“Attractive, easy to use and very informative”. That was the view of The Hon. Maizie Barker-Welch as she navigated www.barpbb.com the newly redesigned website of The Barbados Association of Retired Persons (BARP) at the launch ceremony at BARP Headquarters in Collymore Rock. Equally impressed was 85 year old BARP member and daily internet user, Margaret Turpin, who recently communicated with the Association via the BARP website to air her views on one of the many challenges facing the elderly. “I used the website to email BARP and ask if they could do something to encourage banks, post offices and government departments to provide special queuing facilities for older and disabled people.” Miss Turpin was very impressed with the speed of the BARP response to her website enquiry. “They got back to me within a day or two, and next thing I knew, they had put out an appeal for action by the relevant authorities on the weekly BARP radio programmes.”
The new website was designed and is maintained by Carolann Scantlebury, who was amazed to discover that according to a recent CADRES survey, over 60% of BARP members have access to and use the internet. Apart from being packed with news, picture galleries and an up to date events calendar, Carolann wanted to ensure that the design was user friendly, with particular care given to the choice of style and size of the lettering and the ease with which visitors to the site can find what they are looking for. Perhaps most important of all, Carolann wanted to make it especially easy for people to communicate directly with BARP without even having to open their email accounts. “I know how strongly BARP feels about giving a voice to its members, so I set out to provide a simple method for members to make their views known via an easy to submit feedback form on the website. The responses have multipled substantially along with the website traffic.”
Potential BARP members can also find out all about the Association and its wide range of member benefits and then download an application form to enable them to join BARP. And the popular BARP Benefits and Discounts Directory is also available to view or download from the website. Over 500 businesses island-wide have already recognised the buying power of BARP’s 24,000 members, and advertisers are clamouring to display their products on the BARP website. That is always good news for BARP members, as advertisers invariably offer special discounts to BARP members, and there has never been a better time to seek out those businesses who can help us ‘save a dollar’. And you can now listen to and download the BARP song, "Nothing Can Stop Us Now". See the news item above for details.