IT UPGRADE PROJECT DETAILS

A message from Mark Bentley.

When ShareSoc holds its monthly Board meetings, our primary focus is on how we can better serve you, our membership, and build a larger, stronger organisation that is able to exert real influence to improve the landscape for UK private investors.

As well as offering a broader and more regional range of attractive investor events, and increasing the range of educational materials we offer, we need to make the services we provide more accessible through electronic media. Roger Lawson has done a fantastic job, with virtually no resources other than his own unpaid time, to create our original website. However, we have now reached the limits of what can be achieved in that manner, and we recognise that we need a much more sophisticated site and membership management system to provide you with a comprehensive and easy to use service.

We aim to offer an attractive, mobile-friendly and easy to use website. This includes improving the navigability of the site, so that the high quality content we already have (as well as new content we plan to add) is more accessible to you. We also recognise the importance of streamlining the process of joining ShareSoc and signing up to our events. At present, this is a manual, labour intensive, process.

Currently, we operate two websites: our main site and the Members Network site. To improve accessibility, we wish to integrate these into a single website, which our members can log into and gain access to premium member-only content (currently only accessible through our Members Network site, which a number of members have reported they have difficulty accessing).

Over the last two years, Mike Dennis and I, with input from Roger, have examined how best to achieve this. Fortunately, we have established that we can develop the facilities we need using open source software: WordPress and CiviCRM, so there are no software costs as such. However, to create a website of a professional standard, professional input is required. After an extensive competitive process, we have identified expert contractors able to assist us with this, though much of the work to transition to this new site and system will be performed by ShareSoc’s own staff.

Besides the improved navigability and ease of use, we expect a number of other key benefits to flow from the systems upgrade:

User maintenance of profile information, so you can update information such as your email address and other contact details easily and immediately.
Selection of email types you do and do not wish to receive from us, so you’ll only receive the types of email you want to see. This will also allow us to keep our members better informed, without alienating those who are not interested in certain types of email.
Maintenance of the site and underlying data by any authorised personnel. As ShareSoc undertakes more activities it becomes impossible for one individual to maintain the site, as Roger does at present. This means that we will be able to keep the site more current, post more information and expand its scope. Expect lots of new, exciting developments!

To minimise risk and manage the workload on ShareSoc’s own team, the work to upgrade our facilities, which is considerable, will be conducted in a number of phases. I will post further articles in our newsletter, keeping you informed as the work progresses. In the first phase, the overall look and feel of the site, and its navigability, will be upgraded, also making it “mobile friendly”. However, during that phase, the members network will remain separate, as now, and there will be no logon facility to the main site, which will be entirely public. This first phase is now complete and you are experiencing the product of that work here. The other capabilities listed above will follow in subsequent phases.

As Mike is now fully occupied managing ShareSoc’s growing event roster, I have agreed to take on the task of managing this IT upgrade, on a voluntary basis.

To do all these things, however, we need your help. You can help us in two ways:

Firstly, the cost of contractor effort to conduct the first phase of the project was ~£6,000, below the original budget. Subsequent phases are expected to cost us a further £18,000. ShareSoc’s Board has determined that we cannot fund this from our ongoing membership and event income, as much of that income is required to cover the day-to-day administration of ShareSoc (including office costs) and the cost of our growing events team. Therefore we need to appeal to you for donations to support this vital capital expenditure, to improve our service to you and to secure ShareSoc’s future. We may also seek commercial sponsorship for the site, to help defray the costs.

We have established a discrete fund for such donations. The good news is that we have already had a number of very generous donations from past and current directors of ShareSoc, totalling £5,000 – so we’re off to a good start! That total includes a very generous donation of £3,000 from Leon Boros. Leon understands how vital this project is to ShareSoc’s future, and hopes that it will be at least matched by donations from other ShareSoc members.

I hope that you will feel able to support this project and donate generously. To do so, please visit this page.

With your help, I look forward to advancing this exciting project and to bringing you an improved web experience with ShareSoc.

Mark Bentley

Group description:	SIGnet Taunton is a new group with around 10 keen members at present, with a range of investment styles and experience. We welcome new members.
Meeting Type/Venue:	In person meetings at a golf club near to the centre of Taunton.
Meeting Frequency/Timing:	We meet on the first Monday of every month at a golf club near to the centre of Taunton, 11am until 3pm with a lunch break.

