In reply to Andy Say:
Andy
Very good point about increasing involvement, I share the concerns, and totally agree this is something we should address. I think it falls into 3 areas -
1. Where we hold the meetings. I know it's both geographically more of a midpoint, and traditional, but in these times holding meetings in a tiny village like Belmont and ignoring the major cities of the NW is really not helping ourselves.
2. Notifying people in advance of key / contentious issues. e.g. agreeing bolt policy at a meeting attended by a tiny number of people, when we know it's likely of interest to a much wider number, and not telling the wider group that the debate is even happening, should not happen. We have UKC, the BMC site, our local clubs websites, and Facebook LRR group (and probably other channels I have not thought of) - we can make much better use of them.
3. Introducing at least some online surveys, or ideally proxy voting for those unable to attend, would really help us engage with the wider community. It would make us think twice if a small group at a lightly attended meeting were proposing to vote for something, which they knew from an online survey the vast majority of members in the area were opposed to.
There are two major benefits to be had here - we can inform the wider community of the valuable work that is done, and we can get their input on the issues they care about.
Hope this helps, see you Monday.
Paul