OT - Member Communication Tools at Your Club?

[Nick Schreiber]

I've been sending emails out this morning trying to connect Old Barnwell members to one another in each of our major markets in response to many kind offers by members to host folks at their home clubs. It's a pretty inefficient, and probably annoying way to kickstart communication between members, so I'm curious if anyone has any recommendations on ways to make such back-and-forth easy, and of the "opt-in" variety.


My use of Slack in my professional experience makes me think it would be a great (if expensive) solution, so groups can create their own "channels" to talk (e.g. "Philly members" or "Looking for a game"), and allowing people to pick and choose where they want to be included. My experience with club software systems is not great, and though we're implementing our own, I don't think it provides a super user friendly way to connect with other members.

Does anyone have any recommendations they can share, or any methods that might be relevant?


Thank you!

[Kalen Braley]

Nick,

I suspect the largest issue you'll be facing is one of technology, regardless of which platform you decide to use.

If email is no good, I doubt Slack would would work either as it will take even more training & explaining to get people up to speed on it.  My preferred method is to aggregate everyone in a Facebook Messenger group, and then they can easily split up into smaller groups as they see fit.  But then you face the problem of not everyone having a Facebook account, many by choice.

You could also try text groups, but it could be more difficult for members to correlate a cell number to a person, as opposed to a Facebook account where their unique identifier is presumably their name.

Or perhaps you could set up a chat/forum area on the Old Barnwell website that only members can access?

Good luck!

[Ben Malach]

Nick,


I don't know the age group of your membership, but I have personal found that Discord. Is great at organizing geographical disparate groups as you can have sub channels and events scheduled in.


I participate in a couple trivia leagues and other groups from abroad this way and it works great. I have done a few golf meet ups as well through another couple groups. I am a part of.


The main thing might be that the interface is designed with gaming and a younger demographic in mind. But due to it being built for large scale group management for gaming it works very well for organizing other large groups or communities.   

[Erik J. Barzeski]

I don't know the age group of your membership, but I have personal found that Discord. Is great at organizing geographical disparate groups as you can have sub channels and events scheduled in.

Whoa. If you're looking at Discord, Slack is much easier to learn for most people.

[Sean_A]

Try WhatsApp. You can create groups for each market then send out invites to join. Takes all the hassle away from you once it's going, its free, you don't have to log into another site and you can post pix and vids. You can join each group to add whatever content you like.

Guys will likely join other market groups after a while. Its not perfect, but what is? WhatsApp is an extremely popular method of single and mass communication in GB&I  and Europe. I don't understand why it isn't popular in the US?

Ciao

[Tommy Williamsen]

We have a group of about forty guys that communicate exclusively by email. It goes out a couple of times a week to see who is playing on Tuesday and Thursday. If some is looking for a game he will use the same email. Most of us are older and email works fine for us. I don’t do Facebook or any of those apps you mention. Neither do most of others.

[Paul Jones]

Clubster is designed for this function.  Just started using it for the Walter Travis Society.

[JohnVDB]

Try WhatsApp. You can create groups for each market then send out invites to join. Takes all the hassle away from you once it's going, its free, you don't have to log into another site and you can post pix and vids. You can join each group to add whatever content you like.

Guys will likely join other market groups after a while. Its not perfect, but what is? WhatsApp is an extremely popular method of single and mass communication in GB&I  and Europe. I don't understand why it isn't popular in the US?

Ciao

WhatsApp isn’t has popular in the US because we had unlimited texting earlier and didn’t need it.  The other problem with it is that it is owned by Meta and there are people like myself who won’t use any of their products.

[Wayne_Kozun]

Guys will likely join other market groups after a while. Its not perfect, but what is? WhatsApp is an extremely popular method of single and mass communication in GB&I  and Europe. I don't understand why it isn't popular in the US?

Apple has a higher market share in North America and iMessage is better  integrated into the Apple experience so people use iMessage.  That will be even more the case with the demographic of private golf club members in North America aka old rich white guys.

[Sean_A]

Guys will likely join other market groups after a while. Its not perfect, but what is? WhatsApp is an extremely popular method of single and mass communication in GB&I  and Europe. I don't understand why it isn't popular in the US?

Apple has a higher market share in North America and iMessage is better  integrated into the Apple experience so people use iMessage.  That will be even more the case with the demographic of private golf club members in North America aka old rich white guys.

But you can use WhatsApp on Apple. Imessage on Android is basically a text and open to charges...no? Seems sensible to use WhatsApp instead as you get full coverage for free.

 Ciao

[Wayne_Kozun]

You can use WhatsApp on Apple but people generally prefer to use iMessage since integration with stuff like photos, links, etc is tighter.  So a lot of Apple folks only like to use iMessage.
And, as was mentioned earlier, some folks avoid using FB/Meta products as a matter of principle.

[JohnVDB]

But you can use WhatsApp on Apple. Imessage on Android is basically a text and open to charges...no? Seems sensible to use WhatsApp instead as you get full coverage for free.

 Ciao

Everyone I know in the US has unlimited texting so there is no charge.

[Sean_A]

You can use WhatsApp on Apple but people generally prefer to use iMessage since integration with stuff like photos, links, etc is tighter.  So a lot of Apple folks only like to use iMessage.
And, as was mentioned earlier, some folks avoid using FB/Meta products as a matter of principle.

Whatsapp was just a suggestion. As I say, its extremely popular in UK & Europe regardless of phone type for exactly the purposes described above.

Ciao

[Nick Schreiber]

Thanks for all the responses - these are all very helpful! It's clear that finding a one-size-fits-all solution is unlikely, but there are clearly some effective tools that might work without spending an arm and a leg (and without requiring a lot of training for users). Will look into all of these. Much obliged!

[John Mayhugh]

GroupMe is an app alternative to Whatsapp. It's owned by Microsoft and functions similarly.

Either is a decent way to get/share info without cluttering texts.