It's almost the end of 2018!

Boards.ie: Niamh

The holidays can be tough for some people. You can get help and support from several places which you will find listed here.

It's almost the end of 2018! Of the 2018 working year at least.
2018 turned out to be a busy year for Boards. As with most years, there have been highs and lows and lots of change. A number of new forums have opened, some old forums have closed or been merged and the office team has reduced down a bit. We said goodbye to Ademir in Design and Louise in Sales and to our CEO of four years, Sean. As some of you might remember, Sean left us when we merged with Journal Media Limited in September. This also meant a return to Golden Lane for the rest of the team (7 of us) and a departure from our Sth William Street office. We're now sharing a space with TheJournal.ie and their other publications and we're well settled in well with them now.

I couldn't even begin to count how many changes we've had with the mods, cmods and admin teams but there have been many and anyone who takes on these voluntary roles is very much appreciated.

Mark has continued his great work in keeping the community up to date with all changes and tech issues as well as some great user support and monthly newsletters. For his sins he has also dealt with most of the GDPR requests and related issues.

I said this last year and will say it again now. Everyone deserves some time off so please be patient over the next week or two as the mods, cmods and admin (and ourselves) take some time away to spend with friends, family and pets and might not get back to things as quickly as we normally would.

Myself and Mark will be checking in on things sporadically over the next week and a bit for anything urgent. Anything non-urgent will have to wait until we return to the office on 2nd January. We'll be back to normal working hours then, Monday - Friday 9.00am to 5.30pm.

We plan to have some Boards stats about 2018 to share with you in January, Mark did a great Reeling in the Years type post to summarise 2017 and something similar for 2018 is on the way in 2019.

Thank you to everyone for your wonderful contributions, your kindness, helpfulness and generosity to fellow members and your support throughout the year - let's have lots more of this in 2019

Personally I am looking forward to a bigger and brighter year in 2019. I spotted on the Television forum today that Peaky Blinders series 4 has just landed on Netflix so I know what I will be watching over the next week!

Happy Christmas to those who celebrate and enjoy the break if you'll be lucky enough to have one,

All the best,
Niamh, Mark and all of the Boards.ie team.

Boards.ie: Niamh

We recognise that this is not a good time of year for everyone and for some people it is the worst time of year.

If you feel you need to talk to someone, here are some helpful numbers and websites of people you can contact:

Samaritans - how we can help you or free call number 116 123 available 24/7

Aware (supporting depression) 1800 80 48 48 Daily 10am – 10pm

Turn2Me.org No phoneline but website might be of help.

Gay Switchboard Ireland - (01) 872 1055 6.30pm - 9pm, 7 days per week | email: ask@gayswitchboard.ie | IM on their Facebook page here.

Parentline - guiding parents, supporting families Lo Call 1890 927277 or 01 8733500 Monday–Thursday 10 a.m. – 9.30 p.m. and Friday 10a.m. – 4.30 p.m

Childline 1800 66 66 66 or Free text TALK to 50101

Teenline 1800 833 634 open Monday - Friday 8pm-11pm) or Free Text ‘HEAR’ to 51444 (text service no longer available.

Society of St. Vincent de Paul 01 8386990 - you will find the numbers for individual area offices on the site linked.

Fr Peter McVerry Trust 01 823 0776

Simon Community

Focus Ireland

HOMELESS HELPLINE at 1800 707 707 (Dublin only, Central Placement Service)

You can also find more helpful sites and numbers in this sticky in After Hours and this sticky in Personal Issues. Take care.