Strategic Review and Operational Briefing on HADARS Website and Training Platform Deployment

Summary of the meeting held on 13 March 2025 between James Currie-Cathey, George Townend, Dean Baker, and Hardy Whiteley-Boocock:

1. Website Overview and Demonstration (James)

• Structure: Explained the layout of the HADARS website (static pages, posts, media). Encouraged others to explore only posts, media, and pages initially.
• Static Pages: Demonstrated editing via Elementor, explaining its flexibility and visual capabilities.
• Posts: Showed how content is scheduled, templated, and published. Displayed calendar view of post scheduling.
• Plugins: Provided an overview of plugins (e.g. FileBird, Elementor, feedback ratings, Fluent Forms, PDF generator, MailPoet).
• Learning Management System (LMS): Described as complex and handled separately. LMS courses consist of lessons with video, text, downloads.
• Backup & Recovery: Explained daily backups via Backuply and the hosting provider’s system-level backups.
• Google Analytics (Site Kit): Presented visitor data, traffic origins (notably Philippines, Germany, Ireland), search terms, and popular pages.

2. Training Materials and Policy Discussions

• Training Resource: Recognised the foundation course materials are nearly complete and will soon be ready to launch.
• Access Policy:
  
  • Hardy’s position: Training content is a member benefit only, not public.
  • George’s concern: A clear, strategic policy is needed before rollout to handle potential public interest and growth.
  • Dean: Suggested Essex Ham-style visibility could draw new members.
  • James: Urged a focus on policy first (who can access), then address implications.

3. Strategic Questions Raised

• Growth and Marketing:
  
  • How to advertise effectively while managing scope and resource demand.
  • Whether to allow teaser content publicly to attract new members.
• Membership Onboarding:
  
  • The need to define clear boundaries between public material, member-only content, and full club involvement.
  • Suggested tiered access model: public teaser → member sign-up → full access.

4. Governance and Resource Planning

• George raised concerns over:
  
  • Club officers needing to lead policy.
  • Current ambiguity around GDPR, membership data integration, and club communications.
  • The risk of unmanaged growth due to the training programme’s potential visibility.

5. Actions and Next Steps

• James and Hardy will:
  
  • Set a new meeting (target: next week) to finalise advertising and policy decisions.
  • Put strategic direction on the agenda for the next committee meeting.
• Strategic Recommendations (discussed but not finalised):
  
  • Clarify whether HADARS will remain local or develop a broader online training presence.
  • Consider charitable status if charging for public access to content.
  • Possibly publish a teaser article in RadCom to gauge and attract interest.