World of Confusion? Hope this helps.
In the past few months, we have experienced something that isn't new to our group but has the potential to create more confusion than it already has for some. In the beginning, like any group that put rides together, we started with making phone calls from a list that would fit on one page. Once the group started growing it was obvious this was too much of a hassle to get the word out. So, we moved on to email, which worked pretty good for promoting our rides. Having a passion for riding, we were eager to not only promote rides we put together, but would provide info on other rides or events, poker runs, fund raisers that we learned of, to give folks more options. For example, maybe you can't make a ride that would be an overnight trip, but you could ride the triangle on an afternoon. We even opened it up to where anyone could plan a ride and post the info to us and we would send it out thru email. This system worked for a while and served us well, but because the traffic of info on events increased as our "membership" increased, electronic mailboxes for some, became overloaded. It seemed I was always sending emails out, many were not mine, but mail I was sending on to the members on our email list. So, we started the Yahoo Group page and the new website where folks could communicate without going through me and could keep up on our events and others on the board and on the website. There are so many things being posted now that some may have a tough time recognizing what is an OFFICIAL Mid Life Cycles ride and what is a ride for or with another group. Or after we plan an event or ride something else pops up on the same day. While we don't mind promoting those, our main focus will be on those events or rides that we plan. The trick is how to identify our planned events and rides from others so nobody ends up on a ride or event expecting it to be our event or ride. This problem, if you will, began before the toy runs began stacking up this past Christmas. We have toy runs that we (the core group) have always attended and probably always will. That is a given. I don't want anyones feelings to get hurt when we choose to ride what we do. It never is personal and is not our way of saying that one is more important than the other. With all of this in mind, I have started something I plan to do when posting something for and planned by Mid Life Cycles. These events will be posted on the website and will carry the Mid Life Cycles name or the MLC initials. This is already in affect on the calendar. So all rides or events that we sit down and plan to do are designated with our group name, for example: "Mid Life Cycles rides to Eureka Springs" or "MLC heads for the Hill Country" Hopefully this will help with the confusion. I look at this as a growing pain, but one that hopefully can be painless. With you, the members telling others of our group, people finding us on the website, seeing our vinyl window stickers, or striking up a conversation with someone on a bike, it is normal that more info traffic would come our way. The best advice I can give is to read posting carefully, check the calendar and website. If nothing else, contact me at midlifecycles2@aol.com. I will try to answer your questions. Thanks, Spongebob
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