Pool Party

As promised, the Pool Party was a resounding success so I will extend the thanks of those that contributed… but especially to Carole and John Pucella for volunteering their beautiful pool and yard for the event.    

A little bit of business

Whoever said technology will replace paper has obviously never tried to wipe their butt with an iPad.

A short time ago I overheard the remark ”Wish we had an email service like our free yahoo.”

So what became of the BVSA Yahoo Group?

Shortly after I became President so long ago I did a study of the BVSA’s Yahoo Group to gauge its usefulness. The exact details of the results are lost but here is roughly what I learned.

·       Most of the email addresses registered in the Yahoo Group were unknown. Only about 25% of all the registered emails were associated with a Member, past or present.

·       Most of the unknown Yahoo Group members did not have a recognized name; most had no name at all.

·       Only about 25% of known members, past and present, were registered in the Yahoo Group.

·       Greater than 60% of members past and present are members of our Facebook page.

Conclusion:

- we were communicating with strangers.

- we were not communicating with Members.

Continued use of Yahoo was not productive; and potentially detrimental to our members. I shifted emphasis for member-to-members communications to Facebook. Facebook has much higher participation (and growing). It is more secure (we know who is registered ; members admitted by a moderator).  For all its faults it is a modern, vibrant service. This contrasts with Yahoo Groups which has not had a facelift in, well, longer than I can remember. 

Agreed, for a club with our demographics Facebook can be daunting for some. But Facebook is navigated daily by hundreds of millions of people. It is easy enough that a 10-year-old can do it. And it has far more penetration with the future members of the BVSA than Yahoo will ever have.

So check out our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/groups/180751838041/ . I hope to see you a concert, a Happy Hour, or the Pool Party. And if not… see you at Brickside in September.

I wonder what Facebook employees do to waste their time at work?