THANK YOU:
It is less than four weeks since we launched the Dorset Halls Network website and already over thirty halls have paid a visit and sixteen have put their details in to the venue finder. From my perspective that is a very encouraging start and something I will seek to build on. If you have not had a look yet I hope you do soon.
WHAT'S NEW?:
Since we launched we have added a fair bit to the site including TEN NEWS ITEMS, mainly about funding and the latest encouraging news from the BIG Lottery and also about energy supplies and charges. These are well worth a look and are one of the main reasons why it will pay you to keep an eye on the member's home page at the very least becuase that is where anything important to halls will be posted.
We now have FOUR EVENTS in the diary including two information sharing events that DCA are organising especially for halls. One is called BREAKING NEWS and the other SAFE AND HEALTHY HALLS; visit www.dorsethalls.net for more information although we will be forwarding a summary of these events and a booking form to you all shortly
There are also THREE DISCUSSION TOPICS going which you may want to contribute thoughts and comments to. You may even have a topic of your own you want to start to see what others have to say?
There has also been information added to the KNOWLEDGE BASE; three items on the ever important issue of FIRE SAFETY and some information on ENERGY SUPPLIES including the new Feed in Scheme. There also contributions on timber buildings, maintaining wooden floors, and some funding information. Help us add to the KNOWLEDGE BASE by adding comments to any of the posted articles or by adding knowledge from your own experience.
RSS FEEDS:
More and more people are using Outlook and Google RSS readers (amongst others) and if you want to be alerted to news as soon as it gets posted to the Dorset Halls Network website then you can add the site to your reader as the site issues feeds every time something is added.
VENUE FINDER:
The Dorset Halls Network has three primary objectives:
- to help halls promote their facilities, their activities and their events
- to provide the latest relevant news along with a bank of important resources and information
- to encourage hall managements to talk to, and share with, their colleagues in other halls
One of the main ways of promoting halls is the new VENUE FINDER service where halls can record information about their hall, its location and its availability for event bookings. When we have twenty five registered we will start to broadcast to various organisations that hold events the presence of the facility. We at DCA also get telephone enquiries from prospective hirers looking for venues and we will be signposting them to the Venue Finder.
Already two halls have benefited from being in the Venue Finder and we have hardly launched yet! So, if you are not in there you are going to miss out. If you need help to get your information in to the system then email me and let me know and I can do it over the phone for you or, if there is sufficient demand, I will produce a form for you to hand fill in and then I will enter the data from that for you.
This is going to be a really important aspect of promoting not only YOUR hall, but all of Dorset's halls, to the general public, to businesses and to local authorities, etc.
LOGGING IN:
The Dorset Halls Network site has a public face which any one can see and a private one open only to committee members of affiliated halls. To access this private area you need to log in and the details are the same as those for the Dorset Community Action website we published last summer. If you have lost your username and password please do not be shy about asking for a reminder - you will not be the only one by far!
And a quick tip: Once you visit the site and log in DO NOT log out when you leave and then next time you visit the system will recognise you and take you straight to the members home page.
AND FINALLY:
The current layout of menu options was designed to accommodate some political issues! We are getting feed back about this and so we will shortly revamp the menu structure to make it clearer for you. There will be some other small improvements coming soon as well.
To make the site better we need your feed back about problems, difficulties or suggestions for new content. We want this site to be a real help to you and we can only do that if you tell us what you want or how we can improve.
Thanks.
Peter Orchard
Village & Community Halls Adviser
Dorset Community Action