Club WhatsApp Groups

[maxb727]

Hi all,

I just wanted to ask if any clubs out there had WhatsApp groups and are these in an official capacity or unofficial?

Do you have any rules for your WhatsApp groups? Are they members only? Are members allowed to post anything caving related or just club related caving information? Can members post about trips they are doing or only if they are specific club trips only?

What other forms of communication does your club use and which communication tool gets the most interaction? Or would you say that having a mix of communication platforms allows all members to interact in a way that suits them?

A couple of clubs I’m a member of have started using the Communities Chat function on Messenger which allows different chats to be set up for specific topics or use, although this is a relatively new function of Facebook Messenger and only includes members who are already part of the Facebook group.

Thanks

 

[wellyjen]

Old fashioned email groups with Crewe CPC for the last twenty years. Now using groups.io to run it. My personal opinion, but it seems to work with our wide age distribution, twenties to seventies+ as every one can handle it. Generally see up uptick in traffic ahead of a planned trip as we organise meeting up points, who's going and so on. Having one platform that every one can use prevents cliques forming.

 

[PetWar144]

Any club I have been part of is now using WhatsApp, my university club once used Messenger before Covid but more people had WhatsApp so they switched.

No set rules in any of my groups on what’s posted but it all tends to be caving related anyway.

 

[PeteHall]

I've seen the Facebook messenger groups pop up on my phone from a few clubs. I'll admit, I was rather surprised as I think there were three in quick succession, none of which I was asked about, or knew why I suddenly had message notifications popping up, but no messages in my inbox...

Regarding WhatsApp. We have a relatively active group for the Welsh CDG. It's not "official" in that it has never been proposed and voted on at a meeting, but all our members have been invited to join (and most have). Unlike other caving clubs, we don't really organise trips, as such. The group is generally used if someone has a technical question and wants to draw on the knowledge of the membership. It's also used to supplement email notifications of meetings etc.

There are no rules and discussion sometimes goes wildly off-topic, which caused one member to leave the WhatsApp group, which is a bit of a shame, but nobody has fallen out over it.

For context, we have 33 members and 28 are on the WhatsApp group, so it's fairly small and everybody knows everybody. I imagine for a larger club, it might need to have some rules (and someone to moderate/ enforce the rules), otherwise it could easily get out of hand and cease to be useful.

What I find WhatsApp particularly useful for is projects, where a group can be created for those specifically involved. Ideas exchanged. Trips organised. Feedback, photos and videos shared. Again, no rules, but as the group is specifically focussed on one project, I've rarely seen these go off-topic. Which reminds me, I need to send an update from last night

One project I'm involved with communicates using a Facebook messenger group. It does basically the same thing as WhatsApp, but I think it requires people to be on Facebook (which is not a problem for that project, but would be for others), so as a general rule, I'd opt for WhatsApp as the preference.

 

[Ciaran T-H]

I've recently moved all Lincoln CC communications and planning onto a club management platform called SPOND and its great (gpdr compliant and free).

In the past, it used to take a lot of time reaching out to members via email or text or Facebook etc with everyone having different preferences. With spond, members register and choose whether they want to receive notification via the App, email or text message, so everything can be sent out on one click. The look and feel is similar to Facebook, but only registered members have access to the system. With events (club meets) you can see who has accepted, declined or not responded. People can comment and share documents specific to each event, you can set automatic reminders etc.

Best Free Sports Team Management App | Download Spond

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spond.com

 

[maxb727]

Thanks for the replies so far.

Do any of you limit the ‘chat’ to official club trips or are people’s weekend and evening plans that are open to others allowed to be posted?

One of my clubs has a new WhatsApp group set up and it is being managed in a very strict way which has led to a few people sharing their surprise and alternative views - messages have been deleted if not club trips. It’s rather dictatorial and has led to myself feeling that club trips with this person wouldn’t be for me anymore which is awkward due to their role in the club. Others have left the new WhatsApp group and so far no one has spoken up to support this one persons view on how the message group should be run.

Specifically written “inter club meets are not for this group” and “I’ve allowed the rather cheeky promotion of the evening cavers group but I find that quite disrespectful”

Interesting the same group info was shared on the club Facebook members page earlier this year and there wasn’t an issue with it.

I’ve never come across this attitude in caving before and it’s someone who is new to the club and new to the role so maybe that’s the issue but before raising it with the committee I wanted to see if this is a normal attitude and if it is me who is approaching it in the wrong way.

 

[topcat]

One of the clubs I'm in has effectively spilt into three clubs because it uses three platforms for communication. Not good.

 

[Steve Clark]

We have drifted to Whatsapp over the last few years. We started with a 'Cragging' group used for arranging adhoc climbing meets. It grew and grew to about 50 of our members and became a bit unwieldy. We had to start restricting posts to actual posts about organising stuff rather than general banter and chat.

We now have groups for :
Cragging
Caving
Chat
and then we create a standalone group for any big away meets.

Biggest problem is people assuming that posting to the group will advertise something to everyone who may be interested in it. We have to actively check everyone gets an invite to be involved.

 

[mikem]

We have a chat group & a caving group, as can be up to 100 members. Different sets of cavers I'm in use all three forms

 

[Huge]

Both my clubs have WhatsApp groups. Trips and pub meets get arranged through both. One can sometimes have a lot more general chat than the other. Neither club have different groups for general chat or whatever. Both are relatively small clubs/groups though, with around 25 people. Very occasionally, temporary groups are set up to help organise specific trips.

 

[aricooperdavis]

Discord has quite good controls which my club uses effectively - different channels for trips, socials, photography etc., rate limiting on certain channels, the ability to create temporary "threads" to allow spinoff conversations that don't disrupt the flow and so on. It's yet another app for people to adopt, and it does require a sensible person at the helm to steer it, but having those tools at your disposal does mean you don't have to have strict boundaries across the whole platform.

 

[mikem]

Ciaran T-H, does SPOND cope with everyone replying in different formats?

 

[Goydenman]

we use WhatsApp group to arrange digging days

 

[caving_fox]

Both clubs I'm in are drifting into Whatsapp. The only official comms is email - which everybody has access too, although even this isn't guaranteed. But most people use WA for organising trips as it seems more amenable for flowing communications. No particular policies, but only for members.... and have to try to take care to be inclusionary for newcomers.

 

[2xw]

We have multiple chats over Facebook and WhatsApp as well as a general shitposting chat for non-organisey stuff and memes, but Facebook is for the over 40s now so I imagine that'll die off at some point

 

[mikem]

According to statista: "As of January 2023, it was found that men between the ages of 25 and 34 years made up Facebook largest audience, accounting for 17.6 percent of global users. Additionally, Facebook's second largest audience base could be found with men aged 18 to 24 years"
35-44 year olds came in 3rd (& 18-24 only includes 7 years)

It includes 66% of entire UK population (pretty much the same as our club - not the ages!)