So far, in my poll for membership minimum requirements, the majority is in favor of some form of limitations on joining eligibility. There has only been one individual who has taken it as that we will boot you if you join and don't make a certain number of posts all the time. This is NOT the intent. Every organization, club and society has a set of rules to live by in order to maintain a standard for everyone. We are only developing a standard of which to JOIN by. I hope y'all are making this clear. I had to respond to the one person and hopefully I have made the objective clear.

You can please some of the people some of the time...... but you cannot please everyone ALL the time.

 

Being involved in this kind of thing for 25 years,there is a fine line for someone to be a member or they avoid the noid.

First thing is No Pressure on anyone.

It has to be a clear choice for someone to decide to become a member of something.

The best thing anyone can do, is to make it attractive enough for someone to belong to it.

 

Good post, No one should be pressured into anything and as they say "if you build it they will come". As we seek out new members there should be some excitement and desire to stay and keep postig and joining in on the events. Our goal and duties are to provide them with incentives or the desire to stay with us. There will be some that come to FTE once or twice to get info and then forget about it but those will probably not take the time to join a chapter anyway. The ones we seek are the ones who participate and want to become part of the group.

 

That is a good post Mil1on. I agree, but I guess this started out in wondering if there should be a set of minimum requirements for a person to join. I too, want people who are going to be active...and the gist of the poll I posted, in the High Plains forums, suggests that others want the same.

So, the question still remains...and I believe it is still left up to each chapter... do we want active members or just numbers of members? I agree with the Kansas Chapter position..."The ones we seek are the ones who participate and want to become part of the group." But... in order of fairness, I have offered to accept the majority opinion of the current members and anyone else who wants to vote in the poll. And since my chapter has less than 20 members, I hope others will check it out and vote. The poll lasts for 30 days...so everyone trot on down to the High Plains Chapter and VOTE. I am not the only newbie chapter leader who is looking for consistency among all the chapters.

 

i just wanted to say that i was looking for some guidelines as to approving disapproving members, i wish that FTE management would give some direction on this , right now i approve anyone that wishes to join, i'm not looking for more rules at this moment..just to have some sort of idea of what is expected of us . .. Ken or Dennis, what do you envision the chapter's to become in the short term? and what if any long term goals do you have in mind?

 

Yeah..since I only have 15 members right now... effective immediately I will approve all requests to join...and if a standard is set farther along..then the future requests will have to follow the newer rules.

 

I agree that we all are looking for a little direction on this and other matters but we may need to look at ourselves for the answers. Ken and Dennis and the others have given us the horse so it's up to us to ride. they are watching I am sure, but it looks like they are seeing if as leaders we can combine to create a atmosphere in which this site and it's chapters can grow and be exciting. If we can garnish enough support and assitance to do this as a group it will provide the foundation for stronger chapters well. I'll venture to say if we get carried away, to far out of line or even if we get stuck in a rut, the powers that be will step in and let us know. If we can pull our leader group together then pulling the chapters together will come naturally.

Another reason a Leader Forum would be helpful or at least nice to have.

 

i was hoping for a little more info as i stated in my last post.

 

Well... there is such a thing as "Executive Decision", also. I have decided to approve memberships of anyone who applies until further notice. That doesn't mean that things can't change farther down the road.

I've been working on a logo and have found that I could design until I'm blue in the face and never satisfy everyone. So, today after losing the formatting on the first floppy that I placed designs on, I went through the posts, the poll on the logo...considered the positions stated and then designed two last images for the crew to approve or disprove. After that..if either one isn't chosen, its back to the drawing board...but someone else doing the drawing. They had been working on a logo at first, but somewhere the process stopped, so I jumped in and worked something out that I figured would fit all the states of the chapter and fit the name of the group. It has turned into a mess of sorts, by offering too many choices. Live and learn, so they say.

Maybe I'm jumping too gung ho, too fast.

"One day at a time, Sweet Jesus, that's all I'm asking from you. Just give me the strength to do every day, what I have to do."

 

but I guess this started out in wondering if there should be a set of minimum requirements for a person to join.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I have always used the words Enthusiastic or Enthusiasm among the masses.


Quote:
Ken or Dennis, what do you envision the chapter's to become in the short term?


Making short term into long term.

*Sidenote:
I went to Ontario in 2002 to get things rollings & it appears that due to whatever reason the continued enthusiasm ended.
People's lives change,people who organizers can tell you it is a never ending Public Relations campaign to get people together for anything worth while.

Should an FTE have to come to a locale to get things going ?
I say no.
There are plenty of people in Ontario & lots with Fords.
If you want something to be worth while, you have consistency but you are always adding new things.


Quote:
and what if any long term goals do you have in mind?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`

To get as many Mind's focused on the fact that " FTE is the Very Best Ford Truck Enthusiast Site on the web"

FTE stand for Ford Product,Trucks Enthusiasm with Respect, Comaraderie,& the Quality Technical Information, as a bonus.

"Be part of something GREAT"

 

At this time I will only suggest ONE thing to do.

Make up a 5 1/2" x 8" Flyer with an invitation to the person to come & visit the best Ford Truck Enthusiast Web Site on the net.
It's FREE & "We on FTE love Our Trucks"

I would only recommend handing it to a personnot just leaving it under the wiper blade.
Some guys don't like anyone doing anything near their baby.

You must always remember that you are out there in public representing a private company.
Be personable & up front with friendliness.

To me, a stranger is a friend I haven't met yet

 

Well I don't mean to be anti-people but in my opinion chapter memberships are best reserved for people who either reside in the region or in some other way are directly tied to that region. It's not like non-members can't post in our Chapter forums and join in discussions but if we have every member join every chapter then it becomes a "general discussion" forum instead of a community based chapter. If we want to encourage meetings and group events it will be quite difficult when we pull our membership list and have to sort through people from all over the country.

Right now I'm limiting memberships to people from our region only so we can try to effectively organize local events and meetings. It's not meant to exclude other FTE members but rather to build a true sense of community. I think our chapters will lose value if we approve anyone from anywhere.

Anyway, that's my .02. I figure for now I'll approve anyone living in our region. If we want to add more to it later we can but I'm not going to worry about it right now . . . at least not until the chapter starts really building up.

EDIT: Upon review I found that while not all of our members post in the NW forum on a regular basis all but 2 of our 45 members have been active on FTE within the past 10 days. Considering 20 something members were already signed up before the approval process started I'd say that's not too shabby. What I may consider doing is removing members who have not posted to FTE in 6 months. As for the rest I'll encourage them to participate in the Chapter forum but as long as they're visiting FTE regularly I've got no complaints.

 

I agree with you ivan.

I think memberships definitely ought to be consistently regional. I have one member in my chapter who is from a different area, but his heart is still in the area where he moved from and is within our boundaries.

I agree that trying to organize or poll members could be confused if too many from out of state..so to speak.. add to the poll.

I do suggest that if your membership is small, like my chapter's, not to be too critical for now. Remember...a group has to start somewhere and the purpose is as Mil1ion stated..to have fun, meet people and share our stories and love for Ford Trucks. As time progresses and the groups grow, any amount of changes can be made to procedures if that is what the membership wants and needs to survive.