Ameraucana Breeders Club
The Official Forum of the Ameraucana Breeders Club => Ameraucana Marketplace => Topic started by: Guest on November 28, 2009, 09:18:59 AM
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Just wanted to say good bye to the group. I received the email about the ABC forum being only for ABC members. I do not breed ameraucana so I will not be joining the group.
Have a good one,
Tim
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Just wanted to say good bye to the group. I received the email about the ABC forum being only for ABC members. I do not breed ameraucana so I will not be joining the group.
Have a good one,
Tim
Hi Tim,
I belong to the ABC, I do happen to be raising Ameraucana\'s.
I am a member of a couple of clubs of breeds I do not breed, but admire and want to be able to keep up with the breed and support them.
If you enjoy the breed, and the forum, why not join the club?
I know you are and will be most welcomed,
There are a great bunch of people here, and your post have been really appreciated,
Think about it,
I hope you had a great Thanksgiving,
blessings, phil
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I do not breed ameraucana
Tim,
I understand your decision not to join the club, but want to make sure people know they do not have to breed, raise or exhibit Ameraucana to join. Recently a gal said this in an email to me:
The membership registration form implies one must be raising Ameraucanas to join ABC.
At first I thought she meant to join the ABC as she said, but after thinking about it I think she meant the ABC Forum. I just want to be clear either way one does not have to own any poultry to join the club. The only change will be that only Ameraucana Breeders Club members will be ABC Forum members after the first of the year.
We have at least one member that has been a steady supporter of the club and breed for decades, even though she hasn\'t had any Ameraucana in many years.
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I too must say goodbye for the 2010 season . I sent an email to the forum administrator explaining my decision . I will re-evaluate this decision if I am successful in obtaining some Ameraucana and obtaining more information about the ABC next year .
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I suppose it is a good way to force membership to the club and control the content of posts on the forum... Chris
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Just wanted to say good bye to the group. I received the email about the ABC forum being only for ABC members. I do not breed ameraucana so I will not be joining the group.
Have a good one,
Tim
I\'ll certainly miss the helpful information you\'ve been so generous with, and am selfishly hoping you\'ll reconsider and decide to join.
All my best,
Sherry
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Has there been a problem with non-members posting inappropriately? Why do we need to control the forum? Are our Ameraucana gurus overwhelmed with queries? Do we need to put them on top of a mountain in Tibet to challenge the questors?
I thought it was a good way for folks to get acquainted with the breed, ask novice questions, get directed to the answer by John... ^_^ ... and then email me asking about purchasing chickens.
What will happen to old forgetful members who forget to renew their membership on time? Is the intent to weed out the less organized members too? I am guilty of organization failure.
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I have kept silent about this change as I am not a senior member. I agree with the sentiment that membership should have its benefits. However, restricting posts to members only will most likely mean that the forum will slowly become more and more inactive. Is that really a good tactic for attracting newcomers? The Ameraucana Club needs supporters as well as members. Having an active forum with lots of questions and queries coming from all sorts of enthusiastic people (if somewhat misguided at times) gives a positive impression about the club and the breed. I say let\'s not be so harsh.
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Lynne,
The reasons I wanted to limit the access are the ones mentioned in the Bulletin and under another topic.
http://www.ameraucana.org/abcforum/index.php?a=topic&t=1172
FYI, not all board members agreed.
Has there been a problem with non-members posting inappropriately?
Not that I know of.
Why do we need to control the forum?
I don\'t think the idea was to gain more control.
Are our Ameraucana gurus overwhelmed with queries?
Not that I know of.
Do we need to put them on top of a mountain in Tibet to challenge the questors?
Only if it is a paid vacation.
I thought it was a good way for folks to get acquainted with the breed, ask novice questions, get directed to the answer...
Me too.
What will happen to old forgetful members who forget to renew their membership on time?
Prison time...or maybe a little GRACE period.
Is the intent to weed out the less organized members too?
What? There must be a conspiracy theory somewhere. I\'ve stated my intent. Other board members can state their intent.
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Newcomers and beginners are the lilfe blood of any breed organization whether it be dog, cat, horse, or CHICKEN.
Tough times make reaching out to like minded folks even more important so maybe this isn\'t the best year to start charging for that connection.
I am happy to pay my dues but feel very blessed that I can.
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I think the feeling was that members should get extra value for their dues. Non-members are free to read the forum, and they have access to the breeders list in case they want to contact individual members via e-mail, phone, or whatever.
I get e-mails directly with questions about Ameraucanas from members and non-members quite frequently, and almost always respond. If folks are truly interested in the breed and want more information than what is already provided and posted here the membership dues won\'t break them. If they have only a passing interest there are other forums available on the internet, and I believe some of our members go to them as well. In short, I agree wholeheartedly with the new policy. As a nonvoting member of the Board I did not help to make the final decision.
