Charities Newsletter
Issue 5

A Ticketing, event management and credit-card handling systems and a new membership database scooped the much-coveted Best IT Volunteer Award in the first ever national IT Volunteer Awards ceremony held at the WCIT Hall on the 28th November 2006. Below are the results of the awards. You can find out more at http://www.it4communities.org.uk/it4c/home/Awards2007/awards.jsp

Award winners and their IT projects are:

Best IT Volunteer: Stephen Henden, member of the Friends of Dulwich Picture Gallery committee.  Stephen introduced a new ticketing, event management and credit-card handling systems, a new membership database for Friends of the gallery that produces embedded-style membership cards.    

Best Accessible IT Volunteering Project: Edward Jung, volunteer at the National Phobics Society.  Edward developed the society’s website to include a chatroom, bulletin board, sections for the media and researchers, information sections for people living with anxiety disorders and finally, sections for volunteers of the charity.  The site allows membership subscriptions online, which speeds up the joining process and reduces postage costs.  He also created an online shop, which last year generated over £14,000 in shop sales’ nearly quadruple the figure the society took in the past. 

Best IT Volunteering Project – innovation: Brent Longborough, Age Concern Exeter.  Brent created WURZY, an accessible and easy-to-use virtual IN/OUT system to enable staff to view the whereabouts of 34 members of staff.  WURZY is an abbreviation of ‘Where's He To?’, refreshes every 60 seconds to update staff answering the phones to the whereabouts of everyone.

Best IT Volunteering Project - impact on organisations: Panikos Panayi, Halton Citizens Advice Bureau.  Panikos developed a web-based referral system so partner agencies, can log onto a secure website and make urgent case referrals direct to the CAB service, get up-to-date information about opening times and current waiting-room levels and a checklist of information the CAB adviser will need to be able to give the correct advice at the first visit.  Because the referral system is database driven, the CAB can track whether the person gets the advice they need and monitor response rates.  Each year, the CAB helps over 4,000 people but many more people miss out on the advice they need. 

Best Charity for IT Volunteering:  Usable Websites, nominated by IT Volunteer Maria Hubbert.  Usable Websites believes that information should be accessible to everyone.   Maria says: “Usable Websites has made me feel very much part of the team by including me in team meetings and providing regular updates.  Its staff value my input on the role of the organisation and my experiences within the voluntary sector and are extremely open to listening to my feedback on the customers' experiences”

“The ICT Hub and iT4C awards celebrate the very best of what can be achieved through IT volunteering in all its forms,” says programme director for iT4C John Davies.  “This year’s awards have gone to both established professionals, who sought a way to give something back, and committed volunteers, who have acquired their skills purely because they wanted to help their chosen organisation."

The awards ceremony, which was attended by WCIT members, volunteers and charities, was very well received with a request for it to become a regular annual event.

More information about the winners and winning projects can be found at http://www.it4communities.org.uk/it4c/home/Awards2007/awards.jsp