Founded 1980
Chair:        
Secretary: 
Treasurer: 

Graham Smith
Jan Thompson
Graham Mumby-Croft


WWW as applied to RPGA

W (who) W (what) and W (why)

It’s entirely possible that some of our readers are not aware that we have a dedicated website for the RPGA members use. It can be found at www.rpga.gov.uk. or www.rpga.homestead.com I will try to explain here why and how our website came about.

I have now been retired for 21 years after 32 years’ service, twenty-two as uniformed and the last ten as a governor grade finishing with a G3 pension. I am now a member of your RPGA committee with a specific role as webmaster for the RPGA website. How did that come about and why do we have a website I can almost hear you thinking.

My service started at HMP Leeds during 1974 (14 years), PSITG HQ (2 years) then HMP Belmarsh (10 years) While there I was promoted GV after 4 years the Balance of 6 years was a little nomadic as a controller (Temp G3) at prisons operated in the private sector.

During my service I had heard of Bob Duncan, but we didn’t meet until after my retirement when I took up employment as Head of the Male Prison at Peterborough (this was a serious mistake and another story) and I met Bob there where he had been employed as a consultant, we became kindred spirits and became lifelong friends. 

Eventually I gave up on HMP Peterborough with an NDA but kept my affiliation with Bob who recruited me to help him in the management of the Charity “The Shannon Trust” (yet another story). At the time Bob lived nearby in the town of March, and we met weekly for lunch and enjoyed each other’s company sharing anecdotes and opinions about HMP. Our personal view on the HMP operations while not diametrically opposed were significantly different but we did not argue, we just discussed, and I had great and shared respect for each other.

Bob had been a member of the RPGA since his retirement and had become an active member of the committee. Bob proposed me to be a committee member, and I was pleased to join the committee.

Now to the website: 

When I joined the committee, I was quite surprised that the RPGA did not have a website, and it hadn’t really been considered so I suggested that I could create one for the group. Like most things it was essentially a whim. Apart from life experience I didn’t have any special skills that I thought would be useful to the group and I did have the ability to produce a website without creating any need to affect the group funds. The group of members were “Typical” of the generally retired group of people. They couldn’t visualise the need for a website and in fairness neither could I apart from my desire to do something that I had a competence for, and it might somehow be useful. In business it is generally considered that “not to have a website is equal to not having a business” and it is fair to say that for the great majority of people nowadays who are seeking information about anything go to the internet. The Chinagraph and Acetate along with the Quill and Parchment are long gone and the new technology expands daily whether we like it or not. My argument for the website was based on we dinosaurs are a dying breed and the new guard are all tech savvy and more familiar to using technology, paper was dying, and the screen was where we all got our information.

In essence my reasoning was simple and accepted albeit with some reservation. So it was that I began to build the website. I formed the basic design providing what I thought would be most acceptable to users. I need not go into detail because the site remains as my original design for you to see. It contains information about the RPGA organisation and literal copies of the Newsletter. To make some items more easily accessible to users I have provided the Chair, Secretary, Treasurer and Editor their own unique areas and their newsletter entries are published independently to allow users easy access to their entries. As we have several members who provide their own thoughts of prison matters or personal interests for publication, I provided a separate area for members contributions.

Fortunately, we have a growing number of contributors some with many insightful entries but all very interesting. All contributions are published and more will be welcome.

The major benefit of the website is that it acts as a useful archive. When I first started this process, I thought it would be easy to collect and collate newsletters and just extract and publish the interesting content. I should have known better from my own experience of how handovers take place in the prison service, it may be better now, but I doubt it. We all know better, how the job can be done, than the previous incumbent so we all start afresh ignoring what went before.

The RPGA are no different. I speak with deference to the present committee who are all good and worthy people as are those who went before them. I discovered quickly that nothing, that I needed, had been handed over no one had an archive of previous copies of the newsletter. Of course, thanks to the present Editor I am now able to maintain a good record of the newsletters published since the website was first launched in 2018. There should be 92 possible newsletters since the beginning, and I have been able to collect and publish 49. As you read this and you have some newsletters saved in the bottom of a cupboard somewhere. Please just check and if you have one that I don’t have please let me know (roger@rsoutram.co.uk) and I would be grateful to have a copy.

So far this year there has been 372 Views of the website at an average of 47 per month. Neither astonishing nor surprising given our demographic. Since I started on this Journey, I have realized that there is a good reason, past my ambition, to maintain this website as an archive of our activity beyond retirement.

Please continue to view the website and support the views and values of the RPGA.

Roger Outram