It's with a heavy heart that we must say goodbye to Lorna, who has taken voluntary redundancy from Shropshire Council.
After leaving what could have been a glittering career 'sexing chickens' (nope, me neither), Lorna joined Shropshire County Council nine years ago, braved the unitary process of 2009, and became involved in the dark arts of content management when she took over the web manager role in 2011. Shortly after, the two previously separate sides of the web process (content and development) were merged to form the current Digital Services Team under our old boss, Chris Jones.
It was at this point that we rapidly realised what we'd let ourselves in for. While Lorna was great at web content, she seemed not to have too much of a filter when it came to the content of her verbal outpourings. It could perhaps be argued that there was some esoteric philosophical insight behind 'Can I hallucinate?', a sense of slapstick when she offered that 'I wear funny pants', and certainly a willingness for public service when she worried that 'I thought I was going to have to perform the Heineken manoeuvre on him!'.
As for the instances of TMI (too much information) which brought several conversations to a standstill, they're too numerous and frankly...inappropriate, to mention here.
In more cogent moments, Lorna oversaw significant developments and innovations in the way the team worked when she took over from Chris as boss. She was instrumental in revolutionising the way we interact with our customers via social media, was pivotal in the move of our main www.shropshire.gov.uk website onto the Umbraco platform and the introduction of a new intranet for the council, led our What's App trial, and was a key player in the implementation of our use of GovDelivery.
Thanks for the legacy Lorna, and thanks for the friendship. Good luck with your future plans. We're sure you'll make a success of whatever you turn your hand to next.