GNAS Promoting Bulletin Boards 2

[geoffretired]

I have recently joined AIUK and have spent everyday since enjoying the atmosphere and taking part in the discussions and helping where I feel I can.
It is a very good place to be. I am fairly new to computers and internet and my only knowledge of archery forums was the Oneida one in US. On the strength of that,I wrote to GNAS twice to say how useful a forum would be as a way to get archers and coaches together without the need for venues to be booked and time to be set aside(and money)to attend those sorts of meeting. I received the automated reply but no more than that. I did this before I found out this forum. At a recent mentoring course, I mentioned the idea of an archery forum and within a week a friend had set one up on Yahoo: and I was made a moderator as I was so keen to develop internet coaching or helpline. Remember, at that time I still did not know AIUK existed.
In my first few days on this site I got used to finding my way round and by accident came upon the thread about GNAS promoting Bulletin Board. It had lots of posts and it was nearly all about the forum I had been involved with.
Much of what was said was true. It is quiet and not so well set up as this one. One thing was not true, hence this post. I wrote to GNAS to ask for advice in promoting the forum. I was advised to send a brief intro which they could use on their notice board(is that the correct term?) Next day they had the intro and I was told it had been advertised. I felt I had to explain my position in all of this. Everything I did, was for the spread of archery information. I am seriously getting into distance learning;it has to be a big part of the future. I will add also that I am not one of the GNAS "in-crowd" as it was suggested.
Had I known about this site earlier I would have had no need to ask about having one started. What I would have done instead is ask GNAS to promote it. However, I see that has already been tried without success. How my request got through, I do not know. It did, but I can't be blamed for that I hope.
You may have seen some of my posts
Geoffretired
Sorry if I have caused a stir for the wrong reasons.

[Thunk]

No stir at all Geoff; you just gave us another topic to talk about. The point many were making was that if GNAS wanted a bulletin board/discussion forum, why set one up in what has to be said is a very amateurish way when they could simply have linked to one already established and with a growing membership? Your explanation sheds some light on the chronology of events, but still doesn't (and cannot) answer why GNAS won't have anything to do with this forum. Many here (myself included) are very critical of the way GNAS is run, and the overwhelming suspicion is that they cannot acknowledge the criticism, much less respond to it.

But thank you for shedding what light you could; I hope you feel this is a better place to be than on Yahoo!

Dave was talking about a coaches section of the forum; you may have the contacts to get it off the ground - interested?

[geoffretired]

Hi Thunk,
You have got me there. No ideas as to why GNAS won't promote this site.
Just to clarify the earlier post;The Yahoo site was set up by a fellow archer that I met at a course. He was not acting as a GNAS official when he did it. I made the suggestion but had no idea how to set up a forum He knew how and set it up. I asked for the name to be changed to include archers as well as coaches as that was my original intention and the friend did that too.
Coaches without archers would be a bit tedious for me I think.
All the best
Geoff
PS PM sent to you about the coaching section

[clickerati]

Perhaps as the yahoo forum is still small and quiet, you could take it upon yourselves to relocate to our neighborhood. Maybe then the GNAS would consider promoting our forum. Why not combine forces and be even stronger together than we would be apart?

[joetapley]

If you look at GNAS news item http://www.gnas.org/nlstory.cfm?ID=16951&NLID=40831 you can see that a GNAS already have a web based forum pencilled in for the future.

So non response may just be a case of non-duplication and not wishing to go off half-cocked before putting in some up front thinking about the how/why of such a forum.

PS If GNAS expanded their links page as per the old site then at list AIUK could get a reference from the GNAS site.

[clickerati]

Well, there are forums everywhere. I don't think we have much to worry about. We can share the love and keep doing what we're doing here.

[Rik]

Hmmm.
It strikes me that a "Tech forum" run by the performance section might be quite a different proposition to a discussion group based on the traditional coach hierarchy... The two groups haven't always seen eye to eye.

[Cakemeister]

Originally Posted by geoffretired

Had I known about this site earlier I would have had no need to ask about having one started. What I would have done instead is ask GNAS to promote it. However, I see that has already been tried without success. How my request got through, I do not know. It did, but I can't be blamed for that I hope.
You may have seen some of my posts
Geoffretired
Sorry if I have caused a stir for the wrong reasons.

Hi Geoff,

The Yahoo forum came to attention when it was promoted on the GNAS home page. I think it was assumed that anything which gets a mention on that page has the backing of GNAS. It's a shame that GNAS didn't give the Yahoo forum a proper PR job; two days on the front page does not count. As I'm sure you realise, AIUK has a different atmosphere, and so does the Sagi board. I joined the Yahoo board (amongst others) to see what was going on.

It remains frustrating that such established forums remain unrecognised; doubly so that, with all due respect, the controlling organisation for UK archery sees fit to mention a fledgeling ten member, twenty post Yahoo group when a seven hundred member, multi thousand post board populated with interested and responsible people goes by the wayside.

Pete

[geoffretired]

Hi Pete,
I can appreciate how you feel and that there are many others who share those feelings.
Can I still continue as a member of this forum?
All the best
Geoff

[Dave]

'Course you can Geoff

It takes a fair bit to get excluded from AIUK

Originally Posted by geoffretired

Hi Pete,
I can appreciate how you feel and that there are many others who share those feelings.
Can I still continue as a member of this forum?
All the best
Geoff