The Dilemma we face

We have been approached by groups and individuals who asked for help, in various forms, at the point of a colleague’s recent death. The requests ranged from publishing death notices, tributes, arrangements for memorial services or just to be a focal point for any or all of these categories.

The current situation

The Society and all of its activities are run with less that a few hundred pounds per annum income, the committee taking no expenses and so far the entire web costs being privately funded. So not much change from the past then!
The time and effort that is available to the ‘webmaster’ means that the web can be updated between about 5 and 10 times per year with all the remaining time going into trying to create quality content. The ‘model’ that we aim for is a sort of monthly or bi-monthly ‘magazine’. What is being requested would change the webmaster job from part time into one where he would need to be available virtually daily to people at such a distressing time. We would have to operate more in the way that a weekly or even daily newspaper does. This is simply not possible with the current available personnel, money and technology. Further our website, although enjoying a growing success generates between 25 to 50 separate visits per week making it inefficient at getting quick messages out unless triggered by a social networking site (see our later comments).

What we are unable to do?

We are unable to publish death notices, dates and times of funerals and short notice gatherings or reunions. We feel that this is best done by word of mouth using the funeral director as a point of contact. It is of course possible for the family to use e-mail or best still, Facebook and/or Friends Reunited but not everyone has the competence to do this.

What can we do for OSS members?

Where possible we will promote planed gatherings; services of remembrance and reunions that are more than say 4 to 5 weeks in the future giving us time to react. We will report retrospectively (as and when we next update the site) on events, with coverage commensurate with the scale of the event.

If you have a current situation that fits these sets of criteria then please contact any member of your committee.

Tags: Policy