Hello guys, and for those of you who have joined us but have not acquainted yourself with the blog/website and all the information – please take a few minutes to look around. It might help to take a look at the other updates for this year.

Today I’ll address the Featured Author.

*

Featured Author – How does the idea work?

In a nutshell, I drop all of our names into a randomiser program, and hey presto, I get my list of details back – in random order. Straightforward enough?

We have had individual authors featured monthly since December 2015. While we would like to continue with the idea I’d like to point out a couple of aspects of the FA feature.

On occasion when I’ve contacted an author via PM, or email, the person has either not responded, or said no thank you. If an individual doesn’t want to be featured there is no pressure, and nobody knows about the response except me, and whoever else I inform in the Admin team.

*

For 2016, I tried the idea of randomising all of our members’ names in order to have the year ahead set out and easy to handle. I’m considering a new method for this year.

If we set up for the year (again), it means any new member doesn’t stand a chance of having the FA spot.

It occurred to me to randomise the membership every month, and in this way everybody has an equal chance, irrespective of how long they’ve been with us.

Whenever an author has had the FA spot, their name is removed from the next list I submit to the program.

As before, I will produce a list of membership and ask for everybody to ‘check-in’ to let us know they are represented. I expect to post the membership on Facebook within the next two weeks. It is important to know if our Facebook total is accurate.

*

If you are a member of the IASD group of whatever length of time, please feel free to make suggestions regarding any aspect of our activities. We started with the foresight of one person (Paul Ruddock), but we move on and grow from the efforts and voices of our members.

*

Before Paul Ruddock’s generous offer of the website to the group, he had amassed 1,780 followers. As a matter of interest, we now have 2,455 followers, due to the efforts of all members who remember to link to the website often and, in any way possible.

As always, comments or suggestions are not only appreciated – they are encouraged.

Until next time.

Tom

***