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

I think one approach on the chapter boards is to simply start discussions like you find on the general message board. If there's anything going on in your region, you can discuss it. The folks in Tampa seem to find plenty to discuss and that's a relatively small city. Why they've embraced it over most other cities, I am not sure, but I do know that without regular new posts, no one participates. The more posts there are, the more people check in, and the more reason they have to make checking in and posting a habit. It's clear that people don't have the time/availability or interest in getting together face to face as often as they used to (in the early days, we had chapters with stuff going on nearly every week with good attendance.. but things have changed in the last 7 years). So one possible alternative is to get folks used to checking in to see what they're friends are up to like Tampa does. There's very little discussed on this general board or on the other boards that wouldn't be equally useful on a chapter board being discussed amongst folks who live in that area. But we have learned for sure that a large percentage of the membership won't use the message boards under any circumstances no matter what you do. It's like a genetic difference between people. Some like to communicate this way.. many hate to.

Brian