JPF Home Page Forums General Messages General Message Forum Important Open Discussion for 2006 and Beyond: Please Chime In!

I am not sure how recent your offers have been, but I do know in the case of Michael in Buffalo he has already stepped down as coordinator due to a serious health crises with his family. We haven't replaced him because we're working on a new format. Offering up a local venue is a very positive way to get involved. If your offer was months ago, then I have no explanation as to why you didn't get a response because I know we were looking for venues for the Roadtrip Show this summer and I wasn't aware of your offer at that time.

Another clear and obvious missed opportunity is that with the exception of a few chapters, we can't get people to use the message boards. At all. Even in cities where we have active meetings, showcases, events etc.. no one will post. Message boards appeal to some people but totally repel others. In general, most active gigging artists are not particularly good about getting onto message boards. (There's exceptions of course, but that's a true generality). In the case of Tampa, I believe the message board is primarily responsible for the continued sustained success of that chapter. In the case of LA, they did just fine without it. Only 1 out of 4 JPF members are even registered on the boards. Only about one in 40 visit regularly. It hasn't proved to be an effective way to generate chapter participation. Our message boards get 500K visitors a week. But the chapter message boards probably don't get 50 posts combined in that same time frame. So anyone expecting to hear back from message boards posts are likely to be disappointed. That's why I hope a new format would give coordinators more opportunity to be responsive on the message boards and to new people who sign up. We know the problem and the solution, but so far we don't have a practical way to implement the solution.. getting folks to use the boards.

Brian

Brian