200 up!(and solar distances) (was 'Membership Levels')

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Mike Channin
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200 up!(and solar distances) (was 'Membership Levels')

Post by Mike Channin »

We've just reached 100 registered users on the message board, and we've fast approaching 200 members on the meter board.

Great news!
Last edited by Mike Channin on Wed Nov 22, 2006 11:56 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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Post by Thomas W-P »

Yes, I saw that. A sign of how busy we are getting is the speed with which this post plummeted down the board!
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Post by BorisZ »

Thomas W-P - you are right: this thread is not staying up because the time of the "FS BIG BANG" is not yet over; the FS Universe is just expanding to fast for anyone to really grasp it. Later generations will one day unearth / decode this thread, see the ripples of the FS BANG, and might then see you as an early interpreter of FS-ism ...
So, where can I read the truth, as one new believer??
How did the Free Spirits form? Was it, that long long time ago, over the river and behind the hills, Thor forged an erg, and all the lost Ergers of this world united,.... then formed the FS? What was the egg? Who was the chicken?
Or, was it that all ergers were one big happy family on the BIG ERG, until a there was the Mutiny on the Erg, and parts of the team pulled harder to get away?
I guess I better shut up - a big load of solid and liquid carbs makes me all merry.... :D
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Post by Stan »

Not too far from the truth BorisZ and you make it sound much more interesting than it really was.
Several of us used to be members of team WISE. Michelle had got some of us interested in the CTC and ELM and was consequently asked to leave WISE for this heinous crime. The rest of us jumped ship with her in protest and formed Free Spirits. Paul Sims and Gregor Andrews began a recruitment drive (apologies to any others involved in doing the recruiting - recruiting was not something I got involved with and I remain grateful to those who took on the task) and all of a sudden we were top of the meter board. The rest as they say is history. The team is bigger and more successful than I ever thought it could be and I am proud to be part of it.
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Post by BorisZ »

Thank you Stan - it seems it was a a WISE decision to form the FS!
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Reinvent

Post by PSims »

I was thinking of recruitment drive phase 2?

Anyone want me to :lol: ...or want me NOT to? :evil:
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Post by Thomas W-P »

Spread the joy. I don't want to be stranded on the Moon - we need to get back again really. I think 200 members will just about get us there, so lets aim for 400 by the end of April.

BTW: How does a recruitment drive work?
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Post by webberg »

Paul, I say go for it.

I send out 3 to 5 e-mails a day to those around me in the various ranking boards but only had one success so far. :evil:
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here is a recruitment story

Post by ptruz »

I was moving up the C2 meter board when......

I noticed a certain "David McOnie" with 1,000,000 + meters.

I said....where have I seen that name before? Our Gale!

Between the two of us David joined.....with his meters....

Problem is....HE is creaping up the board now and I hearing footsteps!

WHAT HAVE I DONE....I'VE CREATED A MONSTER!

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Post by Mikey »

E-mails to those around you as you swap and change positions on the C2 rankings - damn fine idea!

Will give it a go.
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Post by Thomas W-P »

Mikey wrote:you swap and change positions on the C2 rankings
I think I am being dumb - is there a way too see a listing of the total metres peoplw row, or do you mean in the rankings for different distances?
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Post by Mike Channin »

Yep, you are being dumb. :wink: Only joking!

The total meters for individuals are visible via the C2 rankings/logobook, and then select Challenges and Annual Metres Honor Board.
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Post by webberg »

Thomas, I tend to look at the rankings boards when I post a new PB and e-mail anybody who has the envelope icon by their name.

Equally there are boards of average daily metres that can be accessed via the personal log. These have far more names as many people never post ranking distances.

My theory is that anybody who posts a ranking time and then sees it topped is likely to be active and perhaps interested in a team.

Anybody who is doing 4k a day on average (around 1m a year) is also likely to be interested in a team.

Good theory - so far only one bite for about 50/60 e-mails. :shock:
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How does a recruitment drive work

Post by PSims »

Answer ... with a lot of manual effort.

I use the Daily Metres Honours board, manually browse everyone's profile and pick out people who have
a) not affiliated to a team
b) also have the email option enabled.

I then send a personalised email to each person which also contains text something like this (this one is old, so needs updating).

