As 2024 comes to an end, it’s the perfect time to reflect on our achievements and successes over the past year.
We’re immensely proud of the work we’ve done and incredibly honoured to support the silent backbone of our beloved Armed Forces Community, namely the wonderful military spouses and partners of the Royal Navy, British Army, and Royal Air Force (RAF).
So, let’s reflect.
The year began with another funding award from the Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust (AFCFT), which has made this year possible.
The funding will continue until the end of March 2026, leaving us ample opportunity to deliver a truly powerful business case for the MCN, which will hopefully result in it being formally adopted into the Family Provision Offer.
In March 2024, we appointed a new Membership & Marketing Lead, bringing the MCN Delivery Team up to full capacity once again, and putting this dedicated team into a strong position to deliver real value to our members across our Online Community and Hub Network.
Throughout March and April, we delivered an important UX/UI project, which was designed to improve both the member experience and user interface of our website and has contributed to the success of the website, evidenced in greater website traffic and better engagement.
A full audit of our Members Area was also conducted – obsolete assets were removed, existing checked and updated with the wonderful cooperation of our partner organisations. A lengthy but rewarding task that is vital in ensuring that our content remains accurate and up-to-date, and our Resource Library continues to be a useful, reliable, top-quality resource for all our members. We now have 180+ resources, including videos, top tips, case studies, practical guides, blogs, and FAQs, which is a tremendous feat.
In May, we launched our new coworking hub at Hereford Garrison with great success. The support from base was phenomenal, and we continue to be grateful for their ongoing commitment to the MCN cause.
In September, we successfully launched a further coworking space at RAF Marham, providing a space for the spouses and partners of not just one service, but two, including the Navy and RAF, both of which have squadrons stationed here.
September also saw the launch of a brand new virtual coworking model that is designed to boost productivity and drive accountability, but also to support member networking. Pockets of networking and socialising are sprinkled across clear-cut structured coworking sessions, a model which has been well received by participants, and instrumental in building strong relationships across members, both on and off screen.
We also introduced a new concept, our Water Cooler Chats, which have been designed to meet the wellbeing needs of our members, tackling loneliness and isolation head-on and bringing members together in a safe, trusted, and fun online space.
In September, we also attended the Soldiering on Awards in London as a finalist for the Family Values Award. Although we didn’t win, it has certainly helped us to raise the profile of the Military Coworking Network within the Armed Forces Community, and beyond. We also had a wonderful evening and stood totally in awe of some very special and inspiring winners.
September also saw the MCN Delivery Team gathered round a table in London as we put together our Strategy & Delivery Plan for 2025, which we think you’re going to love.
In the last 12 months we have grown our Community Membership by 23% taking our Online Community membership to a solid 1,622.
And we’ve also welcomed 119 members through our coworking hub doors across the UK and in Cyprus.
We’ve hosted 10 online events across a wide range of themes relevant to our membership offer. Each event has been recorded, edited, and uploaded to the Members Area, supporting accessibility and ensuring no-one misses out.
We’ve conducted 11 interviews with members from across our network and produced some truly inspirational case study stories, that have helped us to grow our network and have shone the light on the important work we are doing for military spouses and partners across the Armed Forces Community.
Each month has seen our much-valued monthly eNewsletter being issued to members with a regularity that you could set your clock by it. We’ve seen our open and click through rates soar as our content reaches more and more members.
We’ve produced 15 insight editorials to demonstrate and celebrate the impact the MCN is having on the lives of so many military spouses and partners, and umpteen news articles, keeping our members up to date with the latest news from across the network, and beyond.
December has seen the launch of our new “Proud to Support” campaign, which will help us and our supporters, increase their brand profile and credibility, and extend our reach across the Armed Forces Community.
A final thanks to all of you
It truly has been a year of some great achievements and successes.
We’d like to thank all our members and supporters for cheering us along the way and helping us to make the MCN the success it needs and deserves to be. We couldn’t have done it without you.
Wishing you all a very merry Christmas and a wonderful start to the New Year. May it bring you much joy and happiness, success, prosperity, and good health.
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