*** Notice of Possible Board Deletion ***

As we all know, the whole point of having a FanForce Chapter is to have regular meet ups among chapter members.

There are specific criterias for chapters:

1- Chapters must have NO LESS than 3 members.

2- A Chapter Representitive MUST be elected.

3- Chapter MUST have regular meet ups and post details of the event(s) on it's board, along with photos if and when possible.

This chapter no longer meets ANY of the above criteria, and therefore will be removed/deleted unless action is taken to prevent this.

Actions required to prevent deletion are all in the above criteria.

Yoshee

 

Calling all North west members.... What are we going to do about it?

 

I am a member in spirit and if I could help I would but I'm from a little ole state called Texas...

Maybe others from the North West will be able to aid you in your cause Nomad.

Good luck Kiddo!!

 

I hope so....
I'm going to sart PMing the northeners to come here and figure out what to do!!

 

You don't need to figure out what to do, as I have said what you need to do, Nomad.

And there are lot of Northerners around the boards, but they don't seem too interested in chapters.

 

1- Chapters must have NO LESS than 3 members.

I thought this had been clarified before that there are more than 3 Northern FFUKers.

2- A Chapter Representitive MUST be elected.

Seb asked me before his departure as RSA if I wanted to be the Northern Chapter CR. I told him I was concerned about the amount of time I would be required to give to the job (with respect to my University work) but would, if required take the position to see how it goes. I would still give it a go for a few months just to see how it goes.

3- Chapter MUST have regular meet ups and post details of the event(s) on it's board, along with photos if and when possible.

I think it is in general agreeance that this is a problem, however it can primarily be attribited to the lack of leadership in Northern Chapter.

I must say that it humours me to see that the Northern board is threated with deletion, when in the last 12 months it has seen it most traffic and activity it has ever seen. I do appreciate the criteria you have outlined, Yoshee, but it will take time and effort to make this Chapter work as it should, and I think it will do ultimately.

 

I have to agree with you on that MacDaddy!

 

It matters not how many posts are being made on a chapter forum, if none of them are about arranging meets. As I said, the main reason and purpose of FF is to meet with fellow fans.

I think it is in general agreeance that this is a problem, however it can primarily be attribited to the lack of leadership in Northern Chapter.

I agree with that completely.

A CR needs to be nominated by the chapter members. The position can't be given away.

If anyone has any suggestions for CR, then please PM them to me only, don't post them on the forum.

Regardless of the language I'm using, this is mainly an attempt to kick the quiet chapters back into life. I would rather not have to get rid of any of them. But if the criteria are not met, then they have to go.

Out of the 3 chapters up for possible deletion, this one is the only one that stands any chance of a re-birth IMO. And yes it will take alot of work, but if the right CR is chosen, it should be a smooth ride.

So, get to it people.

 

ooooh get 'er!!!

 

lol

 

we had a meeting last night, it was great, I drank punch, so are we covered?

 

What's that supposed to mean?

Good to have you back BADMAN

 

Thank you...we had that meeting last night didnt we, you brought waffles, we made me CR and so we are OK?

And we met George Takei and roughed him up.

 

I forgot one small catch in all this...

As this is effectively a totaly different Northern chapter than when it first started out (as in, none of the current posters here now, were a part of it), I would just like to add, that you will have to have 3 meets, and provide photographic proof of them (2 of the meets at the very least).

They won't be posted on here, (although if you wish, they can be), you should send them to me via email. This is something all new chapters have to do before being classed as an official chapter. And as I said above, this will have to be classed as a new chapter.

Other things that you may want to do once you are all sorted, is have your own banner. If any of you can make them, please feel free to do so. If not, I can make one for you, if you tell me what sort of SW images you would like on it.

 

Don't you think that the size of the Northern Chapter is a minor problem for meet ups? I know that the Northern Chapter posters range from Mnachester, to Cumbria up to the North East - as far as I'm aware no chapter is quite as large as this one in terms of physical size.

 

This would be a sad day, but I don't see how we do it.
Yoshee, being in London you have a large group of possible fans all in an area where you can quite easily meet up. You are lucky in that. If we pick a central place in the North West then there is no guarantee that all of us can get there. If we picked Manchester for example - that is ok for me on the weekends. I am an hour and a bit away via train line being in Southport. For the Cumbrians there is a rail route straight to Manchester but we are talking longer travel time. People driving is a different matter but I am just saying here about people using public transport which I use to get myself around the North West.