"Hi (name),

I was browsing through the Concept 2 site and spotted you on the rankings. I noticed you
aren't in a team and wondered if you would like to join us? We are a team of 105 people
made up of people from all over the world. We are called Free Spirits.

See: http://www.concept2.com/sranking03/chal ... gs2007.asp - we are first.

If you would like to join, we'd love to have you with us, just edit your profile and select
Free Spirits from the Club Affiliation box. Ours is under Virtual teams, near the bottom
of the (very long) list.

There's no obligation to do a minimum distance or anything like that.
Our motto is just to have fun - hence the name!

Let me know if you join and feel free to visit our website at:

http://www.freespiritsrowing.com

Enjoy your rowing!

Best wishes,

Paul Sims."



I keep a spreadsheet of who I have asked, cos people bounce around on the board.

Now, if I had access to the database, I could run a report off, but I don't. Jonathan Lemon might be able to do something clever...

It's hard work, but look at the reward!!!

Don't know how many people I will get on a 2nd pass - it takes several weeks to trawl everyone....I didn;t get to the end last time...but then Thomas didn't want to get to the moon!!!
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Post by Thomas W-P »

Mike Channin wrote:The total meters for individuals are visible via the C2 rankings/logobook, and then select Challenges and Annual Metres Honor Board.
:shock: never even registered that "challenges" link. Clicked it today for the first time...
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Post by webberg »

I do something similar but I take the tag line from the website home page and cut and paste.

There is however no way of knowing whether the recipients ever access their profiles to read the e-mails.

The C2 forum is populated mainly by those very interested and who have views and are mainly in teams already. I think that many people who have C2 logs probably never bother even looking!

It is possible that Jonathan or some of our other IT specialists could extract address lists from the profiles and we could do a mass e-mail but how would the other teams react? Some just won't care as they ahve racing or time objectives. Others though might. Does it matter?

Something to discuss over a drink?
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Post by webberg »

Paul, have you ever e-mailed the group of young Egyptian guys who regularly appear at the top of the metres boards.

I think there are a small group but two of them at the moment have over 10m metres between them. They show no team affiliations.

Why has nobody got them in a team?

Is is because anybody that young doing 26k a day might attract adverse comment? (Been there, done that).

Perhaps they're just not interested?
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Post by Stan »

I dont think people already affiliated to a team should be approached. I guess most people wouldnt actually be offended but some might so I think they should be left alone. Just my opinion and you are free to disagree.
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Post by BorisZ »

I have contacted "neighbors" (PB neighbors) on the C2 ranking site - so far never anyone got back to me. Even people in my township, or my country of origin. No feedback yet. // Direct talk to some coworkers.. I hope to have planted a couple of seeds.... I'll report once there is progress!~
Concerning some of the superdistance rowers on the C2 site: I personally feel: "Not all that glitters is gold."
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Post by jlemon »

I wrote a small script that collects everyone listed on the Meter Honor board, (didn't run it for the "< 1500 daily" group yet) checks to see whether they are already affilated with a team, and then checks whether they are open to receiving C2 email.

This results in 339 candidates.

I'm a little uneasy about writing a script to just spam everyone with a 'join FreeSpirits' message :twisted:. So any suggestions what I should do with the list? I'd imagine it would need to be coordinated so the same person doesn't get contacted multiple times...
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Post by Mike Channin »

I agree that we don't just spam everyone - that would be wrong. Maybe best to distribute it among the keen email writers and let them do individual contacts. Avoids the problem of hitting the same person multiple times, which again is a bit poor form.
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Post by redshell »

Over the past six months on and off I have emailed people, similar to what Paul has done. I just checked out their profile and if the University/Club Affiliation was blank I would email and tell them about FS. And that includes the ones on the 10k board!! And that was quite a few emails :!: I never email those who already have a club
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Post by BorisZ »

Did anyone ever write back on the emails?
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Post by redshell »

BorisZ wrote:Did anyone ever write back on the emails?
Hi Boris...Yes I got quite a good response :)
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Post by Thomas W-P »

redshell announced this quietly in the "Welcome to new members" thread.

We now have 200 members in this great club.

The 200th was redshell's better half - Ken with (after an adjustment) 126,120m.

Welcome Ken - welcome to all new members.

Is Mr Sims going to concoct a new ELM challenge to commemorate this event?

200m sprint?

200 minutes?

126,120/200 = 631m?
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