August eNews

[RogerF]

Nothing here as well.

[Chez2]

Just been back and checked and there is nothing. It was a quiet day yesterday too, lots of our customers only work half a day on Fridays so not many emails coming in.

PM me your email address and we'll check the distribution list. It's the first problem we've heard about since the fix.

Graham Evans
eNews Editor

Sent you a pm. Thanks.

[Terry S.]

It is sad to see from the eNewsletter that we are losing another hard-working and long-serving Society official. I must say that if I had been faced with having to run two membership systems in parallel, I would probably have resigned too.
Most of the people who do the work for the Society have come to those positions via the Branch system. It is difficult to imagine that future people in those roles could come via such things as social media participation.

[el48tel]

It is sad to see from the eNewsletter that we are losing another hard-working and long-serving Society official. I must say that if I had been faced with having to run two membership systems in parallel, I would probably have resigned too.
Most of the people who do the work for the Society have come to those positions via the Branch system. It is difficult to imagine that future people in those roles could come via such things as social media participation.

Thanks for expressing that ... you'll probably get some flack from the social media zealots. I agree with your sentiments wholeheartedly. This society will only flourish in a "mixed economy".

[Chez2]

It is sad to see from the eNewsletter that we are losing another hard-working and long-serving Society official. I must say that if I had been faced with having to run two membership systems in parallel, I would probably have resigned too.
Most of the people who do the work for the Society have come to those positions via the Branch system. It is difficult to imagine that future people in those roles could come via such things as social media participation.

Why do you say that? That's exactly how I / we came to be here. I had contacted the BCSS directly on three occasions, two of which took ages to get a response. One was to come and collect a car full of plants that had grown too big for me to care for. One message was asking about shows or places to buy. I got a response but nothing asking me or encouraging me to join.

I belong to several Facebook groups and a forum for tropical / exotic plants. We meet up at least once a year when people open their gardens. Last July 2018 a BCSS member who we had met before came to our open garden and encouraged us to join. We joined in October then volunteered to do social media for our branch in December. In March we were asked if we would attend a committee meeting to give an update on social media. To reflect our efforts we were asked if we would like to join the committee and we accepted. Ours may be a local role but we have engaged with people interested in joining other branches.

I can see el48tel has already made a puerile comment. Luckily I'm quite thick skinned. I do find it irksome when people are negative about something they don't understand. If they understood it then they wouldn't make such comments.

[el48tel]

It is sad to see from the eNewsletter that we are losing another hard-working and long-serving Society official. I must say that if I had been faced with having to run two membership systems in parallel, I would probably have resigned too.
Most of the people who do the work for the Society have come to those positions via the Branch system. It is difficult to imagine that future people in those roles could come via such things as social media participation.

..............

I can see el48tel has already made a puerile comment. Luckily I'm quite thick skinned. I do find it irksome when people are negative about something they don't understand. If they understood it then they wouldn't make such comments.

Putting it on public record. I have no intention responding to this comment. Don't want to argue in public or private.

[Terry S.]

Sorry Chez2 but you didn't read what I wrote. What I said was "from social media participation". You progressed from that stage to branch activities which is where we are going to find our activists of the future. There are very good examples of social media postings that have led to increased branch membership; just look at what has happened with Portsmouth Branch. The problem is that so many people never progress from on-line chatting to face-to-face meeting. The challenge is to have an on-line presence that leads to increased physical participation.

[Chez2]

Sorry Chez2 but you didn't read what I wrote. What I said was "from social media participation". You progressed from that stage to branch activities which is where we are going to find our activists of the future. There are very good examples of social media postings that have led to increased branch membership; just look at what has happened with Portsmouth Branch. The problem is that so many people never progress from on-line chatting to face-to-face meeting. The challenge is to have an on-line presence that leads to increased physical participation.

I did read what you had written; "from social media participation". I know what you mean about progressing on from this.

[RogerF]

I still haven't received the eNews. Will someone involved in the distribution look into this please?

[RogerF]

Hello, is anybody there????