Other things to consider - I check these boards every so often and it just feels to me that us UKers are a different breed from the US fan forces. The UK fans DON'T talk much SW on here and the "Who lives in the North West" thread seems to be taken over by dancing people. Strange is not the word I would use for this. I just don't see the interest of people here for such meet-ups. I am linked to another Fan Force group, the NY one, via my girlfriend. In fact I am here now in NY typing this (lol), and I see what these fans get up to - fan force meetings, dinner discussions, and other cool stuff. These are big SW fans but not really EU literature readers. They are big on costume making and do charity events. They are well organised. I see the huge differences between US and UK fans though - whereas in the UK being a SW fan is frowned upon by the majority, so we are few and scattered apart, over in the US there isn't such stigmata.
We'd need to find a location which isn't expensive to hire out. I am not sure about the use of members' homes idea as in any new group there could be bad elements. I know other groups have had their fair share of these, so how do we protect younger members from this? Or the whole drooling geeks chasing after the female members syndrome lol.

I know I couldn't offer my place up for meetings as it isn't mine to do so, also Southport is not central in the North West. But after we have found a place we'd have to consider legal issues - for example if we had a day watching SW films and docs, in a public space, can we do so legally? I have no idea.

Lastly, would be the atmosphere of the group socialising. I ain't a drinker (I used to a little at Uni) so to be honest I wouldn't be into a fan force meeting for the drinking later in the day which seems to be what the UK members post about a lot in other UK threads. That's their perogative, but I am so not interested in that being the be-all and end-all of a UK North West Star Wars fan club, which I can easily see happening as this is the usual social outing in the UK nowadays. Sorry for being negative, but after browsing this area of the boards for more than a year, I kinda got a negative feeling for there being any possibility of a UK meet that didn't involve most of the members just getting bladdered every time.

Personally, I'd be interested to see if this could be done - but we need clear aims (eg. some fan force groups formed to do charitable events, some for just socialising). Anyways that is my somewhat inconherent take for the mo. I'll check back when I can. But like I said at the start, it would be a shame if we lost the NW fanforce area and then we were left with just Southerners representing the UK

 

By rights, this board should be as busy, if not busier than the London board, given the amount of Northern posters on and around the JC ect..., yet they don't post on this particular forum.

Why is that?

Could it be, as you said before (DM), lack of leadership and organisation?

Could it be, as has been highlighted (tb), that because of the size of the North as a whole, we are faced with the problem of having 2 people here, 2 people there, 1 person over there and the distance being a problem to meet?

Would it maybe be better if there were individual chapters for the North, based on area rather than a Northern chapter? eg: A Manchester chapter? A Cumbrian Chapter? Ect.....

Could it be that the rest of the Northerners just aren't all that interested in meet ups?

Important questions to be answered I think.



it would be a shame if we lost the NW fanforce area and then we were left with just Southerners representing the UK

 

Good questions Yoshee, however I sense a little Catch 22 here:

Could it be, as has been highlighted (tb), that because of the size of the North as a whole, we are faced with the problem of having 2 people here, 2 people there, 1 person over there and the distance being a problem to meet?

Would it maybe be better if there were individual chapters for the North, based on area rather than a Northern chapter? eg: A Manchester chapter? A Cumbrian Chapter? Ect.....

If we split the Northern board into a Manchester Chapter, and a Cumbrian chapter we probably will struggle to satisfy the "minimum 3 members per chapter" rule and the activity in these respective chapters will probably make the Hounslow forum look like a rave. However, as timbolton has correctly stated and I mentioned before, we have the issue of the size of the Northern chapter demographic, which makes meets almost impossible to organise.

A decision has to made at some point; do we scrap the Northern chapter because it cannot satisfy the fan force requirements of meet-ups (something which I'm sure no-one wants) or do we keep the Northern chapter as a place for socailising for FFUKers in North and aim to develop the community on-line, who knows over time this may develop into people meeting up etc.

We are probably all in agreeance that the Northern chapter has massive potential to develop, but not necessarily in the form outline in the fan force requirements.

 

A decision has to made at some point; do we scrap the Northern chapter because it cannot satisfy the fan force requirements of meet-ups (something which I'm sure no-one wants) or do we keep the Northern chapter as a place for socailising for FFUKers in North and aim to develop the community on-line, who knows over time this may develop into people meeting up etc.

As you know, I would love to see the Northern chapter grow and become successful, as we all do.

If the Northern board stays though, and is used as you suggest, it won't be classed as a chapter anymore (It's about to lose it's chapter status anyway). It will just become a regional board, like the main board, Wales and Scotland.

Which, if used properlyit could be benificial in the creation of a decent and strong community here, and maybe a chapter again, later on. But to do that, we need posters that will post decent threads and not just junk.

You never know, at some point you may come out of it with lots of proper regional chapters as I suggested above.

