Write Out Loud's Winston Plowes - the man who puts out the WOL welcome mat for new members - has decided to relinquish his role as long-serving membership supremo at the end of the year because of his increasing workload and other commitments. WOL's founder, Julian Jordon, paid tribute to "my good friend Winston" as a stalwart of the WOL admin team, to his "concern for others" and "desire to help them grow", and to his "commitment, above and beyond his designated post".     

In a message to all WOL members Win wrote:

"Dear All,

My time at WOL membership HQ will come to an end on the last day of this year. Increasing workload and other projects mean sadly that I can no longer devote enough time to my post. It has been a time filled with countless friendships, associations, collaborations and of course poetry. I cannot overestimate how much WOL has helped shape me as a poet and hope this will continue in years to come as I will continue to be a non-admin member of the site. I would like to say a massive thank you here to all members of the web team past and present and of course to the 1,000-strong membership of WOL for making this site the vibrant, fun, creative and informative place that it is.

The existence and future of WOL depends upon voluntary help to run its many parts. If you fancy getting involved in a rewarding role that will help our site then please get in touch with Julian Jordan at julian@writeoutloud.net

Said Hamlet to Ophelia,

I'll draw a sketch of thee,
What kind of pencil shall I use?

2B or not 2B?

(Spike Milligan)"

Write Out Loud's founder, Julian Jordon, said: "My good friend Winston Plowes has been a stalwart of the Write Out Loud team for such a long time now that it seems like he has always been with us; it will be difficult to contemplate how we will manage without him. It does not easily compute. Quite apart from Win's passion for poetry, it is his concern for others, his desire to help them grow and learn from the incredible open-mic poetry movement and our online community. This what I, and the rest of the team will miss when he is no longer on this side of the counter, as it were. His commitment has been above and beyond his designated post, not least in giving support to me at difficult times.

"I fully understand his reasons for wanting a rest from it all. Write Out Loud has grown so much, particularly in the past year, that it has been a greater job than any of our volunteers 'signed up' for; and the increased demands from the website make it difficult for a freelancer like Win to commit to it whilst needing to devote increasing amounts of time to making a living in this difficult economic era. I want to mention also his support for Sean in running the Hebden Bridge Write Out Loud night through its various difficult times. Thank you Win, for all that you have done for Write Out Loud, your fellow team members, its poets, its gig organisers and your many friends on- and offline. We look forward to reading and hearing your poetry into the future."