When there are 22 comments about the problem with the latest 009 society newsletter on a facebook page that has nothing
to do with the 009 society.
These include long standing society members as well as committee members.
While we are at it,
Is it much easier to put articles, comments on this particular facebook page rather than on the official 009 society facebook ?
If that is the case, its time the society made the 009 society facebook pages more accessible.
Stan.
Thank you Stan for raising this.
The purpose of the Society's Facebook page is to present the Society to the public, and it was thought from the beginning that commenting should be turned off. This could be changed if Senior Management instructed.
(I would have expected that online-type members would be raising the issue about the (soon to be a valuable collector's item) faulty NEWs in this forum rather than in the more public and less official spaces, but apparently I would have been wrong.)
Not really being a Facebook person I hadn't noticed, but have had a look now and found something on two 009 (but not Society) Facebook pages.
I find it interesting the way the two authors put it (paraphrasing shamelessly)
(a) - looks like there has been a printing error - if affected contact ......
(b) - (mega shouting in big coloured text) VERY DISAPPOINTED !!! ....
It appears to be an unfortunate corollary of the "instant gratification era" of (anti-)social media (and media in general) that people tend to get more shouty and less tolerant..
We have had faulty print runs before; sometimes it gets picked up at the envelope-stuffing stage. OK, this time it didn't. The Society is on to it.
(I have a copy of the NEWS from a few years ago that has extra pages in it - I'm quite pleased to have it!)
Warning - Rant Alert............
It seems to me that some of our members (probably the more recent ones and possibly those who are less than a generation out of school uniform?) need to be reminded of "Chatham House Rules" - ie ergo: what goes on in the Society stays in the Society. So, it is OK to express opinions (within common sense boundary limits) on a forum such as this, which is only open to members, it is OK to make formalised complaints to the Committee via the proper avenue of the Secretary; but it is NOT OK to criticise the Society either with fact, opinion or just gossip generation if you are a member and you do it in an open public arena.
If somebody or some people are going on public open areas of social media and making disparaging remarks in public about how the Society conducts its business, then there is actually a rule buried deep within the many pages of the "Articles of Association" that replaced the Rules when we became a limited liability company (if that's the right term), which allows for members that cause harm to the Society by (sic): fact, allegation, maliciousness or otherwise, to be removed from the Society ie barred, regimentally dishonourably discharged by public removal of their membership number and marched off the premises, chucked out, excluded; whichever woke or non-woke non PC term is desired.
Back to Fact as nobody has yet posted a calming explanation, to my knowledge, apologies if otherwise.
I had a conversation with our Membership Secretary yesterday on another matter and he informed me that between himself and Stuart, our Editor, they had received about 100 emails or telephone calls yesterday regarding the printing glitch in this month's edition. It seems that the 4 or so pages allocated to the AGM details have been either removed or replaced in the print run by duplication of other pages of the issue in some cases. (The one I received is fine, so it is assumed that this has only happened with one "batch" in the print run).
Both Brian and Bill (Membership Sec and Publicity Officer) have a small reserve contingency stock of the issue and as long as members who have received inaccurate issues inform them promptly, they have sufficient to replace at the moment - so the message is quite clear - if you have received an issue with either missing or the wrong pages, don't go on Facebook and start moaning about it, get on to the right people toot dee sweet and inform them if you want to receive a corrected one!
Personally I don't know why anyone goes anywhere near Facebook anyway, as I would prefer my phone to have a morse key and a slot to put my 4 old pennies in................
Mick
Quote from: Tom Haythornthwaite on June 24, 2021, 10:31
Thank you Stan for raising this.
The purpose of the Society's Facebook page is to present the Society to the public, and it was thought from the beginning that commenting should be turned off. This could be changed if Senior Management instructed.
(I would have expected that online-type members would be raising the issue about the (soon to be a valuable collector's item) faulty NEWs in this forum rather than in the more public and less official spaces, but apparently I would have been wrong.)
The posts on the 009 Society Facebook page look factual and polite. The histrionics appear on another one that has nothing to do with the Society.
I'm aware of two further Facebook pages covering 009 modelling and while the printing issue has been mentioned it is again factual and polite.
Edit: i.e I'm aware of four separate Facebook accounts or pages.
