Re: Digest for fletchervt@googlegroups.com - 4 Messages in 1 Topic

[Dannah Beauregard]

The fundraiser in me says that your mini-feasibility study just shot down the project. I believe most of the communication mechanisms stated below have major cross-over of participants. So let's say we have 50 engaged people, each would need to give $50 in order to get to the $2500. That's unrealistic. 

How about we have a campaign to encourage use of the FaceBook page?
Dannah B.

On Tue, May 1, 2012 at 8:48 AM, <fletc...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

  Today's Topic Summary

Group: http://groups.google.com/group/fletchervt/topics

• Googlegroup [4 Updates]

 Googlegroup

"Todd, Ericka and Sam" <nto...@gmail.com> Apr 30 01:12PM -0700  

FYI, FPF's CEO:
 
"In order to start serving a new town in Vermont we require two
things...
 
1. Sponsors to cover our one-time start-up costs. For a town the
size of Fletcher (about 500 households), that comes to $2,500. And,
2. A local group of folks eager see their FPF succeed who are willing
to spread the word and put FPF to use for the first several months.
 
In other towns, the funds have come from the selectboard, nonprofits,
chambers of commerce, wealthy individuals, foundations, major
employers, etc. Hyde Park decided at Town Meeting to move forward, so
they launched their FPF just last month."
 
We have 46 people signed up on the Google Group, 37 on our low-rent
forum, 25 people on Facebook, and get about 7 visits a day on the
website (spiking to 60-70 when the newsletter comes out). I could see
some value in maybe consolidating the group and forum, but the start-
up cost seems high for the level of activity we see online right now.
 
Anybody wanna be a booster for this, drum up support and sponsors,
etc? I'm happy to do whatever on the technical side of things, but
hope if there's real interest that one or two other people can step up
to advocate...
 
Cheers,
ntodd
 


 

Elaine Sweet <fletc...@hotmail.com> Apr 30 09:49PM -0400  

NOPE!
 
 
Elaine C. Sweet
Partylite Consultant
Leader of the Fletcher Flames Unit
802-309-9555
www.partylite.biz/elainesweet

I love to Party...and now I get PAID to Party!!!!
Ask me how...it's free!!!!

 

 


 

"N. Todd Pritsky" <nto...@gmail.com> May 01 12:39AM -0400  

Partylite Pooper.
 


 

Elaine Sweet <fletc...@hotmail.com> May 01 08:47AM -0400  

YUP!
 
Elaine C. Sweet
Partylite Consultant
Leader of the Fletcher Flames Unit
802-309-9555
www.partylite.biz/elainesweet

I love to Party...and now I get PAID to Party!!!!
Ask me how...it's free!!!!

 

 


 

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Dannah Lapin Beauregard

“Be fanatically positive and militantly optimistic." Rick Steves

[lynn douglas]

wow, steep price for FPF.! I just found Facebook page, maybe Facebook and Google group could just be advertised in every copy of the newsletter and more folks would join (hopefully?) and use for community 'stuff'. Thanks for investigating!
lynn

[N. Todd Pritsky]

i agree. as valuable as i think front porch forum is, i'm not
convinced it's right for us at this point (nor is our current forum,
but at least it's free!). $2500 is steep for such a service in my
estimation, and problematic to raise since we really don't have a lot
of business who might benefit from sponsorship. just wanted to do my
due diligence when somebody asked, and to give people a chance to
advocate.

a campaign to encourage facebook and/or the google group would be
grand. do you have suggestions about how we could get people more
involved? it's nice that more people are opting out of the paper
newsletter, but the growth online is still very slow.

[Todd Baumeister]

Facebook is a great tool to discuss what is going on now, but it is
not a great tool for keeping track of conversations that took place in
the past or for categorizing information (News, Politics, Items for
Sale, etc.)

A forum like the one at www.vtgrandpa.com/forum is great because it is
searchable and has a lot of specific categories (although I think it
has grown to have too many categories in recent years). At this point
it is a forum that is self sufficient with many active posters, but I
think that took quite a bit of time to develop.

Henry Raymond spent a lot of time adding content to his forums like
housing transactions, meeting minutes, photos of local events, and
more. He also has/had the time to add a historical perspective on the
area, what life was like growing up on a farm in Fairfield, etc. He
also sits by a radio scanner and is willing/able to report on every
incident in town.

We don't seem to have any one person (or small group of people) with
the time to post a constant stream of content, which limits interest
in a Fletcher forum. Why go visit a site every day if there isn't
going to be any new content. The Google Group would be fine if there
was consistently new content to read. Ideally, it would be a place the
people visit regularly and no one would need to be subscribed to get
email from the forum (like we all are now).

Like everyone else, I think $2500 to start a Front Porch Forum is too
expensive, especially if there is a great risk that it will not be
used. I don't think Facebook is the right tool either. The Google
Group and the free forum that Todd Pritsky set up are the better
options, but I think it all boils down to content. Without regular
posts, no amount of promotion in the newsletter is going to generate
an online community of readers and posters.

> >> Elaine Sweet <fletcher...@hotmail.com> Apr 30 09:49PM -0400

>
> >> NOPE!
>
> >> Elaine C. Sweet
> >> Partylite Consultant
> >> Leader of the Fletcher Flames Unit
> >> 802-309-9555
> >>www.partylite.biz/elainesweet
>
> >> I love to Party...and now I get PAID to Party!!!!
> >> Ask me how...it's free!!!!
>
> >> "N. Todd Pritsky" <nto...@gmail.com> May 01 12:39AM -0400
>
> >> Partylite Pooper.
>

> >> Elaine Sweet <fletcher...@hotmail.com> May 01 08:47AM -0400

[N. Todd Pritsky]

Todd B hits upon the one big thing for all online success: content is
king. Regular, dynamic posting is key, and I think we haven't quite
reached critical mass yet. It's instructive that the website has a
low level of visits until the newsletter is posted...

[jon]

Personally, I find this business of having presences in more than one place (Facebook, Google, etc) to be more confusing than helpful.  I would prefer, personally, that we pick one venue and then support it.  No matter what site you choose, people will have to sign up.  Given the tepid reception the Google Group has had, and also the Fletcher web site, I don't know what it will take to get people more involved.  It's a puzzle.

Jon

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[jon]

Interesting that I never saw Dannah's original posting. And I "own" the
group!

Jon

>> �Be fanatically positive and militantly optimistic." Rick Steves