Getting the most from your club in 2023.
Published 21:48 on 10 Feb 2023
LSC Members,
The calendar has been updated with dinghy events, cruiser rallies, paddlesports meets and the duties required to run them and the club. Although our membership numbers remain constant we have noticed a dip in participation in club events since Covid. In an effort to ensure that you are aware of what is going on, how to take part,and how to interact with the club, this message is to tell you about how communication works to, from and within the club.
Please take time to read this as following an internal review we now have some new methods in place and changes/retirements on some of the existing ones and we don't want you to miss out on what is going on.
Your starting point should always be the club website https://langstonesc.org.uk/
This contains a wealth of information, will be kept up to date and should be considered the "single point of truth". It also allows you to communicate directly with the club and other members. Some of the information is available to any visitor to the site while logging in as a member gives you access to additional pages.
Any visitor to the website can see :
- The information pages
- The club calendar
- Tide times, weather forecasts, the club webcam
- Race results
However logging in as a member also gives access to :
- Your Membership information
- The Duty roster
- The ** NEW** FAQ page
- The ** NEW ** club forums
- The boat booking system
- Classified adverts
- Crewfinder
- Minutes of meetings
- A variety of documents about the running and life of the club.
For this reason, we recommend that you LOG IN each time you visit the club website to ensure you don't miss anything.
The FAQ page (accessed from the menu bar at the top of each page) is new and is designed to simplify navigation of the website for frequently requested tasks. Clicking on the links on this page will take you directly to the relevant page of the website without having to navigate through the menus. This will be updated over time
The forums are also a new feature of the website and a number of forums on specific subjects have been created. You are able to :
- subscribe to the forums - either receiving an email each time there is a post, or occasionally as a reminder.
- create a new thread or respond to an existing one
- post text, photos or videos.
- Any member can post or respond - if you want an official answer from the club, use the Contact Form, but the forums are a good place to ask questions generally, provide information or make comments about the subject of each forum. There are rules of acceptable behaviour, the forums will be monitored. The forums should be used instead of the Facebook closed groups, which will no longer be proactively posted in by club officials.
Please be aware that, like many forums, once your message has been posted on a forum you cannot edit or delete it (can only be done by an administrator).
To communicate with the club there is a "contact us" button at the top of each page. Clicking on that allows you to send a message to the club - this will be forwarded to the correct person for action and is also tracked - you won't fall down a virtual hole. If logged in, you also have contact details for the club Flag Officers, committee members and a few other key contacts.
You can also communicate directly with another member - the Member
Directory in the Members' Area allows you to send a message to any
other club member, while the Boat Directory allows you to identify the
owner of a boat and send them a message.
The club phone number has been removed from the website, simply because the clubhouse is often empty - better to use the contact form.
To report damage to a club boat (dinghies, safety boats etc), please use the form accessible in the FAQs or in the footer of each page. The bosun's book should no longer be used for this purpose.
The club also sends emails to the club members on a variety of
topics. These emails are sent to distribution lists that you can opt
in or out of - through "My Mailing Lists" in the Members area. Emails
about your membership (invoices etc) will also be sent to the email
address registered on the site under "My profile" in the Members Area.
The Club Newsletter will continue to be sent out but will summarise the "latest news" posts on the website and provide links to each news item.
Information may be posted on the Notice Board in the Club House when added on the website. Race courses will be posted on the white board before the start.
These changes have been put in place to simplify access to data, consolidate as much as possible into systems that everybody has access to, to reduce duplication and errors across multiple platforms and to reduce the workload on volunteers.
As time goes on we plan to put more "how to" guides, Operating Procedures (eg for boats), Risk Assessments and other useful documents that are not currently available to all members onto the website.
As the season is kicking off, please go and take a look at the website, not forgetting to log in. Check out the new areas of the website - if you have questions, comments or suggestions on anything in this communication strategy, please do let us know.
LSC General Commttee