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Input is good. Before voting on the action we brought this subject up at the annual meeting for discussion by the members present. You\'ve got some good points and I agree with many of them. I don\'t see it as harsh though to limit access to those that financially support the forum by being dues paying members. I consider the other board members to be good friends and we didn\'t all agree, but it was by majority vote and if someday we want to change it we can by the same process.
Hopefully this will encourage more to become and remain members. The club isn\'t out to become rich. I know that our Secretary/Treasurer is very frugal with our funds and it takes money to keep the club going and the club keeps this forum and the website going. I know with some clubs you have to be a member just to get to the \"members only\" stuff. At least here it is open for all to view. FYI, we wanted to still make photos available for all to view, but the \"forum\" doesn\'t give us that option.
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As a member, and one that couldn\'t make the annual meeting, I want to let you know that the Western District Director did tell me about this and I gave her my input which, in short, is exactly what Mike said. I agree wholeheartedly with the new policy and you have my full support.
And just for the record, I understand a lot of folks are on hard times. I have talked with many a person who has had it real bad this year. And I say this, not to toot my own horn or draw any attention to me but rather just to inform, I haven\'t made one penny this year at my job. But I just got my dues notice in with the latest Club Newsletter and you can bet that I\'ll be sending a check off ASAP.
The dues are very reasonable and I truly believe that anyone with a serious interest in the breed will make the effort to become part of the Club. Those who help support the Club should receive some \"extra value\". I mean, there needs to be a reason to be a member of something other than just getting a patch to wear on a jacket, right? And, of course, it\'s not all about receiving but giving too. I get that.
God Bless,
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I have always felt that one of the main benefits of joining a breed club is that you get to know the other members well and when the time comes that you need a certain bird for your breeding program, you can pick up the phone and get to the the head of the line. Looking out for and supporting each other isn\'t a patch or ribbon but to me it is plenty reason for joining a breed club. Keeping the forum strictly for members to post is not my decision to make but I just felt that I had to express my concern that appearing exclusive instead of inclusive can ring a sour note. I like to err on the overly generous side if at all possible and I feel that my life is richer for it. Someone who has a favorable interaction on the forum is a potential future member. They might (or might not) have called, but the Internet is now the preferred communication tool of the majority of younger people. Anyway, good luck with the change and sorry to rock the boat.
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Anne,
You\'re not rocking the boat. Your input is appreciated. I only disagreed with the word \"harsh\", but once again that is only my opinion.
I played around with some of the forum settings yesterday and found out how to allow photos to be viewed by \"guests\" and some other possibilities.
We will stick with only ABC members having full access to the forum (\"members should get extra value\"), as per the board\'s decision. FYI, the vote was only to \"restrict membership on the ABC forum to club members\". We can do that while also trying something new at the same time. On a trail bases we\'ll let all \"guests\" create topics and reply...so they have a place to ask questions. This would be helpful to me personally, since I like to ask those that email questions to me to please post their questions on the forum. Along with that I will require guests to include a name (or nickname) and valid email address in each post they make or it will be deleted. Also we\'ll keep it so only members can post photos and view all photos. I believe this to be a good compromise. I\'ve asked the board members to consider this and other options.
Update:
It\'s been less than an hour and already we\'ve had one topic created that had nothing to do with poultry...let alone Ameraucana chickens. Letting guests post just may not work.
:(
OK...after more research we\'ll start by letting guests \"reply\" but not start \"topics\". I\'m hoping this stops the robot spam posts. Guests can look for an appropriate topic that is already created to post thier questions in.
:(
Due to the spam (already deleted) I\'ve turned off the option to let guests reply to posts. Sorry...
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A guest said:
I like the new procedures, John. You are awesome to make it happen.
BTW, it\'s hard to justify calling something \"added value\" when in actuality you are taking something away from others.
Maybe we can come up with something new that adds value. HEY! I\'ve got an idea... ABC members can ship birds to Nationals and the \"club\" will get them shown. (I don\'t know how to actually do that, but it could increase entries and maybe even attract new members.
Anyway, add some value something like that.
Thanks for the comments. My only problem is the guest didn\'t include a \"name\" (or even a nickname) along with a valid email address in the post, so it has been deleted. Please include them in all posts by Guests.
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Have I already been \"kicked out\"?
I hope this will post.
I just got a message from another member saying...
I sent you a reply from ABC but it says you’re no longer a member? Do you still have your Ameraucanas?
Since this new decision, which I support by the way, I did send in my ABC membership fees for 2010, but didn\'t realise I\'d be \"cut off\" for the rest of this year.
