Richard Woodroffe

Web master

Richard Woodroffe became the webmaster for the CAA-RSA in January 2011. This was after the previous webmaster, Derek Henry, stepped down after many years service to the Association.

Richard retired from NATS in 2009 following the outsourcing of the NATS SAP department to an external company. Prior to moving down to Hampshire with his wife and son, (due to the re-location of CAA House employees to Whiteley), Richard was chairman of the National Westminster Choir in London. This was a voluntary post and, unfortunately, did not attract the same sort of golden handshake that Fred the shred got from the Nat West parent company, the Royal Bank of Scotland.

Upon arriving in Portsmouth, Richard immediately sought out a choir, and is happy singing with the University of Portsmouth. One of the bonuses of singing with the university is that he can actually spend time singing instead of the administration work that being Chairman of a choir involved (arranging concerts in Queen Elizabeth Hall, South Bank or St. John‘s, Smith Square for example). Richard has been known to sing solo on rare occasions. One such time, he was singing the part of "God" in Horowitz‘s "Captain Noah and his Floating Zoo". Just at the time that he was singing "I‘m going to make it rain and rain and rain", there was a loud clap of thunder and a flash of lightning could be seen through a splendid rose window. Many in the audience asked how he managed to get a direct line to God to provide the audio-visual effects to accompany the music.

Aside from classical choral music, Richard has a love of comedy music such as Flanders & Swann, Tom Lehrer and Stilgoe & Skellern. Music occupies much of Richard‘s time since he is also the webmaster for a user website devoted to the music notation program, NoteWorthy Composer. This involves contacts with musicians from all over the world, and includes posting their music transcriptions and compositions on the website for others to enjoy. Another hobby is wooden ship modelling. The "Sovereign of the Seas" is the current project which sits in the sitting room, much to the annoyance of his wife.

Other models, including the Victory, (appropriate for living in Portsmouth) wait to be started. At least with the Victory, the full size ship is just down the road for comparison when needed eventually.