Occasionally, we have the pleasure of giving recognition to people who go above and beyond. Today, we would like to let you know about Frank Paterson to whom we have just given Life
Membership.
Whilst, it is possible to buy your own non-expiring Life
Membership subscription via our
shop to get your Life
Membership, we have from time to time given Life
Membership to people for exceptional contribution to the ExplorOz website in recognition for their volunteer work in the background assisting with content or admin management.
Frank first started getting involved behind the scenes after being an early adopter of the
ExplorOz Traveller app (ie purchasing the very first version of
ExplorOz Traveller app in June 2016). He had already been a long-term financial member and site user since 2008 but he told us that after many years of using OziExplorer and Hema maps he was very keen to use
ExplorOz Traveller to be able to use our
EOTopo maps. He is a regular traveller (or was before COVID), and is an avid user of navigational tools, maps and tracking and he was regularly in contact with us as he experimented with different features and
tools and as we cut our teeth on the early versions of the app.
During these conversations, we quickly realised that Frank was offering insights from the user-perspective that were unique because he could talk in a language that was both respectful but also persistent. He has an inquiring mind, and an eye for detail and has commonsense in abundance.
It was Frank's unique ability to collaborate constructively with me (and I'm not that easy to deal with sometimes) to ensure we were both on the same page when discussing a potential "problem" that made us come to feel he was"part of the team". His likeable nature and approach to problem solving encouraged me to suggest he might like to consider being a Place Administer to give him more autonomy to fix things as he saw them - a role that is not taken lightly as it comes with a huge amount of trust on our behalf. Frank has been incredibly proactive in this role - and has invested enormous amounts of time into
Places for which I am incredibly grateful. This type of contribution is so valuable to us - many hands make light work. He is completely thorough and accurate. Frank is also an active
Forum user and so it was a natural progression that he moved into the role of moderator soon after.
Since COVID restrictions have been in place, and his vehicle sent away for warranty repair, he volunteered even further by proposing to create a series of
Treks (starting with the 6
new Treks published last month) that follow the Rail Trails of Australia (shared-use
treks for hikers, cyclists and horse back riders). This was a challenging project because up until then, we did not have a collaborative system that would enable a remote worker to do such a task - in fact thanks to Frank we now have a system whereby a Private Trek created in the app can be used to create a Public Trek - after some admin magic done by us in the background of course. He is now working on the Victorian High Country rail trails after completing the Great Victorian Rail Trail.
It is for all these reasons that Frank is very deserving of recognition and Life
Membership is the least we can do and I hope this public expression of our gratitude also helps go towards showing our appreciation.
I called Frank today to give him the good news and found him enjoying his first COVID escape so I'm not sure if he'll
check in to the website to see this post for a few days yet but please join with me in congratulating him.