No it's not the welcoming aspect. People can be welcoming.

But once a culture is socialized for a set of members, it's the culture that is not conducive for encouraging new members to break into it. Some people have an easier time doing it than most...but for the most part, individuals don't readily jump into a 'set in stone' culture.

However, if you introduce enough new members into the current culture, the dynamics will change and the culture will change. This will alienate those that like it the "good ole' way" and they will either stop participating, or get cliquey.

Just saying that the two goals stated in my previous post may be hard to achieve if both are priorities...one may need to primary focus over the other.

 

Good insight on where this came from. Thanks.

Urmil... what are your thoughts then on removing the label of "official" and "unofficial" and just call it a get together.. or meet..... or whatever?

 

Urmil, I haven't responded directly to this point, but you've now referenced it a couple times, and I think you should be careful to tread a little more lightly. I'm talking about your reference to this real/perceived idea about people planning private GTG's by phone or PM, etc. You have to be careful not to intrude upon people having a private life. What people do in private; i.e., by PM or telephone is really their own business. What we do here, is a public forum. There is a very real and important distinction between the two. Once we start trying to control in any fashion what people do privately, we've gone over the line IMO.

One of the reasons I'm sensitive to this is, once upon a time, I had a boss who took a very harsh position on after work GTGs. It was really none of his business and had nothing to do with work, even though some people from work attended. Your position on so-called cliques in our community is scaring me a little in this regard. If people who met on this site choose to have private GTGs on their own, be it camping trips, etc., there is no place for our commentary on that.

Back then, I developed the opinion that a good leader or boss wouldn't concern himself concerning such things.

Not only that, but Urmil, what if you hired me to be your lawyer? If we meet in that capacity, it is certainly confidential and has nothing to do with S2ki. If a CO or MOD heard about our meeting would that somehow mean that we had a private clique that should be discouraged, frowned upon? Of course not, that would be nobody's business.

 

My interpretation of "official" and "unofficial" was an S2000 meet was official, and another forums meet (ie 8thcivic, jdmchicago, notfwd) were deemed unofficial.

I'm not sure what all this other stuff is about.

 

Sam: Can we just call them a meet and not put a label on the event?

In Ohio, we have a group going up to watch the F1 race in Montreal. It's even on the event calendar so people who may have missed the thread in regards to it can still see it and recognize that some members may be going. Grand Prix of Canada is by no means an "official" meet... and I'm sure that if it was, Bernie would be charging millions for us to even use the term "F1"

 

All official meets mean is they go on the calendar and are supported by the CO's. Unofficial meets are not supported, but can still be posted and members are still able to go on their own free will. Pretty much as it was before, just clarification for it. Perhaps rather than saying official we can say in the title "s2ki's KBAB" or "s2ki's Thursday night meet"

 

Absolutely, I was following a previous rule.

I like the idea of owners going to other forums' meets, there's a chance an S will be there who doesn't know about S2KI, the others can then tell them about the forum and we could in return get a new member.

I don't like labeling meets, I don't see the point at all. It is either a meet or not, nothing in between.

 

This forum is a public place; technically, everyone in the world can see that we are having a meet.

However, if "unofficial" is a word used to describe a private GTGs (made by private means), then it really has no place for discussion IMO, as I mentionned in my prior post.

 

..

First, it's not perceived. There have been three private S2000 and region focused gatherings organized by people trying to stay out of the fray that I've been invited to.

Second, so what you're saying is that it's ok for a segment of the community to plan S2000 related events via PM to actively disinclude the majority?

In the past, when stuff happened like that and when those not invited caught wind that they weren't privy to what they perceive as an S2K gathering (warranted because it was organized via the UMW and then later flaunted with pics on the forum after the fact), it really alienated and disconnected many, many individuals.

If so, and the community finds it acceptable, then fine. I'm not here to argue what way I think the community should go. Just be weary that once that starts happening in droves, the UMW will no longer be a community...it'll be segments of cliques, each of which does their own thing...whoever the CO's are and what ever clique they belong to, will the get forum to use as their playground and all other cliques be damned. It's happened in other community forums.

On another note, aside from the recent posts, I've been trying to stay out of this thread. Much of this is just talk right now...let's see who takes on any of these initiatives, and how they are implemented. Talk is so much easier than doing...which is why there were holes that could be attacked by a few for the changes that were being worked on by Charlie and me just a few weeks ago.

If you notice, I'm trying to drum up other activity in the UMW in other threads....this one is still veiled around drama and as a non-CO, I don't want to be a part of it...the drama. The UMW used it have a tag line..."UMW, we know drama"; I sure hope we aren't headed down that path again.

Edit: Just re-read my post. Don't want it to come across that there is any tone in my writing. I know it's a little direct, but no tone is intended

 

We hadn't used "official" and "unofficial" for years. How it was brought up earlier in this thread is under different context.

I do see a positive for what meets go on the S2Ki UMW calendar...an official UMW meet would be added to the calendar, whereas, an invite to an Evo meet would not.

I like the idea...

I think there may be some negative outcomes from it that I don't want to go into. If I did, it could discourage the new-ish folks from adding their two cents to other ideas. "I don't want to sh!t on anyone's parade" as they say.

Again..just to get a little off-topic; I really think the energy going into this thread by all the contributors should be going into all the other posts being engaged on in the UMW.

Let the activity start...this is the first time we've had so much discussion in the UMW, let's use it. I think this is the momentum that Charlie and I were looking for.