March Club Meeting
One of the most exclusive meetings we have had in a long time, but it did not stop the four of us to discuss club matters and make decisions:
Present membership: 97
In the treasure chest: £260
It is March already. All members (except the ones who have joined during the last few weeks) have to renew their club membership, preferably by the 1st of April but latest by the last of April. If you have not renewed by the 30st of April you will lose access to the Bigfoot webpage.
This year we have decided against any gifts for speedy renewal and will spent the money instead on the summer barbecue. The summer barbecue will take place in the same location as last year and we are aiming again for the end of the summer holidays, either the weekend of the 31st of August or the weekend of the 7th of September. Please let us know of any preferences.
Internet security:
We have decided that the Strava list on the Rides page should be log in protected, i.e. only visible for club members. We would like to protect our members from unwanted attention and keep our trails a little bit more to ourselves. (Andrew, could you please do your magic and change the setup of the Rides page accordingly, thanks).
We did not get far with the Twitter feed. None of the people present uses Twitter, but when I looked up the Bigfoot Twitter page I found that all postings on the Bigfoot webpage appear on the Twitter page as well. We have 84 followers on Twitter, some of them have nothing to do with mountain biking. It is not clear to me why they are interested in us. I cannot remember who set the Twitter account up, but we should revisit why we did it and what the implications are.
Rides:
Scotland trip: We need definite dates for the Scotland trip. Some people need to book their holidays early, especially since August is main holiday time (Event coordinator, please decide).
PaulW has offered to help organize teams for the Bristol Bikefest.
The Green Rides are back! After all the bad weather we had during the last year, injuries and illnesses we need to get you all out riding again. Watch the Rides calendar. The first green ride should be held on the weekend after next. Please state whether you would prefer a Saturday or Sunday ride.
Nice one Susanne, apologies for not coming, trust me I would rather than been there and not been trying to fix a production line all night!
Suprising about the Twitter feed, I dodn’t know we even had one, worrying if its repeating every forum post, can we remove it?
We can use next month’s meeting to start the membership again, I’ll be at that one with the money box to collect membership fees!
Andrew’s your man on the Twitter feed but from memory it was set up originally as a means of being notified of new posts on the website.
A lot of us use the Twitter feed for keeping up to date on club stuff and its all stuff that is on the forum nothing more(the first 255 letters btw) …but it comes through and is better than checking the web site
If you are not on Twitter it is difficult to show the benefits so maybe get on have a go and then come back…i for one like it loads
I’m with Jason on this one—it’s really handy for knowing when there’s a new post, but as he says it doesn’t give much away in terms of what’s been written as usually the post title and author name take up most of the 140 characters allowed in a Tweet. Without the Twitter feed, I imagine that quite a few of us who use it wouldn’t be aware of new posts—I only saw this post because of it!
For the green rides (and I suspect I’ll be back on them soon) I’d prefer a Saturday ride as it gives me the Sunday to relax before going back to work—especially helpful if the ride turns into an extended one.
This was a very and most exclusive meeting i must say and a very good one at that.
You guys know more about Twitter than me it goes right over my head, cheers Paul.
Ps/ thanks Jase for texting me the IMFO, for the meeting.
@Peter – that big button marked ‘Follow Me On Twitter’ on the homepage, eh?
Yes, our Twitter feed shows a summary (and links back to) all our News and Forum posts – but it’s only things that are publicly visible on the website anyway.
It was originally setup so that folks had an easy way of keeping up with what was going on without having to visit the website. (Remember we were offering alternatives to the Yahoo Group which emailed everyone with discussion points).
Checking the Twitter account I’d say we’ve got over a dozen genuine members who are following us – the others are either Bigfoot curious or just spam followers wanting us to follow them back. That’s quite normal for Twitter (although I’m not sure about the Russian lady who’s interested in ‘Chickens’?).
Checking the stats we have over 300 hits a day (!) on the website so it’s more than just members checking us out, the whole of the Internets are interested so we shouldn’t be surprised by a few strange Twitter followers.
Which makes me agree with Susanne on the Strava point – I didn’t realise that you could click through and see routes without being logged into Strava. I’ve moved the Strava summary to the Routes page that you can only see it when you’re logged in. Although I think the Bigfoot Strava crew are aware of security now and are locking themselves down too…
Hi Susanne, Preferably Saturdays for me, but if anyone cant make a Saturday but can on Sunday, they only have to pop it on the ride guide as there may be others in the same position who would jump at the chance.
(Some people work Saturdays for instance)
Another vote for the Twitter feed, I use it all the time.
Saturdays would be best for me, because then I can do the proper Sunday rides too.
DAN…You cheeky sh**!!
Yes yes to the twitter-me-bob
Jason told me how to use twitter to keep up to date ages back, works great. About time you started riding again Dylan! Talk about fair weather rider:)
Ha Ha Dan, I like that:)
Hey Derek, nothing wrong with persistent and gentle encouragement to do better. Speed is relative anyway: I’m pretty sure some people don’t bother joining the club because they regard us all as way too slow
saturdays would be best for me but I can do Sundays as well, went out on my road bike for the first time since November, did about 2 miles and I was cream crackered, so i`m going to be way at the back, suprise if you will be able to see me
Marverick, did you do those two miles straight up and over the Malvern hills? You got some very steep tarmac round those parts. The Old Wyche road would tire anyone out.
How much is the membership this year please
Maverick,
Its all on the web site under the “Join Us” tab http://www.bigfootmbc.co.uk/join-in/..but here it is below:
What does it cost?
The Annual (April 1st to March 31st the following year) membership costs £18 each or £25 for a couple or family. Half year membership is £10 running from 1st September.
Every member must also have third party insurance from either CTC or British Cycling Ride or Race Gold/Silver membership. If you have none of these then you will be required to pay an additional fee of £16 per person. For this fee you will become an affiliated CTC member that provides the required third party insurance cover. The CTC affiliated membership will be managed by the club and once we have received your membership details from CTC, this will be passed to you as is valid for one year.
You can download a membership form from the link below.
To open a membership form in PDF format click here!
Regards
Jason
Scotland trip – GAME ON – http://www.bigfootmbc.co.uk/forum/yeti-chat/bigfoot-extra-long-xc-weekender-7-stanes-scotland/
O.K. tweety birds, M will not take your twitter away.
As Pete I did not notice the ‘follow me on twitter’ button until Andrew pointed it out.It is not soooo big.