The Experience of A Beacon Volunteer

Roy, part of the u3a Beacon support team, talks about the u3a management system and how he came to part of its support team.

Beacon is a Membership and Financial management system used by many u3as across the UK.

With a background of 50 years in the computing and IT industry, I answered a call for volunteers, three and a half years ago, to help in managing and running the service and now lead the On Going Help Team which primarily, provides the u3a Beacon HelpDesk.

I also hold the technical relationship with the Software company responsible for the maintenance and development of Beacon’s software.

Working as a member of Beacon Support has given me a great sense of personal satisfaction in applying skills and knowledge, gained during my career, in helping Beacon users at all levels but especially those who have submitted the 2000 support ticket requests since the ‘Desks’ inception in July 2019.

I also enjoy being a member of a team of mainly retired but still dedicated professionals sharing the common interest of delivering an excellent IT system to u3as nationwide.