Quote from Tailfeathers... The dues are very reasonable and I truly believe that anyone with a serious interest in the breed will make the effort to become part of the Club.
I agree, the fees ARE reasonable, and I would have joined for this year too, but I simply have no extra money right now. Not trying to get sympathy, but I honestly don\'t even have Christmas presents yet for my 3 kids. Sometimes other things come first, like feeding the kids and the chickens.
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Have I already been \"kicked out\"?
Not that I know of.
I sent you a reply from ABC but it says you’re no longer a member?
I don\'t understand that question.
\"Reply from ABC\"?
\"It says\"?
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Thanks for being flexible and working on this John. The guest actually had a good point and an interesting idea. If everyone would toss out at least one fresh idea on how to make ABC membership even more appealing, it would make for fruitful discussion. We could also ask members to query their poultry friends about what they are looking for (or like) in a breed club. What people want can change over time and the answers might surprise us.
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The last post at 7:28 pm was from Anne Foley.
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I had to log in again, too. Maybe one of the adjustments erased the \"stay logged in\" of the folks logged in. That could be why folks are posting as guests.
Maybe they are showing solidarity to our honored guests...
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Maybe one of the adjustments erased the \"stay logged in\" of the folks logged in. That could be why folks are posting as guests
I think so too.
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Have I already been \"kicked out\"?
Not that I know of.
I sent you a reply from ABC but it says you’re no longer a member?
I don\'t understand that question.
\"Reply from ABC\"?
\"It says\"?
I had contacted someone on the forum a while back, but they didn\'t see it until very recently. They then tried to message me back but they got the notice or message above saying I was no longer a member. It wouldn\'t go through. They then contacted me through my personal email. Just wondering why I\'d been cut off from the forum already.
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why I\'d been cut off from the forum
I don\'t think you were.
I see that you don\'t allow Personal Messages (PM) thru the forum and many of us don\'t. Unless you are checking for PMs daily, email is much better method to contact members personally.
If you want to use the PM option you may by thru the Control Panel.
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When I consider joining an organization , I have learned from a negative experience to find out some of the following information :
1. Is it a true club or a privately owned business owned by one or more persons .
2. What are the means used to determine the board of directors ?
3. Specificly what are the membership fees used for ? [ not to be answered by a general statement such as \" A club to promote the Ameraucana Chicken \" etc. ]
3. Do members receive detailed financial reports of the club\'s income , expences , and assets ?
4. In what way will I benefit from paying a membership fee ? [ I have determined that by paying a relatively low fee I will be allowed access to this forum and receive a newsletter with some information that I will probably find interesting ; hopefully it can be sent by email because I no longer prefer hardcopy of articles , news , etc. . \" [ one club I\'ve been a member of offers a discount on the membership fee in return for agreeing to get the newsletter by email , saving them on publishing costs and mail expences ]
I\'m certain I\'m not the only person struggling to get by on very little income and debating with myself on paying a fee to a club I know very little about . It might help the ABC if those questions and others were addressedd on the ABC\'s website .
Thanks for reading ,
SteveH - redeemerbulldogs@hotmail.com
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1. Is it a true club or a privately owned business owned by one or more persons . The ABC has been a true club since 1978 when it was formed.
2. What are the means used to determine the board of directors ? The board of directors are elected every two years by majority vote
3. Specificly what are the membership fees used for ? [ not to be answered by a general statement such as \" A club to promote the Ameraucana Chicken \" etc. ]Websites, mailings, newsletters, office supplies, and awards do not pay for themselves. The money has to come from somewhere. Nobody receives a salary - all time is donated.
3. Do members receive detailed financial reports of the club\'s income , expences , and assets ?Summary reports of inflow and outflow of funds via the newsletter.
4. In what way will I benefit from paying a membership fee ? [ I have determined that by paying a relatively low fee I will be allowed access to this forum and receive a newsletter with some information that I will probably find interesting ; hopefully it can be sent by email because I no longer prefer hardcopy of articles , news , etc. . \" [ one club I\'ve been a member of offers a discount on the membership fee in return for agreeing to get the newsletter by email , saving them on publishing costs and mail expences ]There is one way to find out, and that is to join. You also become eligible for ABC sponsored rosettes and awards as a member.
SteveH - redeemerbulldogs@hotmail.com
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In what way will I benefit
Steve,
Besides what you listed and Mike added...
Members can have a link on the club\'s Links page to thier poultry related site, members may have a listing in the Breeder Directory and first time members also receive an ABC Handbook.
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Thank you both for the the information . The ABC sounds like an organization I would be happy to be a member of . Keep up the good work and hopefully I\'ll join you in 2010 .
SteveH