Mick whilst I sympathise and agree with what you say, I think that the rest of the world has moved on and that sort behaviour has become the norm. If we did invoke that clause (if it exists) I doubt it would do much good. The person concerned would make an even bigger "meal" out of it than they already have and as a non member there's nothing we could do about it that would be worthwhile. All we can do is politely solve their problem and hope that they respond in (positive) kind! Personally I agree that we should keep such criticism to the Society Forum or FB Group, but there are many, some of our generation, who won't do that, seemingly enjoying doing what they do. Rather sad, really, if that's what turns them on...
Quote from: MickT on June 24, 2021, 12:36...as I would prefer my phone to have a morse key and a slot to put my 4 old pennies in................Mick
...don't forget to press button A or you won't get through! ("Hello, caller...")
David.
*
I seem to remember that some years ago it was argued that Society business should not be aired on this (official) forum before it appeared in print in "OO9" NEWS. The logic of this was that many members were not on line and should not be thus disadvantaged.
[Very recently it has been suggested that Society business should not be aired on another on line forum.]
Some of us (perhaps of a certain age) are quite happy on line, but do not make use of other social media. I do not because I am advised by my adult children to avoid such avenues of communication like the plague.
Nevertheless it would appear that the Society does have an official presence on another social medium, and that this exists alongside other unofficial (from the viewpoint of the Society) channels of communication among "OO9" enthusiasts.
If I understand the matter correctly, part of the complaint here is that a current problem (one that has occurred with the good old fashioned medium of the printed word) is being discussed on one of these alternative unofficial channels of communication.
That the copy of the NEWS I received had all the correct pages in the right order, does not mean I am unsympathetic to those who have not been so fortunate, but I am wondering if the perception of this as a problem is not being transmogrified into a debate about another matter.
That matter is the advisability of the Society having more than one presence and face besides the printed word, and if it does how they fit into a hierarchy of methods intended to cover both communication with members AND advertising to outsiders.
*****
If Stan will forgive me, I would observe that the correct version of the Shakespearean quote is -
"Something is rotten in the state of Denmark".
CP
Quote from: cp.409067 on June 24, 2021, 18:38
[Very recently it has been suggested that Society business should not be aired on another on line forum.]
Nevertheless it would appear that the Society does have an official presence on another social medium, and that this exists alongside other unofficial (from the viewpoint of the Society) channels of communication among "OO9" enthusiasts.
If I understand the matter correctly, part of the complaint here is that a current problem
Regarding the first bit I don't think Society business should be aired on another, NON Society, forum, and the owners of that forum have made it clear in the past that they don't wish for that sort of debate to take place, though some people choose to ignore their wishes.
Re Facebook the problem as I thought it was is that the matter was raised on one of the other 009 FB pages and not the official one. Perhaps the person involved simply thought that it was a Society group, if that was the case I hope that someone pointed them to the relevant group for future reference,
I did change the wording, as I thought rotten was not appropriate on this occasion.
Stan.
If a member makes a post somewhere that they are 'very disappointed' to have received a faulty copy we should do all we can to get a replacement to them quickly, as we doing with any other member who notifies us. I think it is also best that if a committee member sees such a post that they explain what has happened and the action we are taking. We first realised we have a problem yesterday around lunchtime and today sent out the first batch of replacements. It may be that some who notify us by email will receive a pdf copy as an interim measure as we sort out how many extra copies we need compared to our stock of spares, but faulty printed copies will be replaced.
People will undoubtedly post on Facebook on the 009 pages that others have set up. Maybe having comments open on our own Society Facebook page would have diverted them to comment there, but who knows. We have chosen not to go that route, but rather to promote this forum as the place to engage on Society matters and modelling.
When we have completed dealing with the prooblem and look back at what has happened and why, part of that should be about how we have let people know about the matter, including the role of Facebook pages.
Julian
Chairman
Speaking as another pensioner, I really don't mind coming here, NGRM, or even Facebook.
FB has the advantage that I follow a large number of groups for various 1:1 scale NG societies, 2mm, 4mm, 7mm, 3D printing, weathering etc. I only have a passing interest but there can be some interesting stuff, easily accessible on my phone when I have 5 minutes waiting for something
On the down side it is also full of prima donnas and shouty people who you have to just ignore and let them do their attention seeking to others. You just have to ignore them and scroll past, in the same way that you ignore them in the real world.
95% of the good stuff comes from here and NGRM though, and far, far, less to ignore :-)
I'm lucky in that most of the groups I follow on FB are central European ones and they seem a lot less shouty than the UK ones!