009 News in PDF format

[B.Meldon]

When asking why things are not done please be mindful that our committee are all volunteers. They do not get paid and do all the work they do for the society in their spare time.

But if anyone would like to take on a task that they suggest needs to be done then please do contact the committee to see if this can be arranged.

Brian Meldon

[Scottish Modeller]

When asking why things are not done please be mindful that our committee are all volunteers. They do not get paid and do all the work they do for the society in their spare time.

But if anyone would like to take on a task that they suggest needs to be done then please do contact the committee to see if this can be arranged.

Brian Meldon

Hi Brian,

You have taken the 'why not?' out of context - it does not relate to committee inactivity at all.

What is does relate to is the idea that such a resource could be created and made available to the membership.

There are the usual 'if's' of course!

1 - The willingness of the committee to pursue the idea

2 - As you said - someone to take it on

3 - A secure location to save it to amd enables it to be accessible to the members
Looking at other postings/threads a lot of the work may (or may not) have been done in the past - even if unofficially.

Creating pdf's these days is a relatively simple task - most modern word processor softwares have the ability to either 'export to pdf' or 'print to pdf' as an option.

I anticipate that it would be creating pdf's for the 'historical catalogue' of The News that would take up the time and work.

Thanks

[B.Meldon]

The 009 news is now produced  and sent to the printers in PDF format and it has been for some years.
It is the older pre-PDF News that will need to be scanned from hard copies into PDF with character/word recognition.

Brian Meldon

[Stan Williams]

The place to bring up subjects regarding the Society and discuss these, is the Society AGM.

This will take place on Saturday 1st April 2017 in the Parish Hall, Church Road, Rainford WA11 8HE.

You have the opportunity to bring the Newsletter up, produce ideas, volunteer if necessary.

I look forward to seeing you there, the AGM will start at 1pm.

Stan.

[Jim Flynn]

The place to bring up subjects regarding the Society and discuss these, is the Society AGM.

Stan, does this mean that anyone who can not be there, such as overseas members, like myself, are not allowed to bring up these types of topics?

For the record, if this is the case, it is the only association or group I have belonged to in the past few years that states so.

My membership renewal comes due by end of April. If the above is the case, and the attitude of officers, the renewal will require a re-think.

Jim Flynn

[B.Meldon]

The place to bring up subjects regarding the Society and discuss these, is the Society AGM.

Stan, does this mean that anyone who can not be there, such as overseas members, like myself, are not allowed to bring up these types of topics?

For the record, if this is the case, it is the only association or group I have belonged to in the past few years that states so.

My membership renewal comes due by end of April. If the above is the case, and the attitude of officers, the renewal will require a re-think.

Jim Flynn

A simple e-mail or letter to the society secretary outlining your proposal and that you would like this to be included in any other business at the AGM would probably be a good idea.

Brian Meldon

[Jim Flynn]

Brian, I do realize that that is a recourse to use for anything I would want to ask the Society leadership.

I was just put off by Stan's post, which seemed to be "there or no where".

I would think asking about, and bring up, subjects such as this is oart of the forum's function.

Jim Flynn

[rod335]

Not at all sure that this forum is the place to bring up Society matters formally. The Forum is, to my mind, intended for informal discussion of topics between members. It would not be reasonable to my mind to expect Society officers to monitor this or any other forum to identify any such matters. As stated above, the defined process if you wish any matter to be considered by the Society is to communicate in writing with an officer or director. I cannot, offhand, think of any other society which operates in any different manner.

[Jim Flynn]

Try the Gauge O Guild forum. Guild business, ideas, issues, are all discussed there, with active participation from various officers.

The idea is the forum is THE place for almost all members, no matter where located, to engage in Guild affairs.

Just one example.

Jim F

[Hobby]

I'll beg to differ, Rod, it's quite valid to bring up and discuss Society matters on here, (I'm not sure how you think this is doing it "formally" though) as a Forum is just an online version of a Local Group Meeting and such matters are brought up and discussed there and via letters to the News... Not everyone is able to get to group meetings or the AGM so this is their only other outlet.

Banning such discussion would be a bad idea...

[rod335]

No suggestion at all of banning discussion on here. But the point I was making was that the method of raising matters with the committee/directors is very well established, by letter to the secretary or any other committee member. I still maintain that using this forum is NOT the way to raise matters with the committee.

[MickT]

This is an ongoing perennial and always ends up in a circular discussion. Let's get things as straight as it is possible to attempt to do:

1. This forum was created by membership request when it was felt that the old (unofficial) 009 Yahoo Group had become outdated and was no longer being supported. After several years of being available, there are still only 430 members out of a total Society membership of currently over 1800 who have joined, therefore it is only seen by less than a quarter of the membership as distinct from the official newsletter of the Society, 009 News, which is seen by every member. It is fully acknowledged that not every member has internet access, nor does every member want it, but the facility to create an online discussion group has been provided and is there to be used - it is no good complaining if less than a quarter of the members decide to do this.

On the other hand, the independent NGRM-Online forum which most of the 009 Society members who are members of this forum are also members of, was created at around the same period of time as the Society forum and as at today has 2932 members. Many may ask why this discrepancy of numbers - the answer to that if you are concerned about it is to ask the correct person in the recognised manner. The correct person to ask is the elected director of the Society who is responsible for the forum who I would imagine is the Communications Officer, but I may be wrong! If you are unsure and want to find out then the recognised way to communicate with the Society management to raise any issues is via the Secretary. This is very well lodged in the Society charter and rules which if you haven't got and think you should have, then ---------- ask the secretary for a copy!

2. Rod is correct in stating that this forum was established as an informal facility for members to have discussions, online fellowship and etc. Blair is also quite right in that it is available in the same form as a geographical area group, but works as an online group. The one difference however is that it is not a Society group set up as either a recognised or affiliated Group (as defined in the rules) and although it is a closed group open only to members and therefore not a public domain open access forum, it is still somewhere available for any member to express opinions or even sound off, but if you wish to raise any matter officially and have it dealt with in the proper manner, ie there is a record of the business and an audit trail, then please do comply with the working practice of the Society

[MickT]

Rod posted his response whilst I was typing my tome. I would supplement what he stated about writing to committee members by adding that this could also be done by electronic means, ie email. All of the elected directors, and the co-opted appointment holders have email addresses published in page 2 of 009 News.

Having a sound off on a forum is NOT the way to raise things officially to the committee. Rod is absolutely correct, the correct way to officially raise matters to be addressed by the committee is to contact the secretary either by letter or email. It is not an opinion it is the recognised way and is also common sense if you pause to think about it. How are you going to raise  a matter of Society policy that requires executive action if you do it by posting something here when you don't even know if the person who would be responsible for dealing with that matter is even one of the 430 out of 1800 Society members who are members of the forum let alone check in to it regularly?

[Jim Flynn]

Well, for the record, my question (msg #62) was in reference to A) Jeff's original question, B) a Admin.'s reply (msg #47) and C) a Moderator's reply (msg # 51). So it seems there are some Officer/Official types that are on here, and follow topics. There is not much sense in my emailing the Officers just to repeat a topic already brought up. I was just asking regarding any new development.

And both those replies seemed to indicate it might be something that will appear in the future.

As for all the rest, it seems a lot of talk from folks who are, I think, not Officers, as to what can and can not be discussed on the forum.

Perhaps it's that attitude that keeps the more than three quarters of the membership from taking part on here.

Jim Flynn

[rod335]

There was absolutely no question of what can or cannot be discussed on here. As Mick pointed out, there is a specific defined procedure for bringing a matter to the attention of the committee or directors and that way is NOT by putting the matter on this forum.