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Addressing the "Technological Illiteracy" bit from the viewpoint of someone who was running a Chess Club up to 2020. Depending on where you live what people do

by slyall 3y ago

Addressing the "Technological Illiteracy" bit from the viewpoint of someone who was running a Chess Club up to 2020. Depending on where you live what people do online can vary a lot, especially if you have a mix of young and old people. My Club had lots of players/parants that used WeChat and lots that used Facebook messenger. Some people barely used the Internet. Different clubs will have different mixes. I ended up having a website with updates and a Facebook group. 1-to-1 Communication was done via SMS since everybody had that. I used to also do announcements on Club night, posters on the wall and a mass SMS at the start of each year to remind people we were starting up again. A website for registering is not a trivial thing to setup and maintain. Even if you are just using a SaaS vendor it will still cost significant fees. Our Club charges $100/year to cover everything. If you want something non-standard then who knows what that will cost. I know that since I left some stuff does take place on discord and some registration is done automatically online (under the grace of a club member with time). But you have to pick your technology to match your members. If most of them a 50+ then a discord that only 10% use is only for discussion, not somewhere for official communication/business.

x0x0 3y ago
If you do any volunteering you'll meet people like this. The author is just a prick. Your volunteering isn't up to their standards, so you better volunteer better. He/she doesn't like email, facebook, or phones, so there's an obvious solution: the entire club must switch communication tools to accommodate this person. Ignoring the difficulties you'll have getting most old folks to use these tools, or the fact that many of them likely don't use smartphones or laptops. So also the website, etc. While fb isn't great as a company, their free groups tool is a godsend to all sorts of clubs and organizations, particularly those without access to a volunteer with IT skills. The author also doesn't like the hours that other people arrange games. :shrug: Some people just can't be pleased.
- xmprt 3y ago
  Not that I agree with the author's approach but I can also imagine the flipside where clubs and other organizations are slow to adapt and get upset that young people aren't joining and that the club is dying. So it seems like it's in everyone's best interest to at least cater to the growing younger population.
  - robertlagrant 3y ago
    I agree, if their allegiance is to the club surviving them, and not just them playing bridge.
- ralferoo 3y ago
  I completely agree with this. The author's post seems to reek of entitlement. On the one hand, he complaining about how it's so unfair that he has to take public transport and so it takes him longer and costs more to get there. That's not really anyone else's problem. Sure, it sucks for him, but he'll have the same problems with every activity he wants to do, not just playing bridge. It already seems beyond generous that people are offering to help with his transportation costs. He then rants about how people shouldn't use mailing lists because it's far too much effort for young people to actually read what others have to say. After all, he's a young person, so the only thing that matters in this world is what he has to say. So all these "old people" should hang out around on discord 24/7 just in case he wants to ask something that everyone else already knows because they read their emails. The real kicker is that he doesn't care that this system has been working for the club for a long time and works for everyone else, he only sees that it's inconvenient for him because he can't be separated from his memes on discord for more than the 30 seconds it'd take him to read an email.

by slyall 3y ago

x0x0 3y ago

If you do any volunteering you'll meet people like this. The author is just a prick. Your volunteering isn't up to their standards, so you better volunteer better. He/she doesn't like email, facebook, or phones, so there's an obvious solution: the entire club must switch communication tools to accommodate this person. Ignoring the difficulties you'll have getting most old folks to use these tools, or the fact that many of them likely don't use smartphones or laptops. So also the website, etc. While fb isn't great as a company, their free groups tool is a godsend to all sorts of clubs and organizations, particularly those without access to a volunteer with IT skills. The author also doesn't like the hours that other people arrange games. :shrug: Some people just can't be pleased.

xmprt 3y ago
Not that I agree with the author's approach but I can also imagine the flipside where clubs and other organizations are slow to adapt and get upset that young people aren't joining and that the club is dying. So it seems like it's in everyone's best interest to at least cater to the growing younger population.
- robertlagrant 3y ago
  I agree, if their allegiance is to the club surviving them, and not just them playing bridge.
ralferoo 3y ago
I completely agree with this. The author's post seems to reek of entitlement. On the one hand, he complaining about how it's so unfair that he has to take public transport and so it takes him longer and costs more to get there. That's not really anyone else's problem. Sure, it sucks for him, but he'll have the same problems with every activity he wants to do, not just playing bridge. It already seems beyond generous that people are offering to help with his transportation costs. He then rants about how people shouldn't use mailing lists because it's far too much effort for young people to actually read what others have to say. After all, he's a young person, so the only thing that matters in this world is what he has to say. So all these "old people" should hang out around on discord 24/7 just in case he wants to ask something that everyone else already knows because they read their emails. The real kicker is that he doesn't care that this system has been working for the club for a long time and works for everyone else, he only sees that it's inconvenient for him because he can't be separated from his memes on discord for more than the 30 seconds it'd take him to read an email.