As alluded to during my October 2024 update, there are some planned changes to the structure of the Marketing Department. To summarise, this involves the splitting of the Marketing Department into Events and Social Media, with Events moving to fall under the Operations Department’s remit. Social Media responsibilities will move to the current Member Services Department, which will rebrand to become the Community Department. Luke Thompson and Thomas Hallam will move to the Operations and Community Department respectively, but further recruitment for staff positions in both of these departments will be published over the coming week. For those interested in why these changes are being made and the background behind this decision, please see the below.

What are we trying to solve?

Almost one year ago, Loui Ringer announced he would be stepping down from the role of Marketing Director, a role he had occupied since early 2019. Throughout Loui’s tenure, we saw a transformation in both the frequency and complexity of UK events due to increasing traffic levels on the Network, particularly in the pre-event planning stages, which was necessary in order to ensure events were manageable from an ATC perspective and therefore enjoyable to all pilots. Throughout this transformation, myself and Loui relied heavily on the Operations Department to provide the necessary input during the pre-event planning process, however, we understood that this reliance on a small number of individuals in the Operation Department would not be sustainable long term. With this in mind, and following the addition of Luke Thompson and Thomas Hallam to the Marketing Department, the decision was made to create and implement the Events Team. This team is composed of members of the Division, including some staff, with the goal of developing and retaining event planning knowledge amongst a wider group of individuals on the Network. It was during this time that Loui announced his resignation and shortly thereafter I left my role of Marketing Manager to become Division Director, therefore the Marketing Department and Events Team was left without direct leadership. In the months that followed, recruitment for the role of Marketing Director opened and closed unsuccessfully. Although the Events Team removed a large knowledge prerequisite from planning events, an in-depth understanding of the intricacies of event planning, flow management and enroute knowledge is still required in order to lead the Events Team and make a suitable decision on the viability of event ideas, which made this a particularly challenging role to fill. Kieran Hardern briefly assumed responsibility for directing the Events Team, as his knowledge and role as Operations Director allowed him to pick up this responsibility with relative ease whilst we discussed long term leadership solutions amongst the DSG.

At the same time and somewhat unrelated, other discussions were being made regarding the experience of members in the Division. There are a number of areas which myself and DSG believe have historically lacked attention, for example, the onboarding of new members and controllers’ use of Discord and Teamspeak, social events and moderation. It is crucial that we continue to attract and retain members so that we have a continuous pipeline of future mentors and staff, but also so that the community which has been built continues to thrive. A large part of the reason these areas have fallen by the wayside is that they do not fit neatly under one particular department - in the past, these topics have seen little input until feedback from the community has grown strong enough for a band-aid fix to be applied. This stagnation in development and reactive nature regarding change is something which clearly must improve, and so a solution was also being sought here.

One such solution put forward and discussed was the restructuring of the Marketing Department to place the responsibility of Events under the Operations Department, and the movement of all other Marketing activities to the Member Services Department. This would provide the Events Team and current events staff with leadership and would also simplify workflows within event planning, as all planning now takes place within one department. By moving the remaining Marketing functions such as media and graphics to the Member Services, these skills can be better utilised to benefit the wider division, instead of being used primarily for the benefit of UK events. Following Kieran’s resignation, a decision was placed on hold until a new Operations Director was appointed, however with Dave Woodward now in position we were able to reach an agreement on this solution.

How are we going to solve it?

Moving forwards, we will see the permanent movement of events from the Marketing to the Operations Department. This includes the movement of Luke Thompson, who currently organises the majority of UK events, to the Operations Department where he will report to Dave, our Operations Director. Recruitment of additional events staff will take place over the coming weeks, and it is expected that Luke will be involved in training these new staff members, as well as assuming responsibility for the day-to-day running of events. The media and graphics functions will be moved from the Marketing to the Member Services Department - this includes the movement of Thomas Hallam who is currently responsible for managing the Graphics Team and our social media accounts. Tom will report to Will, our Member Services Director, and it is also expected that a number of roles in this team will shortly open for application.

What does this mean for me?

These changes will result in the movement of all Marketing functions and, therefore, the Marketing Department will no longer continue to exist. To reflect the Member Services Department’s increased focus on topics which affect the community greatest, the Member Services Department is being renamed to the Community Department. As an aside, those of you who have been around for longer than I have will likely appreciate the irony of this change now that we have come full circle! For the vast majority of our members, these changes will have no immediate impact on you. Luke and Tom will continue to manage the day to day running of the Events and Graphics Teams respectively, and therefore any issues should continue to be flowed upwards in the usual manner.

We hope that the benefits of a leaner management structure and better aligned departmental responsibilities will result in greater benefits to the community in the long term, and myself, Nick, Will and Dave will be working closely over the coming weeks and months to ensure the transition runs smoothly. If you are interested in one of the staff positions outlined in this post, please keep an eye on the forums and the UK Discord over the coming weeks. If you are considering applying but want to understand more about what these roles entail, feel free to reach out to me and I would be happy to explain further. Likewise, if you have any questions regarding these changes, please get in touch.

Ben