But, it's up to all the Northern folks really,as to what happens here at the end of the day.

 

I have a suggestion but I am not sure if this would work but it's an idea.

Is it possible to use this forum like a regional board for example in the Canadian FF they have a regional board for Ontario which is pretty quite but that forum is used to create other chapters. So technically it's not an official chapter but the forum is used to create smaller chapters.

That way people from Manchester for example can chat between themselves on here but when they have a chapter formed they get their forum for their chapter. Prodiving that they meet the requirements for the chapter of course

Of course there would need to be a probation period to see if this idea works

 

The last four posts are all very intelligent and "good" for the want of another word.

Can I just ask something? Do all the Northerners post on the main board? Making yourself known on the main board may encourage any lurkers out there and remind them that FFUK is bigger than the main forum. I reckon there are a few lurkers out there just dying to hear from you lovely northtype people!

 

I'm suprised at this
I always thought this was a highly popular board

 

No, it's not, and to be frank, it has never been popular or used properly.

The reason for the creation of any board, first and formost, is for chapters to arrange and discuss meets. That hasn't happened here since it was used as FanForce Grimsby. And that was over a year ago, just to put it into context. None of those members(ff Grimsby) even log on to this site anymore.

The chapter boards aren't a given, they are a privelage, and they have to be earned.

 

If the Northern board stays though, and is used as you suggest, it won't be classed as a chapter anymore (It's about to lose it's chapter status anyway). It will just become a regional board, like the main board, Wales and Scotland.

So there is a differentiation between chapter status and regional board status? I always thought that to have a regional forum there must be a chapter associated with that forum - maybe some clarity on this matter may help.

Which, if used properlyit could be benificial in the creation of a decent and strong community here, and maybe a chapter again, later on. But to do that, we need posters that will post decent threads and not just junk.

I fully agree Yoshee, this forum has experienced its most activity in the last 12 months, but whether this can materialise into the development of a fully function chapter in the sense you outlined in the initial post is open to debate. This is probably one of those "only time will tell" kinda situations. At the end of the day the Northern board needs some leadership and and a little time - to quote Yoshee from before "As this is effectively a totaly different Northern chapter than when it first started out (as in, none of the current posters here now, were a part of it) - we are effectively starting from scratch.

You never know, at some point you may come out of it with lots of proper regional chapters as I suggested above.

Again this comes down to time, and what the powers that be decide to do - it's up to all the Northern folks really,as to what happens here at the end of the day.

Is it possible to use this forum like a regional board for example in the Canadian FF they have a regional board for Ontario which is pretty quite but that forum is used to create other chapters. So technically it's not an official chapter but the forum is used to create smaller chapters.

That way people from Manchester for example can chat between themselves on here but when they have a chapter formed they get their forum for their chapter. Prodiving that they meet the requirements for the chapter of course

Maybe we should trial a social theme for the forum, monitor the activity and assess if there is interest in more localised chapters - afterall the North of England is a massive demographic area which may still have its fan force hey-day

Can I just ask something? Do all the Northerners post on the main board? Making yourself known on the main board may encourage any lurkers out there and remind them that FFUK is bigger than the main forum. I reckon there are a few lurkers out there just dying to hear from you lovely northtype people!

The Northern FFUKers should have the Northern board link in there sig

I always thought this was a highly popular board

It has been, and it still can be. I want this board to continue and develop, but the form in which it does that is not something I can envisage. I will do anything I can to help the Northern board continue, and Yoshee and the top clan in FFUK know that. At least this thread has opened the debate up about the state of the Northern board, and hopefully we can come to a solution that is amicable for all.

 

I'll put a link to here in my sig asap

To be honest, my first message board "home" on web was the Dark Horse Boards where I happily chatted with lots of people (US, UK and elsewhere)about the comics. I found the JC from someone on there. I mainly post in the Literature section, or (lol) the NYC fan force boards. When I learned about the Fanforce itself I checked for local stuff and when I realised nothing was going on I'd rarely check aside from the ocassional comment here and there. If a meeting group started up I'd give it a go, just to see what UK people can do. I have seen what US people do with such meetings and we have big shoes to fill. They do some great SW-oriented stuff here in NY - like last weekend I sat watching the full horror of the SW Holiday Special and other funny stuff at a member meeting, was cool. But I don't post here regularly as there isn't much talk that I am interested in, ie Star Wars or meets and stuff. There is potential to set up a thread here for people to help find stuff that they are having difficulty getting and that sort of thing, discussion about the latest SW stuff and so many other things. I'd join in that on here if I knew other people were interested.

Anyways, looking forward to what the other Northerners want to do.