Here's a lil lovely tale about how we have all been brought together.
My laptop was so jammed with articles etc that it was running dead slow, so asked R (o/h) to sort it he said Id have to 'clear it down' tekkie speak for getting rid of rubbish, methinks. Going thru working out what to clear down was a nightmare I wanted to keep everything and kept getting distracted reading things lol being a bit of a midwifery nerd - yea Im hooked as if you cant tell...... R says why dont u make a forum like mine.... his has 15,000 members (eek). I think about it and think yea I like helping people I have loads of stuff people may find useful why not share it? ...... 2 hours later the domain name was brought and R was designing it under my annoyingly perfectionist eye........ 'I want this like this and like that' , 'No ive changed my mind, like this and that instead' I just had to think of what I wanted and he made it happen in a tekkie way........you wont believe the patience and skill of the man. That weekend we worked til 6am all three nights, then up by 9 seeing to the kids and off we'd go again. It was a real project of passion, the buzz of what we were creating kept us going long after we'd normally have crashed out. The next few weeks we worked on the site alot adding this and refining that. We have poured hours and hours into this and its so worth it. And as you know Im on here alot doing what I can to help fellow students and wanabes and Im always working away behind the scenes with staff, on projects, new features, development etc. I try and respond to everyones post but as we grow and the workload gets bigger I dont always get to everyone thats why I devised a staff structure so there is always someone who can answer questions aswell as me.
In just four short months we have 670 members, been in The Practising Midwife, MIDIRS, Midwives and countless international journals I cant spell! We have members from 19 different countries and are at the top of most search engines (R's an SEO specialist), I get regular contact from different Unis around the world saying how much they like what we do here...... Our statistics show we are growing at an alarming rate (yay!) and regularly have 50-100 people online at once .......... We have an excellent set of staff (angels the lot of 'em), a student mentor scheme, a glossary, educational video's/3d animations, a book shop and even a radio feature and loads more great stuff..... in such a short amount of time we have surprised ourselves tbh
Thankyou all for contributing to and shaping SM.Net so we can help other students and wanabes and learn loads along the way. We still have lots of plans up our sleeve to make midwifery education information more accessible, new useful and user friendly features and lots more projects. So stay tuned folks.
As I sit here at my desk at this wee hour I cant quite believe it. I did this. Wow
I couldnt have done it without Rob tho hes the tekkie brains behind the scenes and is committed to keep taking us forward with the latest technology and programmes.
Ive made loads of amazing new friends many I know I will know for years and years and have been brought back in daily contact with some of my most treasured friends because of our love of midwifery.
So, once again, thankyou
xx