ICT Management. > Getting Support

The Circuit Rider journey – hang up your spurs?

By Lasa Information Systems Team

In January 2011 Lasa announced a Circuit Rider Survey to the almost 400-strong UKRiders mailing list. Having received only 32 responses, Sarah Lord Soares of Lasa's Information Systems Team asks if this is an indicator of how our non-profit technology ‘community’ feels about Circuit Riding.

It’s been a long ride. We’ve seen highs and lows in the funding environment which have carried the circuit rider far and wide but now it seems that perhaps the end is nigh. But, I should start more positively, right? Despite the now ubiquitous nature of technology, there are still small organisations who need support in ‘making the right technology decision’. And there are still people out there who are working for the greater good, enabling these small groups to work with their communities by giving the best possible advice and support they can. Is it just that there isn’t a common term we can use to unite us, reluctantly or otherwise?

The most popular understanding of Circuit Riding saw our way of operating with a strategic approach and not creating dependency as paramount. The question is whether this is sustainable in today’s funding environment? Fully funded strategic Circuit Rider projects are now few and far between so the pressure is on to find a balance that still supports planning for technology while offering more (financially) sustainable services.

The start of the journey

Back in the day, Lasa’s motivation in attempting to pull a ‘community’ together was to provide opportunities for sharing and learning and also influencing how funders allocated grant money for technology to organisations in the sector. The term Circuit Riders, a mobile worker who provides technology support and development to a caseload of small third sector organisations and who works in collaboration with other circuit riders, which was in active use in the US, sounded appropriate and was adopted.

UKRiders is born

To further our aims, again borrowing from the US experience, the UKRiders list was started in 2003 and debate started almost immediately over the use of the term. Some agreed it was useful to have a ‘collective’ term but others felt it was too homogeneous or just disliked having a label. But it was always gratifying to see people that had been working away in isolation, suddenly say “Hey, that’s what I do!” and get involved irrespective of the terminology.

Funders recognise Circuit Riders

Eight years ago, national funders Capacity Builders recognised the value in embedding planning for technology in the sector when they specifically asked for Circuit Rider projects across the regions. This was based on the first Lasa Circuit Rider project funded by the Big Lottery, and was a proven method that showed results by regular benchmarking throughout the two year project. Of course it wasn’t all happy trails - working with the smallest groups threw up its own challenges not least when the key contact left with all the learning! However, once the ICT Hub adopted the term it became a ‘household name’ in the sector, and there was no going back.

The debate at that time was more about what range of support Circuit Riders should be offering not whether they should be offering them at all. A memorable event in the East Region in 2006 for the ICT Hub programme argued whether Circuit Riders should be offering fundraising advice - it was agreed that if this advice was for technology then why not?

Where are we now?

So, returning to our recent survey, what are the benefits to being part of the network? Overwhelmingly, with a 66% response, the highest rated answer was to ‘share ideas and knowledge’ among an established group of colleagues. Second was the opportunity the list offers for networking, relating to overcoming a sense of isolation that a number of the respondents feel. An original aim of the list was to reach those of us who weren’t able to make face to face meetings because of location and budget so it was good to hear that this has been met. Keeping abreast of trends and fashions in the sector was also mentioned.

It was also commented on that an ICT provider wouldn’t necessarily want to be associated with the often used “cowboy” image which has somewhat negative perceptions.

Gatherings and learning

The Conferences over the years have attracted great interest by being specifically for not for profit technology people; there isn’t anything else like it. Each year since 2004 we have put together an agenda that reflects the most pertinent technology and organisational issues and the peer involvement of the community in participating in and running sessions, debating and feeding back has always been great. Our European Not For Profit Technology Conference later this year will offer the same chance to network, learn and share knowledge.

Developing a Circuit Rider training programme was first raised at the Conference in Birmingham in 2007; was there a need to develop the ‘softer’ skills of Circuit Riders? The Lottery Basis-funded Lasa ICT Learning Programme was the end result of this discussion. Relating this to the survey, a majority of the respondents, had already been working in the sector for between 7 and 11 years so perhaps felt that this sort of training was unnecessary?

What to call ourselves

From the survey replies it is clear that we are using interchangeable names depending on who we are talking to! Only three people said they called themselves Circuit Riders while nine people gave alternative suggestions such as Information Officer, IT support person or non-profit technologist. None of the suggestions were able to include the wide range of support offered to the sector by Riders from the strategic consultancy to the hands-on maintenance. Could it be that when we call ourselves an IT support worker we have to explain that we are also able to offer planning and training as part of your role?

The future?

What could our network offer subscribers in the future? Interestingly the specialist conference, opportunities to share knowledge, regional meetings and technology updates were all high up on the list of desirable service for the future. This adds to the evidence that there are common themes that we can be connecting through.

The upshot is that the use of the term ‘Circuit Riders’ may not describe what we do anymore with interchangeable names being used, but the sense of ‘community’ has been established, we have a familiar, knowledgeable and unique network based on years of working together under the Circuit Rider heading... maybe now we just need another name.

You can find out more about Circuit Riders on the UKRiders website.