Members need to read this Forum regularly

[e72phil]

This is probably a crazy place to post a reminder that Members need to check this Forum regularly, but the whole idea of this medium is for it to be the MAIN communications method to all members.

If everyone expects to be personally contacted about anything happening with the club, its not going to happen. We dont have the time or resources to do this , I'm sorry.

maybe I am a chat board junkie but I find it very easy to scan the main Forum page several times a day to see if there is a new post or a reply to one I am monitoring.

Clyde has just posted about a dinner event. lets give him some feedback as to whether you are attending.

I hope this group doesn't degenerate into a typical apathetic car club where members expect to see lots of organised events, but contribute and support very little and turn up if and when it suits them.

The club wont run automatically and when we ask for some assistance, we actually mean it. Our newsletter is about to come out after a large amount of work by Clyde. I am sure you will all enjoy reading it but how about a contribution from you for the next one ? If we dont see any future contributions from other than the "usual suspects" we will just forget the newsletter.

Everyone keeps telling us what a great idea this group is. Lets see some attention being paid to it.

[pgxif]

noted, and fair points raised.

ps, i'm sure no-one would suggest you're a chat room Junkie !!!

[CamBiscuit]

Phil, good call.

As they say use it or lose it.

I do have one problem though and that's keeping up with your current global location.... :lol:

How's the Frequent Flyer point tally looking....!

[e72phil]

Hi Cameron, yeah tell me about the travel.....

frequent flyer points are alright if you can ever use them when you want to. Qantas doesn't do you too many favours in that regard, that's for sure.

Some of its fun stuff, other times it just hard work. next week should be some fun mixed with some business at either end of the trip.

Thanks for being a regular contributor to this forum. we hope you are all OK up there in Darwin with this cyclone. Its a pity you are so far away form the main action down south but hopefully this forum keeps you updated with goings on.

I would be interested in yr comments in this regard ?

[CamBiscuit]

Hi Phil

Thanks for your thoughts about the cyclone, I think we all breathed a very big sigh of relief when that threat passed. I think 350kmh winds are something we could all live without.....

Yes like you I have a browse once or twice a day to see what is going on and to keep track of things, and I love keeping up with events, and the depth of knowledge that exists within the club is a wonderful resource for all early 911 owners. Photos of any club activities and members cars are always well received by us more remote members who don't get to participate in regular club activities.

I'm looking forward to getting some more use out of the car shortly and sharing some photos soon. Might even try and put together something for the magazine...

I'd love to get down for the dinner and met some more folk in person but have to play it by ear at this stage.

[lisa_spyder]

Re: Members need to read this Forum regularly

This is probably a crazy place to post a reminder that Members need to check this Forum regularly, but the whole idea of this medium is for it to be the MAIN communications method to all members.

I don't wish to be inflammatory; in fact I agree with your argument in principle...however there are members who are not as computer savvy or comfortable with this medium as we would like or expect. In fact I recall we have one member who doesn't even own a PC and he is interstate so therefore he gets his magazine and that's about it.

Having a PC and internet access is not a prerequisite for membership of the Register. Maybe in hindsight it should have been made so from the beginning, but we didn't, it wasn't and now this needs to be dealt with in order to save time and reduce the workload on committee (I think I am more than qualified to refer to committee workload here). Also (importantly) to effectively and quickly communicate with the membership.

If if isn't too late (and maybe committee have already thought of this), can a memo be included in the forthcoming newsletter about this forum and its important role as the now primary communication tool (I presume) for Register happenings and announcements etc? This way, every financial member has been notified in writing about a requirement not only for registration to the forum, but also the importance of logging in for access to event entry forms etc.

As Secretary, I didn't enjoy bombarding members with reminder emails ad nauseum about events and happenings. I felt at times that it was almost invasive...but we did get good attendances to events in the main and good communication probably had something to do with that.

It would be really good to see this forum become the primary communication tool, but I truly believe committee will have to work at achieving this and an 'alert' in the newsletter would be a great start.

My 0.02c worth...FWIW.

Lisa

[WERK1]

I have to say I agree with Phil.
Having the forum is a huge asset to this club, and club members who don't take advantage of it are really missing out. There are plenty of clubs out there where you only get a magazine.
It isn't hard to get on a computer and use this forum and I'm pretty sure having an e-mail address is a mandatory field on the membership form.

[e72phil]

Lisa's point is taken and we will inform members via a mail out in the newsletter, but even if we were to send everyone emails, if they arent computer savvy or use a PC, they wont get email. I am also amazed at how infrequently some people even check thir emails.

Unfortunatley for the computer un-savvy, they will need to get savvy as this will be the primary way to communicate to members as no-one wants to spend the unrealistic amount of time that is required to and feed everyone.

If the only means to get to some is via mail, then its a newsletter 2-3 times per year and thats about it.

It is 2006 and the world is moving on towards electonic ways to do everything. not just communicate.

For this club to remain operational and with the minimum of hands on management by the few committee members we have, any way to reduce the workload will be used.

Clyde apears to have the newsletter format nailed so future editions will be far quicker and easier to generate. This Forum is working OK and doesnt seem to require a lot of intervention and I am working on a Content Managment System for the website which will make updating the site far easier and accessible (via password) to many of the committee so posting pics and notices will be fast and easy.

I only just recvd my Early S registry newsletter which is way, way late so we arent the only car club with problems.

I will be using the Forum extensivley to keep members updated as to whats happening over here in California whislt Clyde and I are at the R Gruppe Treffen. Its too bad those memebrs who dont log on will miss out on the news and pics.

What can I say ???

[lisa_spyder]

Only one person I processed membership for didn't have an email address or pc. I gave Clyde the heads up on this gent so he knew to try to keep him in the loop so to speak on the important stuff.

I found that I got good responses to my (continual) emails. But it did take bombarding from me at a level that a) wasn't comfortable for me, b) took too much time and c) if I hadn't had time to update the email group for new members sometimes they would not receive a particular notice ops: .

Point is our members will read and respond to a club email. I know this from experience. And yes Dave, email is a mandatory field on the membership form . But that was for 'serving of notices' etc, not for mandatory enrolment to this forum.

I worked with Justin and then with Hugh and Justin to get this forum up and running (with much prodding from Justin that we could do this effectively and thank goodness he did prod). I see all the merits very clearly and it's a feather in our club's cap of no small proportions to have this medium available. David is quite right - many clubs have a magazine; only few have a great forum such as ours.

If it can be stressed in writing that this will be it for information about our club then no member can really complain about not being kept informed. I managed to get nearly all our members to sign on for the forum, but I think a lot of them still don't log on or even check in from time to time :shock: . They need to clearly understand that they will miss out on vital info about their club if they don't log in to read notices as the events section attachments are kept private for members (and for good reason).

We worked hard to get this forum up - I dearly want to see it work as was planned; as an easy tool for primary communication with and between the membership which is why I have asked that something be included in the newsletter.

As to the newsletter; it's great to see that Clyde has found a formula that works for him. Personally I had no problem with Publisher, but it's horse for courses and Clyde didn't have the software anyway. Publisher was a much better option than Word, which is the format we used for the first one (way too hard). From what Clyde has told me, he's taken this another step further which will now make the task even easier. I'm looking forward to reading it .

Lisa

[Big Ears]

This Forum is working OK and doesnt seem to require a lot of intervention

your welcome :evil:

What can I say ???

hmm......