On Mon, 8 Feb 2021 17:51:47 +0000 steve-ALUG@hst.me.uk allegedly wrote:
On 07/02/2021 14:30, mick wrote:
Oh good grief. Surely members now have email addresses. Those without must be in the minority now. How the hell do they function in today's world without an email address?
Making some sweeping assumptions here, but I'm guessing that most boat owners aren't young, are reasonably well off and possibly set in their ways and successfully and possibly influential.
I would suspect that people like that could manage perfectly well without, and I know there are people who would refuse to have an email address for various reasons.
And at one time such people might have refused to have a phone number too. Sooner or later they realise that it is in their own interests to adjust, or miss out.
Being "old, reasonably well off and possibly influential" is no excuse for being unreasonable. On the contrary, such people need to realise that the world does not revolve around them and that /they/ need to change their habits if they wish to function in a modern society, and gain its benefits. How do they manage utility bills? Bank or insurance correspondence? Government (local and national) contacts? Medical contacts? etc.
My own mother is 88 years old and has no email. She has to be assisted (by one of my brothers) in all her electronic correspondence with a wide range of service providers. Without that assistance things would start to degrade and eventually fail. She is not bloody minded (like the "old, reasonably well off and possibly influential", she just doesn't understand the concept of email. She has said that she thinks it might be useful but "it's a bit too late for me to start now".
Phil is designing and building a web site for the GOBA. Members will be expected to interact with that website and gain the benefits of its existence. So the assumption must be that they are not completely devoid of connected competence. Like you, I am making an assumption here, but I am assuming that some of the members are just "set in their ways" (a euphemism for "bloody minded"). Being "potentially influential" (whatever that means) is no excuse for being difficult.
And for how long is the rest of society meant to cater for those of its members who refuse (rather than those who are simply unable) to avail themselves of the benefits of modern communication? Ten years? Twenty? Thirty? Do we wait until all the outliers are dead? At some time there has to be a point at which we say, "sorry, but to continue here you must meet our requirements or face inordinate additional costs". My point is simply that at the moment when Phil (the membership secretary) is designing a new portal for the members /they/ should be flexible - or miss out.
Maintaining the status quo looks ridiculously, and unnecessarily, complicated. If you are the membership secretary you must be in a position to "encourage" change to something much more sensible. The obvious membership ID would be an email address. Push for that.
And I also suspect that rich, influential, stuck in their ways people might push back quite forcefully at that suggestion! Hence the original request!
Let 'em push. I would. And I would resist.
(Full disclosure - I am 67 years of age, moderately well off and some people (mostly younger than me, and particularly my grandchildren, consider me set in my ways). Whether I am influential or not is entirely debatable.)
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