Hey folks, since the recent breakdown at our shop the issue of how to communicate with volunteers and members has come up as major issue. I'm just wondering if any of you have found what you consider to be an efficient means of notifying members and sarting discussions with volunteers.
In the past we used three email list serves, one for all members, one for volunteers, and another just for organizing members. We have found these lists difficult to keep up to date as we seem to have a constant flow of volunteers and members. We have also found that many people get annoyed when discussions happen over email and often stop reading what could be important notices.
Recently some volunteers started more lists for sub-committees (such as mechanics only) and then started using facebook and the online forum on our website and this has resulted in a complete breakdown of communication, sometimes many people are not included, often many of us get several emails about the same thing. Using methods like forums and facebook are great becuase anyone can read and join in and people don't get annoyed with emails, but at the same time people are likely to stop checking and reading if they don't get reminders.
One possible solution brought to the floor was to combine the use of email and forum discussions, such that notices are sent over email and if a discussion should happen, a notice is given over email and a link to the forum discussion. Do any of you have any more ideas that we might be able to use to get us back on track?
Thanks!! .godwin