Group description:	An online group for those who are new to investing, or have only been investing for a few years. Including topics such as: – What is a share or a bond, why and how to buy them. – Comparing funds, unit trusts, Investment trusts and exchange traded funds. – Portfolio management and diversification. – ISAs, pensions, SIPPS and how to save tax. – How terms such as PE ratio and dividend yield are used to value a share. – How to use technical analysis or charting.
Meeting Type/Venue:	Online using Zoom.
Meeting Frequency/Timing:	Meetings are usually held on the last Monday of the month at 7:00pm.

Group description:	An online group for those who already have some experience in investing. Covering topics such as finding companies to invest in, financial statements and ratios, valuation / margin of safety, analysis of companies and investment trusts and exchange traded funds.
Meeting Type/Venue:	Online using Zoom.
Meeting Frequency/Timing:	Meetings are usually held on the last Wednesday of the month at 7:00pm.

Group description:	The Equity Income Group welcomes investors of all levels of experience, from beginners to advanced. The focus of meetings is on dividend paying Investment Trusts, though there is also discussion around individual shares.
Meeting Type/Venue:	Meetings are held online.
Meeting Frequency/Timing:	Meetings are held every 6 weeks on a weekday between 7 and 8:30pm.

Group description:	The Group welcomes investors of all levels of experience, from beginners to advanced. The focus of meetings is on all types of income generating financial instruments, from stocks through Trusts and Funds and ETFs to retail bonds. Meetings involve presentations from members, who are also expected to lead discussions from time to time, as well as discussions on what has been bought and sold since the last meeting.
Meeting Type/Venue:	Meetings are in-person in a venue in Central London.
Meeting Frequency/Timing:	Meetings are usually held on the last Thursday of every other month, starting with an informal lunch around 1pm followed by discussions until around 5pm.

Group description:	Our group is a broad church that contains investors of varying experience. Our members’ backgrounds are diverse and include corporate banking, engineering, teaching and the leisure industry. We generally pick a discussion topic for every meeting, e.g. housebuilders or the defence industry, and members are invited to research and discuss different aspects or companies within that industry. We also discuss stocks and investment trusts that we have bought, sold or are interested in and the reasons behind our decisions, and try to make sense of the ever changing investment environment. Discussions are robust and challenging but we are a friendly and approachable group who welcome investors of all levels – we just ask that you contribute, at whatever level you can.
Meeting Type/Venue:	Our meetings are held in a private room at a nice pub near to South Ealing tube station (Piccadilly Line), not far from Ealing Broadway (District, Central and Elizabeth Line).
Meeting Frequency/Timing:	We meet every 2 months, usually on a Wednesday morning at 11am.

Group description:	All levels of experience welcome. A typical meeting agenda includes: – Macro Environment – Trades: Members review existing positions and identify securities with promising TA entry patterns or setups and with suitable risk/reward. Any security, long, short, futures, options may be considered. The convener takes actual positions in trades and maintains his own detailed ledger, accurately measuring performance of individual securities and cumulative activity. Members are notified by e-mail prior to the entries or exits that are decided upon. Following each meeting an updated copy of the ledger is circulated together with the next meeting agenda. Members may wish to maintain similar ledgers of their own but there is no obligation to do so. – Technical Analysis: Techniques and systems used in trades. Members can request discussion of particular aspects of TA.
Meeting Type/Venue:	Online via Zoom
Meeting Frequency/Timing:	The first Tuesday of every month from 7 to 9pm

Group description:	Open to all investors / people with an interest in investing. Typical meeting will involve members talking about recent purchases, successes, failures and possible future purchases. Also with occasional visiting speakers or members making presentations on a topic of interest.
Meeting Type/Venue:	We aim to meet on the last Tuesday of each month in a private room at a pub in Playhatch. Start time 7pm with members encouraged to meet up around 6pm for a bite to eat / drink before hand, if their diaries allow.
Meeting Frequency/Timing:	7pm on the last Tuesday of the month. Meetings likely to last about two hours but with informal ‘overspill’ before / after.

Group description:	Our group members have wide ranging investment experience and work backgrounds. Discussion topics include reviewing our recent stock or collective investment buying and selling activity, plus what we are considering buying or selling and the reasons for our decisions. We also have a wider discussion on where we think opportunities might arise in the next few months and what we think needs to be avoided. Members occasionally lead discussions on specific topics such as recent events attended, articles or books of interest and sources of investment ideas and information.
Meeting Type/Venue:	During the pandemic our meetings were held on Zoom, but we have now resumed meeting in person at a location a few miles to the west of Colchester. Most meetings will now be in person, but it is possible that occasional meetings will be held on Zoom in special circumstances.
Meeting Frequency/Timing:	We meet midweek every two months. Zoom meetings run for about two hours from 10.30am and in person meetings from 11am until about 3pm, including a break for lunch.