboard for a change.

One of the first things I was tasked with was updating the main website (www.nabd.org. uk) which has been ticking along quite nicely for the past few years. One part of that website is the membership joining section. This had to be reworked to cope with the introduction of the instalment plans and subscriptions that we wanted to provide. This would make it easier to pay for membership in the first place, and autorenew so you wouldn’t have to remember to do it in the future.

This has given me a few headaches, in the way that the memberships are recorded and the info passed to Mark Mayo (our Membership Officer), whose job it is to print membership cards and send out reminders etc. This has led to some memberships falling through the cracks and being missed. As well as duplicate cards being sent out to some members, for which we apologise.

With the advent of COVID-19 and our National Rally & every other fundraising event being cancelled, we hastily organised the Virtual Online events. With our Patron, troubadour Stevie Simpson, leading the idea forward. This involved a hasty week of rehearsal and technical troubleshooting. In order to make sure that everyone got online at the right time and could be heard and seen, although not always the right way up! Some worked better than others, but I’d say that all the events were a huge success, and our heartfelt thanks go to each and every artist and donor for making it all happen.

This in turn led to the speedy launch of a new shop, for the sale of the Virtual Rally patches. The system allows Julie Williams (our Office Manager) to easily see the orders, print packing slips and invoices, plus gives us greater stock control management. There’s been the odd hiccup along the way but that system too seems to be embraced by our supporters and working well.

So, over the summer my thoughts turned once again to the membership system. I’ve been trialling several methods over the years, ideally aiming for an Open-Source solution that wouldn’t cost

the Association any money. The commercial packages are horrendously expensive once you get over 50 members, so they were not an option.

I tried selling membership via the new shop, but that itself did not work the way we needed it to.

An alternative has now been decided upon and is close to being launched. I am proud to announce that the NABD Membership Portal is just around the corner. Once I’ve managed to import all of the existing membership data into it.

When it does go live, you’ll be notified on our Facebook Page & you’ll get an email from portal@thenabd.org.uk with your login details.

The Portal will allow people to join as Individual, Family or Lifetime members, with autorenew, monthly or one-time payments. Clubs and Businesses will also be able to Affiliate in the same way.

Once created, the Member – (IE You!) will be able to update their own information in their profile. So, email addresses, home addresses and phone numbers etc can be changed without having to contact the office or Mark.

You will also be able to see your payment history, your membership number and any other information you have supplied to us as part of your sign up. If you do wish to cancel your membership for any reason (we’d rather you didn’t but circumstances change & dictate, unfortunately) then you can do that as well. If it’s an auto-renewing or subscription monthly payment it’ll cancel it from PayPal as well. The look and feel of the site may change a bit as we try new things, like themes and addons, but that basic functionality should always be there.

The NABD Office will have the ability to add memberships directly and take payment over the phone, for those members who “don’t do the Internet”. Though if I can get the NABD Committee to use more IT Systems then surely you can to?

The NABD Office Systems

I’d like to extend a big thanks to Huw Lafleur-Davies (of Beer Monsters fame) for providing two Solid State Hard Drives (SSD’s) for the two Office PC’s. They’re now installed with 64-bit Windows 10 & when combined with the Server he’s also hoping to donate (I hope I’ve not jinxed it!), it will make a big difference to the IT Infrastructure in the Office.

Whilst the office doesn’t support hundreds of users, the two exdesktop PC’s we have been using as Servers are getting past their retirement date now.

That’s it from me, maybe for the next 5 years!

All the best! Simon

NABD Webmangler.

I would like to say that everyone in the National Association for Bikers with a Disability is grateful for all the work that Simon Freedman has done since joining the committee.

I would like to, but to be honest most of us have no idea of the work Simon has had to put in.

He has tried explaining it to us, but I think he’s getting fed up of the glazed look that comes over our faces. Simon’s first job was to try and drag us into the 20th Century, and then into the 21st Century. Unfortunately, I (and other members of the committee) are only slightly more IT savvy than a Neanderthal. This has led to much gnashing of teeth and pulling of hair for our IT hero.

Not only that, but we have tasked him with re-doing every IT system we use, plus add much more, without costing the Charity anything.

When Simon revolutionised the website, we were ecstatic, as it was very old and showing it. I think the lines were drawn then, and little did he know what he was letting himself in for.

Simon has been the Charity’s IT saviour. No doubt about it.

So, on behalf of everyone at the National Association for Bikers with a Disability and its members. Thank you, Simon, for all the technicalous computery type stuff that you do. As part of Simon’s fiddling, updating and hair pulling with the new membership system, there will be times when the existing system may be off-line or not in use. Please bear with us/him whilst he’s doing this.

Also, you should start to receive emails from the new system; Today I sent out a test email to all the email addresses we have for members. If you received that email all is fine and you can just delete it. Please remember to check your Spam/Junk/ Promotions folders since I believe that’s where it’s now turning up.

If you DID NOT receive an email and are a current member, or have been a member in the past 2 years, please email noemail@ thenabd.org.uk with your Name, post code and Membership number and the email you’d like on record for your Membership.

Vic

The Covid-19 virus remains a very real threat to many members and supporters of the NABD and although that threat should steadily diminish as the programme of vaccinations progresses, it is felt extremely unlikely that 2021 will see it reduced to a level where it can reasonably be disregarded.

The Trustees of the NABD have a duty of care to all of the volunteer marshals and the rally-goers who attend this iconic annual motorcycle rally and so it is with great regret, and after much deliberation, that the Trustees have to announce the cancellation of the You’ve Been Nabbed Rally 2021.

All being well, The 29th You’ve Been Nabbed Rally will now take place on the weekend of May 6th – May 8th 2022.

The loss of our largest and most successful annual fundraising event for the second consecutive year will put an even greater strain on NABD funds.

In 2020 we ran three virtual online events to help mitigate the loss of our traditional fundraising events and, although those events could not be expected to raise as much as our traditional events, they did make a very significant contribution to the survival of the NABD in a year when the overall income of this charity had been decimated by the effects of the global pandemic.

We will be running a Virtual You’ve Been Nabbed 2021 event on Facebook on Friday May 7th & Saturday May 8th 2021 featuring live music, stand-up comedy and bucket-loads of banter, to ensure the continued survival of the NABD as we head slowly toward what we hope will be an end to the pandemic.

Please support this virtual event if you value and support the continuing work and aims of the NABD.

Further bulletins about this virtual rally will be posted on the NABD website https://www.nabd.org.uk and on the official NABD Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/groups/TheNABD.

Rick Hulse NABD Chairman For & on behalf of The Trustees

The National Association for Bikers with a Disability (NABD) is a Registered Charity