The BRCA site has always strived to provide accurate and current information which is collated from many different sources but has very often settled to provide the rules and procedures. The BRCA Executive has decided that this needs to change so a comprehensive change was planned. We started with how the membership data is stored and handled. Legal advice was sought on the “must do “ elements, some of the changes you will see revolve around you giving the BRCA explicit permission to share data such as your identity and transponder numbers to Race Directors. We will be hiding a lot of other data such as date of birth which is regarded as sensitive but will have reporting tools which will confirm if you are eligible to race as a Junior or a veteran or anything else we pick.

Once we started down this course the next logical step was to allow members to log in to the website and join or rejoin. Don’t worry if paper is your friendly and preferred medium, you can still do everything as our great grandparents did although cheques are expected to be phased out in a year or two, we will attempt to accommodate a retro lifestyle. But if the web is your media then you are now a verified member and the site can offer numerous services. Over the next year forums, polls, online entry to races and mail alerts are a few of the features we will be bolting on. You will be prompted to fill in your details such as classes raced, which clubs you belong, transponder details as well as the necessary details to protect your security. This will all go in a profile page that you may edit at any time.

Now there’s no point in providing any of this if it is going to complicate things we do now so one of the goals was to make it easier for the Clubs to join their members. Clubs join the BRCA and get their own page that they can manage, no HTML though, just a plain word processor and facilities to upload any content. The website access to their page is a simple www.brca.org/myclubname so their members can find it quickly.  The designated club officials can create reports on their members, research who visits their club and email announcements. They also have access to the Events calendar so they can publish their activities and in the future they will be able to use the online booking system as well as upload results straight from their race management software.

Other features are less obvious until you use them such as the search facility which will also find anything we archive. Members will be able to upload pictures to a public gallery and browse the picture contents of the site. We will be linking the Club and affiliated shop data to Google or Bing to allow you to do a postcode or area search and retrieve directions from your home to these places.

All in all we are hoping that this becomes a tool for the BRCA, the Clubs and members and that they find it a benefit. We are expecting the first stages to have been rolled out by the time you read this don’t panic, there’s a lot to put in it.

Many of these functions will remain turned off until content managers have been found and trained to use them. An overall "content manager" (as opposed to webmaster) will be appointed and those that have expressed an interest please be patient. This project has taken on a life of it's own and we want it to "mature" a little before we pin this title on anyone (they have to volunteer as well).

Chris H, Chairman

Click here for some sample previews

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