Archie Cheda
Stainless
- Joined
- Dec 25, 2007
- Location
- San Luis Obispo, CA
The Antique Machinery Haulers' Group is approaching its 4th birthday and, as a charter member, I am wondering about its future. I think it would be constructive to discuss possible directions for the group. The purpose of this thread is to provide a place for this discussion to proceed. I honestly do not have a fixed idea on what is possible or practical, although I do feel that we are not active enough to justify continuing as we have been.
In the past four years I have learned a few things about a virtual group on the Internet. Although I am still very naive, there are a few generalizations I would share:
o There is a wide range of follow-through on the part of members. A fair number of folks join the PM forum, join our group the same day, and then never are active on the forum again. This alone makes the standard things in our bylaws such as a quorum for our elections impractical.
o Most of the members that are willing to haul, are not interested in being officers of the group or even being involved in elections.
o In general, a virtual group does not seem to operate under the common rules of organized groups that meet face-to-face. While I know only a little about real groups of people, I seem to know nothing about virtual groups. (I suspect that these concepts will slowly develop as the Internet matures, over the decades.)
o People keep joining, so there is an interest -- we just need a better way to channel this interest.
Mostly, I just want to be clear that I do not know the answers or even if the answers exist. All the same, I think it is time for a discussion and I welcome any of our members joining in. If there is a lack of interest in this discussion, I will take this as an indication that it is probably a good ideal to formally disband the haulers' group.
Archie
P.S.: I suppose non-members may make comments, but there is no reason that anyone interested in the activities of the haulers' group should not have already joined as supporting members. A number of those who actively participated in the initial discussions which led to the formation of this group never did join, which has always been a disappointment to me. If few non-haulers are interested in supporting this group, I doubt that it can be effective in meeting is goals of finding homes for old machine tools.
Finally, I want no individual to feel that I am criticizing them -- this discussion is about the group, please minimize either praise or criticism of individuals. As moderator of this sub-forum I will edit or delete any posts that are not responsive to the subject of this thread or are not constructive.
In the past four years I have learned a few things about a virtual group on the Internet. Although I am still very naive, there are a few generalizations I would share:
o There is a wide range of follow-through on the part of members. A fair number of folks join the PM forum, join our group the same day, and then never are active on the forum again. This alone makes the standard things in our bylaws such as a quorum for our elections impractical.
o Most of the members that are willing to haul, are not interested in being officers of the group or even being involved in elections.
o In general, a virtual group does not seem to operate under the common rules of organized groups that meet face-to-face. While I know only a little about real groups of people, I seem to know nothing about virtual groups. (I suspect that these concepts will slowly develop as the Internet matures, over the decades.)
o People keep joining, so there is an interest -- we just need a better way to channel this interest.
Mostly, I just want to be clear that I do not know the answers or even if the answers exist. All the same, I think it is time for a discussion and I welcome any of our members joining in. If there is a lack of interest in this discussion, I will take this as an indication that it is probably a good ideal to formally disband the haulers' group.
Archie
P.S.: I suppose non-members may make comments, but there is no reason that anyone interested in the activities of the haulers' group should not have already joined as supporting members. A number of those who actively participated in the initial discussions which led to the formation of this group never did join, which has always been a disappointment to me. If few non-haulers are interested in supporting this group, I doubt that it can be effective in meeting is goals of finding homes for old machine tools.
Finally, I want no individual to feel that I am criticizing them -- this discussion is about the group, please minimize either praise or criticism of individuals. As moderator of this sub-forum I will edit or delete any posts that are not responsive to the subject of this thread or are not constructive.
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