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The Company

Communications and Events

The Worshipful Company of Constructors is one of the “Modern” Livery Companies in the City of London. As such we should
always strive to remain “modern”, and to do so will inevitably mean changes to certain aspects of the way we do things.
This year has seen several fundamental changes to the way we communicate with our members.
Firstly, we have revamped the website. Whilst the “old” website had performed a very useful purpose for a number of years
its mechanism was becoming somewhat outdated, and was less easy to read on more modern tablets and smartphones—so
the time for change had come upon us. The desire for change also gave our webmaster, PM Roger Adcock, the opportunity
to retire from his somewhat time consuming position, and hand over the reins to someone else. We owe a great debt of
gratitude to Roger for all his sterling work over the past years, and his input to the design of the “new” website.
The new website is hosted on two domains, and we hope to concentrate on the use of www.constructorscompany.org.uk
going forward, but for the time being a copy of the website will also be available on www.constructorscompany.co.uk.. If your
browser reports that the website is unsafe it is because we have not changed our protocol to https. This will not happen with
all browsers and is not a real concern - it is just that things are changing and we may eventually have to consider https
hosting to avoid giving a false impression that the site is unsafe.

Secondly, with the increasing focus on electronic communication, we have created a new website and social media
committee, which will be chaired by CA Tim Fitch. In due course they will be responsible for all electronic communications ie;
the website and our presence on Twitter, Facebook and Linked-In as well as any changes to that presence.
Thirdly, we have instituted a quarterly Newsletter which is distributed by email to all our members nominally in January, April,
July and September/October. The Newsletter now incorporates “Clerk’s Notes’ as well as items of interest, reports on what
has been happening and other news items that we hope members will find interesting. It is very much internally focused.
Lastly, we will continue to publish this Journal in hard copy format on an annual basis, timed to coincide with the end of the
Company year, with the purpose of looking back over the past year and forward to the coming year. The Journal will also be
available in pdf format on the Company website.
But all of these initiatives depend to a large extent on input from members. If you, as a member, have attended an event
then please write a few words about it and, if you can, include a photograph or two of the event and send it, by email, to
events@constructorscompany.org.uk. The same email address can also be used for any other items that you think might be
of interest to other members. As usual, however, either the webmaster’s or the editor’s decision on what to publish will be
final, and they reserve the right to amend your text for publication, to ensure that it is both appropriate and in the style of the
publication.
Going forward
• we intend to maintain all information about our events up to date on the website. At the beginning of the year there
will always be events that have yet to be organised in detail, and that may involve changes of date and time
amongst other things. However, we appreciate that people wish to reserve space in their diaries for events that
they are particularly keen to attend, so we will put as much as we know about an event on the website as soon as
we know about it. We will then refine that information as more details become available. Therefore, the website
will always have our latest version of our programme on it - where it is less than definitive you can rest assured that
it has as much information as possible at the time about each event.

• We will promulgate details of an event by sending a flyer or similar notification to each member approximately 4
weeks prior to the event, The flyer will give details of the organiser, with whom any questions should be raised and
bookings made. Please note that the Clerk arranges ALL formal functions whereas informal functions are arranged
by various members of the Company, who will be named on the flyer. Under no circumstances should bookings for
informal events be made with the Clerk. Please also book as soon after the flyer is issued as this serves to confirm
that there is interest and thus prevent the event being cancelled for lack of interest.
• If we think it appropriate, we will re-issue the flyer as a reminder to people who have yet to book, and we may
contact individual members who have been to similar events in the past to make sure that they are aware of the
planned event.

The website will, therefore, be our primary means of regular communication to our members. It is the most cost-effective
and real-time way that we can communicate with members who have internet access, and this is well over 95% of our
membership. Please consult our website for information about the Company, and, if you are a member, visit the members’
area, where you will find a great deal of more information as well as details of our merchandise and access to a copy of the
previous website at the time we moved over to the new website.

Autumn 2018 | The Journal of the Worshipful Company of Constructors | Page 21