Several of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society's branches are now helping to pilot a scheme for the provision of dedicated branch webspace on the Society's website (www.rpsgb.org.uk).
The scheme allows each branch to offer information such as contact details, a diary of local events, branch news and special announcements. The Society says that using its webspace rather than setting up their own sites will give branches a number of advantages: as part of the Society's website, branch webpages are readily located by web users; branch webpages will be indexed and searchable using a powerful search engine; no hosting charge is to be levied; branch pages will inherit a professional design; the website is backed up every 24 hours; and statistics will be provided on the level of use of the branch webspace.
The Society is looking for further branches or regions to take part in the pilot during May and June. Each branch will need someone with word processing skills, an internet connection and FTP (file transfer protocol) software for loading files on to the site.
Branches will be supplied with a simple template for the layout of information. Once the pilot has tested the mechanics of the system, more sophisticated templates will be produced as part of an overall redesign of the Society's website. Special web editing software is not needed, but may be used so long as the branch conforms to the template style.
To allow everyone the chance to perfect their skills, there will be no links from elsewhere on the Society's website to the branch webspaces during the period of the trial. Branches are, however, free to advise their members of the web address for their branch home page.
Further branches or regions wishing to take part in the pilot should e-mail the Society's website editor, Mrs Mary Snell, at msnell@rpsgb.org.uk.

Mrs Snell (seated) demonstrates the branch webpage scheme at the Society's branch representatives' meeting on May 11