New forum for members only

[Robb]

Hello all,
I asked Chris to create a members only forum as a Private forum that can only be seen by the dues-paying members of our clubs. I wanted a place where we could discuss club business, rules and bylasws, site information, anything we want our members to know about or contribute to, but without it being accessable to every lookeyloo with a computer.

Anyone who is "on the list" will see the forum under the gear for sale forum when they sign on.

As soon as I get the complete SCPA and SBSA membership lists we can get everyone's access. Bob H - could you post the SCPA names here? For the SBSA Greg B, Bob A, and John G should all have access and could post the club names for inclusion.

Let's give this a try for three months and see how it works.
Robb

[Chris G]

Just a heads up to those who read the forum via an RSS feed. The Club Members forum (invisible to most) doesn't show up in the RSS feed because of its invisible status. I'll try to find a fix soon but in the mean time don't rely on RSS for updates from the new forum.

[Ben H]

Just a heads up to those who read the forum via an RSS feed.

What the hell is an RSS feed? Well, for those of you that don't understand computer language like me, this might help you out. It's actually pretty cool.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0klgLsSxGsU

[Ramey]

I don't think a private forum is a good idea.

As long as I have been associated with the SBSA, club meetings have been open to the public. Board of Director meetings have been open to anyone who wanted to attend. I can't imagine would benefit by keeping any club business out of the public eye. In fact, I think that most of the attempts to conseal goings on such as safety issues, disputes with authorities, financial transactions, policy debates are a red flag that something isn't right and that the issue is being evaded. The SBSA has lasted so long as builder of concensus between a wide range of points of view to the extent it has been able to avoid this kind of cliquishness.

Of course, a sub group is free to create its own private forum. But don't expect to enjoy any posts from me on such a forum.

Robert Ramey

[Chris G]

I think the idea was to have a place to discuss politically sensitive issues that shouldn't be open to the public such as "at risk" launch and landing sites, neighborhood issues, etc. The reality is that the behind-the-scenes work that hasn't been dealt with at meetings for one reason or another, is dealt with over the phone or email which is essentially not open to the public. This club forum could provide the same kind of non-public communication, but still keeps the club members informed.

[DBLD]

I agree that a members (club) only forum would foster more participation re: politically sensitive and other topics. It could also generate more club involvement. Many times there are issues that should be discussed in more depth and aren't because of the openess (sp?) of the internet to prying eyes. I am all for it!

Bob, if you don't want to participate, well so be it. It will be a lose of entertainment, but sacrifices need to be made.

DD

[Robb]

Club meetings are an excellent time to discuss club business. However, if the SB parks and rec dept., the shreriff, and the head of the SB ranger district were to walk into Rusty's and sit down, would the conversation change? How about if the BOD of the moore mesa homeowners asssoc. were to drop by? Family business should be openly discussed within the family; the neighbors may observe the results, but are not entitled to the details.

Unfortunatly, club meetings (for either club, whether held in SB or Ojai) require over two hours of driving for me to attend. To make it more challanging, SBSA meetings are held on school nights. There are active pilots, instructors, and others in the same or worse situation (what time zone is taliban in?)

The result of these two factors is that critical information is sometimes not effectively communicated. The new forum is intended to be equivilent to going upstairs at Rustys, waiting for the waitress to leave, then beginning the meeting. Secret handshake optional...

Robb

[Ramey]

Actually - these are great ideas for club meetings.

However, if the SB parks and rec dept., the shreriff, and the head of the SB ranger district were to walk into Rusty's and sit down, would the conversation change?

If they did I might get a straight answer to my question regarding how, after many, many years with no problems, all of a sudden landing on the beach at Hendry's is now prohibited.

How about if the BOD of the moore mesa homeowners asssoc. were to drop by?

Would also be interesting.

Most of us now realize that engaging the authorities has worked to our benefit. This has result in such things as the pine mountain north launch, permited beach landings, among other things. Before we started doing this we had a lot more hassles.

Anyway good luck with this.

Robert Ramey

[Chris G]

A few folks have written to me asking about the new members only forum. The forum exists and when I get a complete list of the SCPA/SBSA members I'll be able to put together an access list and everyone who should have access will be able to see it. At the moment the only folks who have access are the club presidents, a few SCPA members, moderators, and admins.