MCC on Facebook?

[Danno]

Should the Mackinaw Canoe Club have a page on Facebook to promote the club?

How many members use Facebook? If you do, please post a reply and let us know.

I'm not really on Facebook yet, but my wife Carol is an avid user. I've been thinking that with the club's move to use the message board as one of it's primary forms of communication, what would be the next logical step in the evolution of how the club works and communicates? Facebook seems like one of the logical choices. It seems like just about every business, organization, or personality I see is using Facebook, or some other social media source ( Twitter, Youtube, etc. ), to promote themselves.

[Wally M]

Are you suggesting that facebook would replace the message board? Would this mean we all would have to be members of facebook in order to communicate with the club? Would facebook replace the existing website?

You can probably tell from my questions that I know nothing about it. Can we get more basic information?

Wally

[Danno]

No, I am NOT suggesting that Facebook should replace the web site or this message board.

What I am suggesting is that the Mackinaw Canoe Club could use Facebook, and/or other social media websites, to promote the club by making the club more visible and by giving Facebook users a quick/easy way to communicate with the club. A presence on Facebook would give the club a higher profile than it has now.

The web site is very labor and time intensive. Facebook is pretty low maintenance once it's set up, much like this message board. The difference between Facebook and this message board is that Facebook does a lot of the work keeping SPAM and other inappropriate behavior under control, so it's easier on everyone.

Either way, I see the MCC website becoming very basic/minimalist. There's really not much purpose left for the web site now that MCC has moved to this message board as their primary form of communication. I think it's still important to have a web site for the club, it just doesn't need to be very elaborate.

[Danno]

We had some good discussion on this ( Facebook ) at the Annual MCC meeting last night. Unfortunately, there is not a clear consensus on how the club will proceed going into the future. The club is in the middle of several changes already and no one really wants to add more variables right now, so MCC will not be pursuing a presence on Facebook in the near future. Hopefully the club will be able to sort out these changes and move forward with a plan for the future this time next year, maybe. We'll just have to wait and see.

[Lenore]

I think Facebook might be a good addition -- not a replacement -- for the message board. It's a nice way for members to interact, post links to articles about paddling, etc. Check the Chicago Area Sea Kayak Association's Facebook site (CASKA). They have a website, Facebook and use Yahoo for trip postings (the way we use the message board). Frankly, at this point, I didn't join their Yahoo group just because I've had a bad experience with Yahoo and didn't want to creat a Yahoo account. But Facebook might be a good adddition.

[Danno]

Ok, I stand corrected. If you have a Facebook account, search for the Mackinaw Canoe Club group.

[glenpeddy]

I'm on Facebook.
Here is TSRA's page https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Tenne ... 9685636971
Here is HCC page https://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/341400201971/
Here is CHOTA https://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/376585071797/

[glenpeddy]

Here is the Mackinaw Canoe Club's Facebook page
https://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/131880850253606/

[Wally M]

Recent posts on this topic are confusing my aging brain again. If facebook will be used for interaction among members, is that not what the message board is suposed to do now? If we have both of these things doing the same function, then won't we have to go to both sources to find out what is happening with the club. That sounds counter productive to me. If I am comprehending this correctly, I don't think the club should have both. Otherwise I think there will be fragmentation of members/information, which we cannot afford. I would say have one location for posts, communication etc, whichever it is.

Another question is; From the posted results of the meeting, I thought the club had decided not to pursue facebook at this time. From Glen's post, however, it sounds as though we are already there. How did that happen? Or am I completely out-to-lunch?

[Danno]

Another question is; From the posted results of the meeting, I thought the club had decided not to pursue facebook at this time. From Glen's post, however, it sounds as though we are already there. How did that happen? Or am I completely out-to-lunch?

Good question Wally. I'm not sure exactly why we ended up having a Facebook group for MCC, but we do. So far there are 13 members in the MCC FB group. I don't want to throw anybody under the bus, but I was not the person who started the group on FB. I was the person who first suggested it and checked it out, but I didn't actually start it. I was at the Annual Meeting and it was my understanding that the group did NOT want to have a MCC Group on FB. Next thing I know, I'm getting a notice that I've been invited to the MCC Group on FB.

Regardless of how it got started, it has happened. I consider it an experiment. None of us know for sure how this will play out.

I'm very new to FB. I've been on FB less than two weeks. So far it has been a very enjoyable experience. I've communicated with more friends and family in that time than any other time in my adult life, outside of holidays or other large events. Facebook is far from perfect, but it is a very powerful tool.

If facebook will be used for interaction among members, is that not what the message board is suposed to do now? If we have both of these things doing the same function, then won't we have to go to both sources to find out what is happening with the club. That sounds counter productive to me. If I am comprehending this correctly, I don't think the club should have both. Otherwise I think there will be fragmentation of members/information, which we cannot afford. I would say have one location for posts, communication etc, whichever it is.

I think the MCC Facebook group is just a way to reach a wider audience. As for right now, I do NOT think that the MCC Facebook group is intended to be MCC's primary way for members to communicate with each other. I consdider it a great way to give MCC more exposure to a much bigger audience.

There are at least a dozen MCC members who already had Facebook accounts. There's no reasonable way anyone could expect those folks not to communicate through Facebook. In just the short time I've been on Facebook I had already connected with several other MCC members before the MCC Facebook group was started.

I consider the Facebook MCC group to be just that, MCC on Facebook. Personally, I still have a cellphone, e-mail, a personal web site, and of course snail mail; but now I also have a Facebook account where people can communicate with me. It's just another tool. I'm not giving up anything else. Neither will MCC. The message board and web site will still be there, but maybe we'll end up with a MCC Facebook group too. It will just be another way for members to interact and for non-members to find MCC and interact/communicate. I do NOT see the MCC Facebook group replacing either the web page or message board.

The message board suffers from SPAM attacks that have made it necessary to make the registration process a bit cumbersome. That alone has probably limited the number of MCC members registered on the message board. No matter what the reason, we know that we only have a small fraction of the MCC membership actually using the message board. I'm still baffled as to why most people seem resistant to registering on the message board.

The Mackinaw Canoe Club has relied heavily on mass e-mail messages sent out by Frank B. lately. That method is fairly effective, but it has it's drawbacks. Mass e-mails can take time to execute ( send an e-mail to Frank and then Frank send out a mass e-mail ), and then there's not really any good way to reply directly to those e-mails ( caused by BCC or Blind Carbon Copy, which is the proper way to do the mass e-mail messages ). We are in debt to Frank for doing those mass e-mail messages, but it's really a crutch. Folks need to register on the message board and post their information there.

Lacking any good way to get folks to use the message board, I think it's only logical for the club to reach out in other ways to connect and communicate with people.

As for being "counter productive" and "fragmented"; well, we already have that. Some members insisted that the "Trip Schedule" be posted on both the web site and the message board. I would much rather have the club determine ONE place for the "Trip Schedule" to exist. As of right now, I don't believe that any trip information is posted on the MCC Facebook group. The "Trip Schedule" is on the web site and the message board. I guess one more place ( FB ) might not hurt. I would not suggest it, but I guess it might not hurt anything.

Let's not forget that even when there was a newsletter, it was very difficult to coordinate both the newsletter and the web site. As soon as the newsletter was printed, it was out of date. Changes are happening all the time, and that includes the trip schedule. Recently, the Pizza Paddle had a change. The web site might have been able to keep up with that change and the message board certainly could, but the newsletter never could have. That means that a person reading the newsletter and a person reading the web site or message board would be reading two different sets of information. It's a problem, but every form of communication has it's problems. There's no perfect answer.