As part of the upgrades to the MyCouncillor system introduced last week we have introduced a number of new "themes" the for myCouncillor site: 

"Multifarious Golden" and "Multifarious Aqua" are our two new standard themes that we'll be using when we set new sites up: (the names of these things come from the WordPress themes they're based on!!)

See them in action here:
Steve Beasant; Les Bonner, Bury Liberal Democrats

If you prefer something a bit more plain, then you might like "MyModernist" and "MyDojo":

See them in action here:
Tim Pickstone, Wilf Davison

TO CHANGE YOUR THEME, CLICK ON "APPEARANCE" ON THE DASHBOARD - AND CHOOSE WHICH THEME YOU WOULD LIKE! 

All of these new themes include a couple of new features: 

- the "Get Involved" buttons, (shown here) which make it easier for people to contact you and interact with the Party or electoral system

- an automatic Twitter feed (see below)

These new features have been rolled out onto seven of the existing themes. 

HOWEVER, we're getting to the stage where there are TOO MANY themes to manage effectively. (Every time a change is made every theme has to be updated). 

We are proposing the to PHASE out some of the oldest themes which are: 
"Fixed Width" (Yellow and Orange); "Banner Image" (Yellow and Orange) and "Black and Orange" / "White and Orange Bird". 

These will still work, but not with new features. Over time we'd like to discontinue them. 

Other themes are all fine, and will work with the new features. 

ALDC's popular "MyCouncillor" website system is getting a major upgrade in December. MyCouncillor provides free websites for Lib Dem councillors and local campaigners (who are members of ALDC!). 

A few people have asked us recently about changing the imprint on their MyCouncillor website to allow them to include their agent's contact details.

At the moment the imprint automatically takes details from the councillor or candidate's contact details.  We aren't able to alter this at present, however we are currently in discussions with the company that looks after the design side of the MyCouncillor system to change this.  We hope to be able to offer a more flexible way of selecting your imprint soon.

In the meantime however, although the current imprint on MyCouncillor sites do not necessarily follow best practice, they are legal.  So there is no need to worry about breaking the law.

In response to requests from a number of members we've launched two alternate domains for myCouncillor sites: 

focusteam.org.uk 

4mp.org.uk 

We've had a number of requests from people who were council candidates, and didn't want to use the myCouncillor.org.uk internet domain name before getting elected - focusteam.org.uk is for you!

Secondly we've noticed a number of our members using their sites as a simple site for a parliamentary candidate - so 4mp.org.uk is for you. 

All the domains are interchangeable and work at the same time

so: richardbaum.mycouncillor.org.uk; richardbaum.focusteam.org.uk and richardbaum.4mp.org.uk all go to the same place - it is just a different address for you to advertise on Focus leaflets, emails.

Please don't hesitate to get in touch if you need to know more.

Just to let people know about some of the events that might be of interest to MyCouncillor site users who are going to be at the Party's Federal Conference in Bournemouth from this weekend.

Training - Councillors and the Internet - Sunday 2.30-3.45 Royal Bath, Bayview
with Mary Reid and Tim Pickstone
This is an general session about emails, website tools, websites, blogging and social networking.

Training  - MyCouncilor sites - Tuesday 2.30 - 3.45 Royal Bath, Gladstone
with Tim Pickstone
This is a session aimed at existing MyCouncillor site users looking at imporving how we use our sites. The session will cover: what content to use; making best use of photos; and the basics of HTML code. The last 30 minutes of the session is an open "surgery" to answer any queries that people have.

MyCouncillor Day!
Tuesday 22nd September is MyCouncillor Day at the ALDC Stand. We'll be celebrating how Lib Dem Councillors lead the way for online presence - come and see if you can spot your site on our special stand display.
Julia Goldsworthy will be "launching" the day at 10.30am - it would be really good if any existing MyCouncillor users could be around to say hello to her - if you could let us know at the stand before Tuesday.

Hope this is useful, and to see many of you in Bournemouth.