YahooGroups Use
A couple of years ago, WBC started the YahooGroups list serve as a way of communicating electronically by sending out just one email and reaching all members.
The purpose was to be for general interest messages that benefits the body of WBC membership. It was intended to be used for changes to the ride schedule, last minute impromptu rides that were not published on the calendar and as a reminder for upcoming events. It has for the most part worked very well as we can now communicate quickly with members but occasionally there are messages that are not within the scope of the intended purpose. There is the potential for abuse and since so may new members have joined the club in the past few years, I thought it would be a good idea to try and clarify this and avoid future problems.
The purpose is to communicate information about bicycling and not business or charity solicitations, including the following:
No political discussions that are not related to bicycling
No discussion of religion
No solicitation from commercial ventures other than from our two official bike shop sponsors
No fund raising pleas for charity events
Some of these issues become complex. I will use some examples. An announcement of an upcoming ride that happens to be a fund-raising event is OK but asking members to participate or donate is not acceptable. If a member wants to sell/buy a bicycle, bike carrier, parts, etc that is acceptable but a member who works for a bike shop (or an insurance agency, real estate agency, is a CPA, attorney, etc-we have members who do all of those things), selling insurance, or soliciting money for a bicycle fund raising event is not acceptable.
If we allow those solicitations, we may undermine the YahooGroups program as members want to be protected from such solicitations. We do not give out our membership roster and contact information even to bike shop sponsors.
We also have two sponsoring local bicycle shops who have given us a cash donations, provide our members generous discounts, support our rides including the Dry Run. They have a spot on our web site and have paid for advertising in our newsletter. The Pedal Pusher accepts pre-paid advertising from businesses and charitable origination's but that does not give those advertisers the right or privilege to use YahooGroups to sell their product.
If you have questions or concerns please contact me directly.
David Hoodin
