This site has great potential as a repository for useful information and quick feedback for members with questions... at this point it appears to be thouroughly thrashed. Having served in several clubs at various levels of responsibility, I fully understand the need to simplify the system so that the volunteer staff can also enjoy themselves instead of having to do more than their share to keep the club functioning. I applaud your efforts to simplify necessary tasks in this regard. But it appears that you completely dropped the ball regarding the forums. As such this site has lost a lot of its value to the membership at large. You need to rectify this asap if you do not want to alienate a whole lot of useful members. Especially the wealth of information provided in the content of the old forum(s)... to lose that would be an enormous waste. Please look at your potential solutions carefully and chose the one that will make your members happy to post again. I know that I am in no hurry to make use of the forums as presently provided.
I totally agree, however.. You know Chuck, they are aware of this situation and if they truely care about the "people" in the organization, are embarrassed enough to be spending extra time to remedy the situation. I know I am hoping for a quick recovery of the vital info that had been posted on the old forum but that doesn't change the fact that there are still others who rely on the knowledge of members and are desparate for answers to their issues. I, personally, will try to help those who have been left "in the dark" by this dubious forum "upgrade" until things are back in proper working order and hope that someone will be there for me when I have a question that needs an answer to keep my car up and running... Just my .02 BTW, what is the deal with the LAME smileys?!?!?
but... ;-$ I know why they released it before it was trully ready... the raffle. That has to be an enormous amount of work on their part and it probably supplies a significant part of the needed funds for operation. But it is plain to see that at some point in the game there was a mis-step on the specification of what the site should be or no one was watching the team they hired close enough to make sure they delivered. Those in charge are volunteers and I really don't want to beat them up, but I know from experience how ficlke membership can be and it doesn't take a whole lot to turn a membership boom into a membership bust. There needs to be a sense of urgency to fix this... that is my main point. From the stand of providing help, there are still other sites that can provide a lot, especially at the local chapter level. This forum portion of this "upgrade" is so poorly done it is going to need to be replaced with something better which means anything you post here will only make the task of capturing whatever was posted one more difficulty. Plus if we don't really use it then that sense of urgency might just sink in. Just my two cents, and worth every penny! ;-)
"Those in charge are volunteers..." Really? I was under the impression the national office staff, those who work for the club there all day, every day, were salaried to do so... that is incorrect? If everyone in the nat'l office is independently wealthy, hey...! I wanna talk to their investment advisor and financial planner, I need me a slice o' that pie! :-D Steven S, hook me up and help a fella out, would ya?? C'monnn!
>>Really? I was under the impression the national office staff, those who work for the club there all day, every day, were salaried to do so... that is incorrect? If everyone in the nat'l office is independently wealthy, hey...! I wanna talk to their investment advisor and financial planner, I need me a slice o' that pie! :-D Steven S, hook me up and help a fella out, would ya?? C'monnn!<< There are 7 of us in the office full time and yes we are salary. And we do keep busy.
