New guy.

[JonT]

I'm from near Jacksonville. I bought a canoe for my boy and nephew to play with, and liked it more than they did. We have been bombing around the local creeks trying to stay out of trouble till our paperwork all gets back. Planning a few trips this summer, maybe a couple overnighters. Gonna try the Sangamon, maybe a bit in the IL since we have a small outboard. Love to hear about fun local spots, or get togethers. The guys at dirtclod sent me over here.

[JonT]

Real friendly place you guys have here.

[Gayle]

Sorry, Jon. I usually just check out the events section. You have my sincere apology. Welcome to the MCC. For a variety of reasons, I haven't been on the water yet this year. I hope to change that soon. You are welcome to join any group of paddlers. Keep an eye on the events topics and hopefully there will be something there you are interested in. I had hoped to go this weekend and posted the "is anyone going" thread--hoping to get a group together, but didn't receive any replies other than the one from you indicating you are going on a local creek. Were you wanting others to join you?

Above all, be sure to be at the meeting on June 25 if you can come. It will be good to have you there.

[JonT]

Above all, be sure to be at the meeting on June 25 if you can come. It will be good to have you there.

Just curious, why should I drive 50 miles each way to meet a bunch of people who can barely be bothered to talk to me here?

[Yanoer]

Just curious, why should I drive 50 miles each way to meet a bunch of people who can barely be bothered to talk to me here?[/quote]

Lack of responses is nothing personal. If you look at the posting history, which is very short, since this bulletin board has been in existence less than a year, you'll see that there hasn't been much activity of any kind at all.

Some members of the club may never even check the website.

If you decide to attend the meeting, you'll meet some people and discover that they really are a very friendly and helpful group of people who enjoy paddling and are very willing to help out with new paddlers.

I'm over in Urbana, IL, so I don't connect with the more westerly members very often.

Welcome aboard.

[JonT]

This being a young forum I would think that someone would be here answering questions and greeting new people. How will a forum ever grow if there is no discusion? It's a graveyard in here.

[roy]

JonT,

Your comments surprise and disappoint me. I manage the member applications to this message board. That effort takes 10 to 30 minutes of my time per day. That time is required to keep the spam accounts, invasive accounts, trash postings off the board to keep it clean for the family oriented Mackinaw Canoe Club.

You have accused the members with accounts on the Mackinaw Canoe Club Message Board of being unfriendly, not inviting to new members, a graveyard, ... Your comments lead me to believe you expected the message board to be a 'chat group' like Facebook.

Folks have responded kindly to your comments that we are a new site and plan to have a meeting on June 25th to set up a schedule, ...

Sorry that you don't plan to attend because of the distance. Note that our membership covers a large area of central Illinois and many members will be traveling long distances to help us arrange a schedule and conduct the business of the club. It takes effort by many members to make our club successful.

All that being said, I sincerely hope you can understand that our group is small and I'm sorry that we don't meet your expectations!

One of your posts said that I/we should delete your account. You made posts following that, so, I assumed you had changed your mind and deleted your post asking me to delete your account.

Do you want to stay as a member of the Mackinaw Canoe Club Message Board?

Beyond that, do you want to become a member of the Mackinaw Canoe Club and support us via membership dues and help in planning club trips to rivers and lakes of interest to you?

Note that MCC membership gets your email address on our email list which is used to alert folks to 'pick up trips' and of course to let us know of last minute changes to planned trips (start times, meeting location, weather alerts, ...).

JonT, Please take the effort to help us if you want the benefits of a successful and active family oriented paddling group.

Please let me know your decisions,

Roy

[Nature Boy 1]

Hi JonT,

Welcome!

I don't know about anyone else, but I've found in my short membership with the Mackinaw Canoe Club that these folks are some of the friendliest folks about. Regrettably, I have only been able to join in on one of their trips since joining a few years back. Nice folks!

Personally, I paid my dues and joined the club and I get all of my information via e-mail. I will occasionally check this forum, I say occasionally because I keep fairly busy working full-time and volunteering part-time with Rock River Sweep.org - http://www.rockriversweep.org - as well as trying to fit in a little paddlin' time here and there.

I feel really bad that you may have been offended by the lack of response, but maybe it's because the folks are out paddling and having a good time on the water instead of sitting in front of their computers wishing they could be out there... I really don't know for sure.

I spend a great deal of time on-line with the Rock River Sweep so I try to limit my personal time on line.

So anyway, if you would be interested, come join the community of Oregon, IL on July 17, 2011 for the annual Rock River Canoe Rally, Ref: http://oregontraildays.org/ and click on Events. I won't be there due to my work schedule, but it's a fun time.

Also, September 10, 2011 is the date for the Great Rock River Sweep (A River Clean-up)... See our web-page for details.

One more source for a good time is: http://www.paddling.net/

Keep the decks up and the keel down,
Frank Masterman
Oregon, IL

[phsurfryder]

I have posted trips and not heard from anyone, I am not big on computers if you ask me something I would be more than happy to reply but don"t check posting every day. Paddlers are outdoor people and individualist so all of our group skills are may not meet modern exspectations but these are some great people. Try em you'll like em

[JonT]

I don't recall ever asking to be deleted here. I made that request at Dirt clod because I was given the impression that it was a kayak only site. You guys seem to use this place more like a place to post event dates than as a "hang out". I was looking for a place to hang out. I didn't ever have the intention of coming to any events. As another member mentioned, some of us are pretty independant types, I don't do well in large groups. But I do like to talk with people on the net. I joined this smaller but local forum hoping to hear about local places to go, maybe even meet a member or two close to me to go paddleing with. Especially since I have 2 boats ready to go every night of the week, but noone I know is interested, or has time. If you think I have been disrespectful, I appologize. I think I misunderstood what you wanted this place to be. And I'm not sure that I'm going to fit in here.