UK Environmental Law Association makes the most of technology to do more

The UK Environmental Law Association (UKELA) has a big mission that they try to achieve with few resources, by making the most of their volunteers and online tools.

UKELA was set up over 20 years ago, with a mission to make the law work for a better environment. They are a membership organisation with 1,200 solicitors, barristers, NGOs and academics as members.

The organisation is governed by a council of 20 members (the board of trustees) that meets quarterly and a smaller executive committee that meets between council meetings to make decisions. There are 3 part-time members of staff, who between them do 7 days' work per week.

What does UKELA do?

• Influencing environmental law

  There are working parties – made up of members and staff – on topics such as climate change and water. These groups keep up to date on current policy, new research, developments in order to try and influence policy.
  
  Using money from their reserves, UKELA developed a new website last year called Law and Your Environment in order to give people access to information and resources. Last year the site had 80,000 visitors.
  
  They were awarded a Google Grant that allowed them to advertise the site on Google for free, making it more visible to people who need information.
  
  The site is mostly updated by member volunteers, with support from a few days of paid worker time.

• Running events

  UKELA run regional and national events on anything from radical green environmental law to technical legal information.
  
  Each event is managed by a volunteer/member and costs are covered by the delegate fees. Cvent is an online booking system that UKELA use to manage all of the bookings and mailings to delegates.
  
  Cvent charges £2 per booking and although you sign a contract for a particular number of bookings it's possible to revise this up as you go. The system also allows UKELA to send out reminder emails to people that have booked on.

• E-journal and member mailings

  UKELA send out a bi-monthly e-journal on legal issues, edited by a volunteer. There are also member mailings that go out every month.
  
  When their members were asked how they would like to receive their information, only 20 asked to keep getting paper-based updates.

How else is UKELA using technology to do more?

• At events:

  UKELA try to run paperless events. They have found that the key to this is communicating things really well and all presentations are emailed after each event.
  
  For their annual conference they ask people to pay extra for printing out papers, which has meant they usually bring their own.
  
  All of the presentations are put onto a locked area of their website, which is then made accessible to conference attendees.

• In the office:

  UKELA have no office base. They work remotely, which saves about £30,000 per year.
  
  In the "office" they are making use of Dropbox as a way to share files and BT Meet ME to run teleconferences.
  
  They have just started to use Huddle as a tool to work on a high-risk complex project involving about 12 people.
  
  There is a space for discussion on their website, although members tend to prefer email.
   
  UKELA are trying to do more online but need to work through any issues first around online security.

How else does UKELA made technology work for them?

UKELA have been lucky to be supported by their executive committee in their use of technology. Their risk assessment, for example, is particularly good, with having so many lawyers around! The Director of UKELA is also open to investigating new technologies.

The development of a new website, with the help of Smart Media was supported by the trustees because they could see the value in providing information to the public about their environmental rights and responsibilities.

In order to help staff and volunteers contribute to either the public information website or the UKELA website via a content management system, they offer phone or office based training sessions.

UKELA use LinkedIn as a way to connect members and there are currently 450 people using it from the membership.

YouTube is an important tool for sharing videos on environmental issues and UKELA have two interns producing videos for it.

To find out more about UKELA go to www.ukela.org