Talk Morgan Forums Community The Malvern Arms MSCC Finances

Thank you Peter for offering some basic facts and perspective.

One reason that I dislike social media is that it panders to rants and ill-informed criticism. Those that run the MSCC are volunteers and operate in a changing world where 'entertain me' demands and expectations are high, regulation including health & safety, financial and liabilty is only increasing and demands for volunteers time outstrips availability.

I for one have the greatest of sympathy for them.

What was it that John Kennedy said? Something along the lines of "Ask not what America can do for you but what can you do for America" I don't see many TM'ers stepping forward!

In the last I've been quite negative about the Club, particularly when I experienced the way some of us were treated at the two LMC events I attended and how Quentin was treated. I quickly scan the magazine and throw it in the bin.
Every year I mean to cancel my membership, but I find myself wanting the club to pick itself up, modernise and I'd hate to see it wither away.......so I am continuing my membership.

Same here Mr S.
It must be something about clubs, IMHO too many people who just love trying to tell others what to do.

That was one of the best lines ever uttered by a politician.
Delete "America" and isert any organisation, agency or club that you are part of. So...

Ask not what MSCC can do for you, but what can you do for MSCC!!

When i ran a big business we would have annual Blue Skies thinking meetings.

They were great - the handbrake was off - and lots of good ideas were put to use.

So why not ask the MSCC Board to hold the same?

I would attend.Maybe other TMers??There seems to be some good ideas on this very forum!

It would need to be strongly led (Peter?) or it can become racked with criticism.

For example - a new web site yes - but with what content??

A new design of the same old would be a waste of time and money.

Like most on here I really want to see a vibrant up to date MSCC.

Which is why I keep paying my subs!!

I would also suggest a member survey - but from memory the last one is still gathering dust???

Please correct me if I have this wrong.

Same here also. Jay hit it on the head. Its a do I or don't I
situation.

A very fair point. What could I do for MSCC? Not much, unfortunately. As I still have to work for a living, I am perpetually time-impoverished. And from a professional standpoint, my skills in business architecture, information exploitation and process engineering are probably not going to resonate particularly strongly with the club committee.

For example, the first piece of advice I would offer is: instead of having committee meetings, in which people have to physically travel long distances to attend, and in which the time available for discussions is necessarily limited by the need for people to get home afterwards, why not shift the meetings to a collaborative environment on-line?

- it would reduce the time and expense required for travel
- it would enable people to participate who cannot travel or who have accessibility issues
- as the conversations could be asynchronous, people wouldn't even have to attend on the day, the meeting could run for a week or more if necessary
- it would be dirt cheap to implement, there must be several MSCC members who could host the sw on their web server (or you could just rent a cloud-based implementation)
- no need to take minutes as the conversations would be recorded in the contributions of the participants
- you could easily allow sufficient time to thoroughly discuss all the issues and arrive at a consensus/concordant position
- just like in a traditional meeting, you could allow contributions from everyone but restrict decision making to approved members

To be honest, about all I can practically do is to offer financial support in the form of my subscription. So, taking my cue from Jay, I shall give them another year. It would indeed be a shame if the club died before it had a chance to reinvigorate itself.

Folks,
I live in Ireland so am sadly too far distant to take part in most of what goes on (really gutted that I can't be at the TM gathering at the factory next week!!) The club really only offers me a magazine and a sense of belonging to a wider community - though not as immediate or engaging as here on TM.
The MSCC is indeed in a rut and I suspect that most of this is because those with fresh ideas are working and time poor and those that are in a position to run the club are - shall we say of more "mature" years and, like myself, liking things "as they were".
Society and technology are changing at ever increasing speed and those working have ever increasing calls on their time, therefore if the club is to prosper it needs to embrace this and at least offer a channel that is more immediate and using up to date tech to serve those who are as I say, time poor. I suspect that these members, and potential members, have little interest in lunches and "Noggins" and even if they did, they don't have the time to attend!! A vibrant Web presence could do this in parallel with the current magazine so as to continue to serve those who "like it as it is"
Such a web presence takes quite a lot of input and is not achieved by "shoving a bit" on the net. If the club really want to do this then I think they need to employ a professional to design and implement the project and I suspect then the ongoing management of the site(s) will require as much input or more, as the editor of the magazine.
To resolve this needs energy and a will to START - not faff about with endless committee meetings. there was a survey - give that to a professional and give deadlines for completion. At least then there will be something to discuss and, no doubt criticise(hopefully constructively!!). The current situation seems like an endless put-off!

A vibrant web offering would satisfy both those wanting such in the UK but would also offer something of value to those of us overseas.

Rant over!

My wife use to call me "Noggin" sometimes.......I can never face the Club Noggins!