Introductions: Hello world (or at least the UK bit of it)

[xavier]

I run two (Drupal based) CiviCRM sites - one for the choir that I sing in (predominantly using CiviMember to maintain the membership records), the other for an organisation which offers a supportive moving service for older people (predominantly uses CiviCase for tracking the progress of each move). 

We are always looking for case studies, and yours sounds like something that would fit nicely and expand the civi landscape!

Could you write them? As Dave was presenting at civicon, we are going to launch a revamped site soon that will give a better space to these stories.

X+

[LindseyM]

Hi
Thought I'd introduce myself too.  I work for a large UK church www.woodlandschurch.net and we transitioned in June 2011 from a Joomla website to a Drupal 7 one which we have integrated with Civi.  We are loving the Civi functionaity and the fact that we can customise it for our use.  There are some challenges in getting Civi to meet our sector-specific needs - mostly around recurring events (like courses and weekly children's groups) and the attendance reporting we'd like from that and also around reporting about group growth/decline (as we have hundreds of groups).  Having said that, we're persevering and are hoping in time to develop functionality that many other churches can benefit from as the sector has similar needs within it.

We are in touch with Trinity Church Cheltenham - another large UK church using Civi - and Alpha International, a large Christian charity which is also a Civi user.  We're also chatting to Dave Moreton at Circle Interactive about sector-specific developments.

I really enjoyed going to Civicon in August and want to say a big thank you to the Civi team/community for a great piece of software which is light years ahead of what we were using pre-Civi.

Lindsey

[Michael McAndrew]

Hey there,

Great that you are getting a lot out of CiviCRM.  We have another UK meet up (this one much more informal) planned for November 2nd at TechHub in London.  Would be cool to see lots of UK users there!

Michael

[LindseyM]

Thanks Michael.  Please can you say a bit more about the timing and venue whereabouts of the 2 Nov meet up as I couldn't see it on the blog pages. 

Lindsey

[Michael McAndrew]

here is the event page: civicrm.org/civicrm/event/info?reset=1&id=151

let me know if you need anything else.

michael

[sailormatt]

Hi All!

I'm based in the South West, Plymouth and am integrating Joomla and CiviCRM for my Sail Training Organisation.

Thought I'd add to the list with my greatings

:-)

Matt

[TimG]

Hi all,
Another South West based user here - Falmouth. I'm here under two hats as I'm webmaster for a children's charity who coincidentally have engaged my employers to migrate their MSAccess based systems to Joomla / CiviCRM (how'd that happen :-) ) So now I have to make it work

[MrsBakesALot]

Hello everyone!

I am Olivia and am based in Wimbledon, London.

I spent the past 2 years with Alpha International who have been quite involved with the UK "make it happen" with regards to the gift aid module. AI wanted Civi to do quite a lot of complicated functions, most of which required customised development which was far beyond any of our teams capabilities and we out sourced quite a lot. (Shout out to Michael & MTL for all their help!)

Having been on maternity leave, I am now returning to self employed work configuring Civi for small churches and other NFPs in the London and South East.  So far, the installs have been fairly simple and haven't required much in terms of extra configuration, it's mostly that these charities don't have the staff or technical know how to implement a CRM themselves. Along with the installs I also provide a comprehensive training for the staff on how to use their new databases which is tailored to them and the modules they are using.

Great to be back in touch with the community and looking forward to CiviCon in September.

Olivia

[clarkac]

Hi

I'm Andy, based in Derby.

I'm retired, after many years with IBM UK, 5 years with Sabre in Forth Worth, Texas and 6 years doing debt/welfare advice (just for a change!).  I'm installing Civicrm for a charity in West Yorkshire, working through www.it4communities.org.uk  I'm very impressed with Civicrm, and also looking forward to Civicon in September.

[Michael McAndrew]

Hey there!

Welcome (back) to all the new UK people.

In case you missed that litttle clock in the top right, here's the link to civicon london 2012! http://london2012.civicrm.org/

[nickholden]

A quick hello - I'm working for a health research unit in the East Midlands, and we're exploring the use of Civi (and specifically CiviCase) to manage contact with potential volunteers for research studies. I'd be interested especially in collaborating with anyone else finding new ways to use CiviCase, and possibly a plugin for UK address lookups / standardisation, unless someone has already nailed that one?

[xavier]

At civicon on the 19 you will have a session focusing on civicase. You might want to join?

http://london2012.civicrm.org/sessions/lean-charity-civicase-and-webform-case-study-giving-away-%C2%A350-million-civicrm

We worked on a module to do address lookup from the zip but don't recall the details and I think they switched to a better solution (where you don't need to buy a super expensive database from the post).

But attend to civicon and you will get the chance to discuss it further and meet more civi people.

X+

[Owen]

Hi Nick,

We've got address lookup working with http://www.qas.co.uk/products/capture-name-and-address-data/pro.htm

What sort of research unit are you at?

Owen @ Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research

[Michael McAndrew]

hey owen - any chance of a link to that code? looks v. handy

[Owen]

Just spoke to one of our devs, we've got a new version just finished which will integrate in front end forms too. I'll post that when it's tidied up in a week or two.