U3A Whittlesea's Kevin Whelan is Announced Technology Volunteer of the Year at the Connecting Up Awards

Congratulations to Kevin Whelan of U3A Whittlesea for winning Technology Volunteer of the Year at the Connecting Up Awards ceremony in May! Network was proud to nominate Kevin and to have the work his and his teams of volunteers do recognised across Australia and New Zealand.

U3As in Victoria and interstate as well as the national peak body, U3A Alliance Australia, will recognise Kevin and his team's work with the U-MAS membership management system and the U3A website template. Kevin and his six volunteer database specialists, support 98 volunteers across 49 Victorian U3As with U-MAS. This includes providing training and on call support. In 2021, they successfully implemented a significant upgrade to U-MAS during the various lockdowns in Victoria, implementing the new U-MAS for Members system which features device responsiveness.

In 2017, Kevin identified the need for a template website product for U3As to use to host their member management and course enrolment systems. Along with his three volunteer website specialists, Kevin supports 93 volunteers across 59 U3As. This includes securing and managing domains, hosting, Google analytics, WordPress configuration and managing APIs, as well as providing training and support.

Kevin, congratulations again and thank you for your support for the U3A movement in Victoria - and Autralia!