On Saturday February 7 VMWS committee members Jill Tomlinson and Linny Kimly Phuong attended the Melbourne Joomla Day, an educational day that focused on the website content management system Joomla. Teaching was provided on all aspects of website management including search engine optimization, templating, security, Joomla extensions and e-commerce.

Funding for the VMWS representatives’ attendance was provided by the Australian Federation of Medical Women, which is currently offering free Joomla training opportunities to all AFMW members as part of the Bridging Leadership Barriers Project. This training aims to provide medical women with the skills required to upload and manage content on the AFMW website (http://afmw.org.au) which has undergone complete redevelopment in the last 7 months.

As part of this project AFMW has developed a test website on which medical women can practice their skills by creating articles on a password protected website that is not visible to the general public. An instructional manual has also been developed with screenshots that take you step by step through basic content management.  An initial round of website skills training sessions were held at the MWIA Western Pacific Regional Congress in Melbourne in October 2008 and additional sessions have since been held in Sydney.

If you would like to get involved and learn more about basic website management, developing website communication strategies, creating e-Books, managing an online mailing list and/or making e-newsletters and PDF newsletters, please contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .