Hi fellow members,
SHC has been around for 6 years. We have made success with a number of activities. We have also made good progress with membership. However, there are some areas which I feel far more can be done.
One is the imbalances of membership sexes.
The other is a review of "Each member having to organise an activity during the lifetime of their membership". We rely too much on the regular organisers.
The last is "How do we handle domant members?. We have many members, and they are contented with just reading what goes on in the club.
We have done a survey recently on "How to make SHC more vibrant". While the numbers are small, the feedback is important. We will need to review some of the top few feedback".
I will be seeking a discussion from active members, who have organised activities and get their feedback on how we can progress from here. If you had been an EO, you will receive an email from me within a week.
Terence Seah
In my opinion, dormant/inactive members are not contributing to the club’s vibrancy drive, hence it would be better to drop them from the club. With the overall club membership figure reduced (perhaps by 50%?),the ratio figure between male and female might be closer.
Meanwhile SHC can concentrate on new members becoming more active and helping to build up the SHC brand.
2-ct’s worth
Just speaking my mind.
Yes, I totally agree with the above statement.
Those that had been dormant/inactive for the last 12 – 18 months in a stretch should just be dropped off from the circulation list by duly informing them that they will no longer have access to the website too.
If they want to retain their membership, then they will have to keep themselves active by taking part in the discussions or start a postings, join an event or better still organise an event as a Co-EO for a start to gain a foothold on what to do etc…
Well! For those without access to the internet for whatsoever reasons (and excuses), my point will be this: GO GET YOURSELF ENGAGE with the Internet for Pete’s sake!!!
Hi Jassmine, Ivan, and members,
Thank you for your feedback. I am pretty inclined to adopt some of the points raised by Jassmine and Ivan. In fact, I plan to introduce new and stricter membership registration by 1st July 2012. They include a photocopy of IC, address, and IC number. I am also considering that new members can only be accepted if introduced by an existing member.
For current members, I am receptive to removing membership of dormant members. They include members who have not enter the club for a period of 6 continuous months. Members who do not register personally the participation of activities may also be removed.
As club membership is free and lifetime, it is important that members contribute to the club by organising one activity during the lifetime of their membership. Records of EO activities are in our database since Oct 2005.
I have almost come to the decision that it is better to have active members than dormant members. I am also reviewing a new security feature where only members can get access to SilverHairsClub.com.
Prior to this implementation, I hope that dormant and active members give their views on this issue. Deadline is 30 June 2012.
Terence Seah
Hi Terence,
While I understand that many of our members are not receptive to having a formal membership,it should be noteworthy that formal membership will bring forth a certain level of commitment. Personally, I thought an annual subscription of say $3/= to $5/= a year could be a token fee to pay to be “in the group”. The money could be used, firstly to provide a membership card ( like passion card) and to help defray for quarterly meet-up of members.
If being a member is as easy as just giving a name and email, then we will have a long list of phantom member.
As for the website,I suggest that we should give restricted access to non members- perhaps the post title and the first write-up. This will allow non members get a feel of what we do, and be encouraged to sign up. Comments are then restricted to members only.
regards
James
Hi Terence! Instead of letting members form sub-groups by themselves – it has happened and is happening, right?, why not SHC create activity groups? These groups must hold their activity once a month.
Examples :-
a) Music & Dance group
b) Makan Kakis group
c) Cooking & Baking group, etc, etc
New and old members can join whichever group they’re interested in.
If there’s a concern about creating division within SHC members, do look upon this as creating diversity within SHC. As every member has a particular interest or more, it is then easier to be a regular with one or more groups.
Cheers
Ros
Hi James, Ros, Ivan and Jassmine and members,
Your feedback make sense, and I am inclined to go along your lines. Being an active member, you have a feel of members interests and needs.
Please keep your feedback flowing.
Terence Seah
Hi Terence,
I am not sure whether “sub-groups” was evolved in a selective ways. I personally hope “sub-group” can make known their event so members can decide whether they wish to join without any obligation. Will one feel “left out” if he/she came to know about those privately organised activities? :)
Just my thoughts.
Stay Healthy! Be Happy!
Dear Terence and all members,
The SHC Club is doing pretty well and with very dedicated and passionate members organizing a host of activities. Other members are also very supportive in their attendance, without which no event will be successful. There is no need for any “grouping” as members can decide what activity they want to host or attend.
My suggestion would be for us to “clean” off dormant members, be selective in taking in new members (by members’ recommendation, etc), restrict access to SHC website and encouraging current members to be active. New members may like to start as co-EOs or co-ECs for the initial period before going on their own, with some co-helpers, of course.
Right now, anyone can log into SHC website and view all our activities, archives and worst still, pictures taken at all our events. There is no privacy or exclusiveness and this may not be a good thing.
Warm regards, Win
Dear Terence and SHC Members
Being a fairly new SHC member I am wondering what is the
fundamenal objective(s) of SHC when it was started . I tried looking up on the Internet, but when I clicked on “SHC” it brings me back to this website. Perhaps someone
can point me to the right place where I can get a write-up on SHC.
If the objective of SHC is to create an avenue for Senior Citizens to interact and learn from each other, SHC has definitely fulfllled what it has set out to do. This is based on my experience having participated in a few events recently i.e. the Walk at Chinese Garden, the Potluck Picnic and the IT session at Ulu Pandan. I enjoyed everyone of these activities.
Regarding the views on getting rid of ‘dormant’ members, my
question is, does keeping their names in the membership list creates any problem for SHC? If it does, then maybe the extra effort to remove them from the list is worthwhile.
If the dormant members enjoy reading the exchange of views on the SHC website and looking at the photos, why not let them continue to do so. I doubt there are many such people who could be bothered to log on to SHC website to see what others are doing. If they do, then perpahs one day they will pick up courage to join in the group activities.
I am also wondering how does SHC attract new members? For myself, I was introduced by a friend who sent me the SHC website. I heard of SHC many years ago, but did not know what it does and never bothered to find out how to join. Hence, I have lost many good years! May be there are others
like me out there.
Also, how does SHC fund its website? Who is the kind soul who is managing and funding it? Surely, there must be some costs, no matter how minimal.
I hope to be enlightened’
thank you and regards, Barbara
When I joined SHC abt 5 years ago, I was attracted by its focus on activities to meet the needs of retirees. Prior to my retirement, I logon to the website to have a better understanding of what retirees should be aware of and what they shd do on retirement. I did not join any activities until my retirement and participated in events which interested me.
To exclude inactive or dormant members would thus be unreasonable as some members may have other priorities. Like any society, club or association, there will always be such dormant members even if not free.
We shd welcome eligible members to join and not be too exclusive. I think SHC will be able to play its role in serving society this way.
Henry
The last activity I joined was in the Botanic Garden walk last november.
I concur with Barbara#9 and Henry#10 point of view. I can considered to be an inactive member in the SHC list, very selective in activity and more of a follower. Love reading SHC’s activities.
Besides selective in activity found reluctant to forgo my present saturday activity which coincide with most of the SHC’s events.
Was planning to join the last two walk but find myself needed to go through a series of medical check-up the last two months (thanks things are ok). Am I consider a dormant member and waiting to be strike off from the members list.
Regards worth 1 cent
Lam
#11 Goh Ah Lam,
Hello Ah Lam! The fact that you commented on a post means you’re not inactive….:) Therefore, you will not be strike off from SHC. I speak for myself of course. Terence is a flexible guy and hopefully one day you’ll get to meet him.
Cheers
Ros
Hi Rosaline @ 5 / others,
I am from the West, may I join in the East / South / North group monthly meeting or vice versa ?
I focus on activity groups such as makan, travel, gardening, pot luck parties, gym , cycling , pet dog lovers, or walking rather than the NSEW groups because the latter caters to my interests/hobbies. I dont mind attending more than 1 meeting because I know exactly that I will meet and able to share within the different activity groups our common interests.
I may meet the groups from N or S or E but I may not meet anyone there that shares the same interests or hobbies as me. Moreover, I had to attend so many monthly meetings from NSE to find out exactly who had the same interests as me. And do we had so much time ???
And so I truly agreed with Rosalind ” hit the nail on the head ” that we focus on ACTIVITY groups rather than the NSEW groups.
My 8 cts. worth.
Hi Henry #10, Ah Lam #11,
You have spoken up for inactive members. There is validity in what you say, as these members do turn up after a a few years. They may be following up on what is happening in the Club; but may not participate in the activities at the time.
I cannot be too sure; but I do come to a conclusion that many Singaporeans, our age, are still working, and are busy with work and families. We just have to explore how to get dormant and inactive members to participate, as they enter their SilverHairs years.
I hope your speaking up will encourage more members to speak up.
Terence Seah
Hi Terence & SHC Members,
I would prefer to view the issue of inactive members in a positive light and would focus on how to further improve
the management of SHC’s website to increase membership and readership by leaps & bound to make it a popular site – especially with the silver tsunami coming up soon.
A website which can garner a huge viewership is a good thing and can be profitable down the road.
Just look at the recent buy up of “HungryGoWhere” site
by SingTel @ $12 million!
Hence, my two cents worth is to open SHC site to one & all
and keep it free. Improve on management of site & start gathering data to bring the site to next level on road to profitability.
Once you have a huge base of members and readership, advertisers will come knocking at your door.
Cheers,
Constance
Hi Terence #3
Oh dear! Don’t veer to the extreme end of stringency by requiring i/c etc… for future membership application! This is like throwing the baby out with the bath water! lol!
To discourage members from becoming dormant/inactive, there ls a simpler solution. Just include some terms & conditions on the membership application form.
Example:
1. Membership will automatically expire if a member is dormant/inactive for a continuous period of six months.
2. Every reapplication for membership will incur an administrative charge of $10.
Now, isn’t this a less demanding way of discouraging a build-up of dormant/inactive members? lol!
2-ct’s worth
Hi, I must admit that I am a dormant member, mainly because I do not have the time to join your activities. Since I joined SHC in 2008, I attended only a talk on investment. However, I hope you do not strike off my name, as I spend much time reading activities organised by SHC. I particularly enjoy the forum & discussions on topics regarding old age home, retirement village and perspective of life as one gets old. In short, please do not terminate inactive members, as I am likely to remain inactive in taking part in SHC activities, but will continue to do into SHC website to read your activities & discussions. Thanks.
Terence,
i think many ‘dormant’ shc members are still reading the website news & commentaries. I believe some of them do participate in shc activities from time to time . Who knows, in time to come, for whatever reason best known to themselves, they could become active members , even EOs for events. There is no harm keeping them as members. Besides, it saves you the administrative task of updating , deleting and reinstalling these members and lots of unnecessary hassle should they dispute.
Just my personal view after i spoke to a few shc members.
Hi Charles #18,
What you say is very valid. If we have to remove and re-install dormant or inactive members, there will be a lot of administrative and follow-up work; considering our current membership registration is easy and requires very little administration.
Not only your viewpoint which I have always treasured, you have also raised an important viewpoint from other members. Eng Chye and Constance are clear cases with similar viewpoints.
Terence Seah
Hi Terence,
Any one, not only in Singapore can read our posting and comment. GOOD!.
I believe your idea of a 6 months cut off point is to encourage members to either participate or attend or organised activities. VERY GOOD!
Those who just want to read, there is no one to stop them, so it wont affect them.
Stay Healthy! Be Happy! :)
Hi Terence,
I must confess I’m one of those who read the SHC website more than participate. I do participate occasionally when I can find the time. I know there will come a day when I will be much freer, so I hope my membership won’t be terminated because of my temporary ‘inactivity’.
Like Arnold Schwarzenegger said in the movie, “I’ll be back”
Cheers.
Hi Terence,
Further to my comment #20 “to either participate” I would like to further elaborate. It include posting/comment in this forum which it still consider the members is active.
Stay Healthy! Be Happy! :)
The response from most members are very courteous and supportive. Let me be a bit un-courteous especially from someone who seldom participates in the activity.
I think you have forgotten that silverhairsclub is a virtual club and not a physical club. Whether you have one member or 1 million members it does not make any difference as far as infrastructure needed to maintain it.
I am therefore amazed as to the rationale to purge out the so call dormant members.
If you estimate the number of active members based on their participation in activities, it only runs to a few hundreds. If you include those who participate in the forum maybe it will still be under a thousand. Based on more than 10,000 members (I was told when I join a few years back) you will have to purge more than 90 percent from your membership base.
So far I have never come across a blog or site requesting for a copy of your identification documents in order to register as a member. Most probably it will be the first blog to have such a requirement globally. Even in PRC there are strong resistance for such introduction although it is
mandated by the government. I think silverhairsclub will be feature widely in the mass media if it is successful in the implementation.
Personally I will never provide such a copy and I believe most people will not do so either. It is a serious risk as it can be mishandled, misplaced or misused and caused untoldable consequences such as Ah Long paying you a visit early in the morning or practicing their artistic talents on the common corridors.
Not forgetting you will also subject to endless troubles if anyone suspect that his or her copy of identification documents had been misused and you will be visiting Cantonment Complex regularly for a cup of coffee. :)
So far I have provide a copy of my identification documents on the internet ONCE. It is for the release of a financial balance (5 digit figure) in my paypal account after eBay close my account. If it is for a smaller sum I will not do so.
Most reputable internet platforms such as eBay, facebook only require an email account or a handphone number to verify your physical existence if there are no financial transactions involved.
Why do you need a copy of identification documents? To determine ……………………….
I have 5 credit cards with various banks and I only use one or two of them.
Every time I tried to cancel the other cards they will call to persuade and convince me not to do so. When I told them I seldom use their cards they responded it’s the job of their marketing to convince their cards have better value and buyers experiences than other banks.
I never pay renewal fees for donkey years – just give them a call and they will waive your card fees even there are no transactions for the year. It’s a cost to them and yet they are prepare to bear the cost for renewing cards once in a few years and regular mailings.
The banks understand the principle of marketing. Let customers cancel their cards or accounts and you will lose a potential good customers for life. They constantly send mailers listing their various promotions to keep on repeating they are still there for me.
As one of our premier company declared – “Our customers have high expectation and have every rights to demand the best from us, every time. We are very much aware that customers have a choice and we make every effort that we are their choice when they need to have a great way to fly”
Why ‘blame’ your members or potential members and impose more strict registrations when it could be your problem?
Maybe you would like to think of the following:
(1) Is your site friendly and look professional or too amateurish? The impression count!
(2) Does it cater to the diverse needs of your members? Not every one like to participate in physical activities every time. Maybe they also want to learn a new hobbies, online learning etc.
(3) Birds of the same feather flew together – do you provide a venue for sub-groups. Some of them may only be interested in health problems and its solutions; cycling, dancing, looking for side income etc
(4) …………………………..
As I mentioned before your site need to restructure again to provide user-friendly navigation – you just cannot stick to a formula that work six years ago as technology will render you obsolescence.
Let have a brief case study of one of the premier internet marketing platform – warriorforum.com .
It has subgroups for internet marketing discussion, buy IM products, provision of products and services, paid subgroups for members who want better value services, masterminding group to meet physically or virtually.
The site knows the needs of its members and in the process help the boss/owner of the site to make millions of dollars a year with a membership base of 493,000
Hi Terence,
You don’t have to purge those non-active members. Retain them and issue password only to those active ones.
WF (popular with internet marketeers)generally consists of a number of forums and subforums. Some forums or subforums are not available to all members and may require additional payments or may only be offered to certain persons or which may be closed and not open to further members. Some forums or subforums may require a payment to make offers or posts.
Stay Healthy! Be Happy! :)
Hi Terence and all,
Please do not drop the “dormant” members for whatever reasons they may have for not being able to participate/organise the activities personally.
From the above replies, we are better informed why so called dormant members aren’t able/ready to become actively involved, including myself.
Also, may I add that some ladies and gentlemen are special and Blessed with Leadership/organisational qualities to be EOs etc…
Just my opinion only.
Good morning.
Geok Suan.
etc…
Let me be a devil’s advocate again. :)
Why major in minor things – about active and non-active members. Not forgetting it will be physically challenging to disable such a huge number of passwords. The boss will ‘died’ of exhaustion before the blog even become more vibrant. :)
If you major in having your site more users friendly with more appealing activities – both physically and virtually there is no reason your dormant members will not become active. In other words don’t put your cart before the horse.
People will go where there is a solution to their needs. They don’t care whether your site needs to be vibrant or not – that’s the responsibility of the owner/boss and not theirs.
Be more users friendly and cater to your members’ needs as it’s a job specifically tailor to the owner/boss of the site. If you are slack with your job it will show in the degree of vibrancy of the blog/site. Likewise the owner/boss can and will take credit and consequently the financial benefits that come with it when the vibrancy increases.
My thousand apologies if I make anyone a bit of unease and uncomfortable for the last few messages which I have posted.
I am not a dormant member, sure I am not an active member, I categorized myself as a lazy member. I will write sometime nit always (like now), I will join the activities sometimes not always, I never intend to organize any event, sure will disappoint Terence’s slogan “to organising one activity during the lifetime of their membership”
Hi Steven Ng
Originally, I have not intention to write in this post, but after reading your comments 23, 24, 27, I just want to say, I totally agreed your views in the above comments. You said you are the devil’s advocate, but I consider it pinpoint the needs of a vibrant club.
But most important, I don’t believe Terence will try to damage the members’ database he established so far. Just wonder if all the dormant/inactive members are dropped out from the club, what will the database become???!!!
May be the idea of “selective in taking in new members” can give it a discussion/try.
Hi Andrew,
My comments are based from my experience as someone who has surf the internet since teleview days (mid 1990’s) and are in internet marketing since early 2000’s.
I have been wondering if FaceBook management keep on lamenting on the vibrancy of the site and how to restrict new registrants and kick out inactive members and using an interface which is already more than 5 years old – will their site worth more than S$100 billion? Most probably no one know the existence of such a site.
FaceBook has been making slight changes to their interface once every few months to make it more users friendly to cater to the changing needs of its members. It has also make it easier to register new account without compromising security. It take less than 5 minutes to create a new account through handphone sms verification despite you are not allowed to have a duplicate account.
No wonder it is trend or a fad to have a Facebook account for almost anyone and that’s include the rich and the famous. Even our PM has it.
Hi StevenC,
I note your point on revamping the website. A change can definitely make the Club more exciting and vibrant. I would be most pleased if you can help make the club more vibrant. At this moment, I do not have the time nor the resources to make this change; but if you can organise activities which can add vibrance to the club, you too would have my support.
I am not too sure if SHC is in the business of internet marketing; but we try to be a club for members. We are not into internet marketing; neither are we into collecting members’ data and using these data for selling and cross marketing. Our key objective is to provide a platform for members to meet other SilverHairs. This is what the club hopes to maintain and achieve.
You have some good ideas; but unfortunately, I am not good at what you have suggested. If you have the time and the resources, it may be beneficial if you can conduct some internet marketing sessions for members.
I wish SilverHairsClub can be a $100 billion company; but this is not its intention. I would be happy if it is worth $1 million dollars. I cannot cope up with your ideas; but if you can help fellow members and the club meet its objective, this will be most appreciated.
Terence Seah
My thousand apologies for my poor English. It appear that you may have interpret differently from what I intend. Maybe it’s time for me to improve my English. :)
I am not in the business neither is my mission to teach people about internet marketing or help you monetize your members’ data. Like you I hope to find new and meet friends and share meaningful information about retirement.
What I share in the previous messages are experiences that I gone through and hope to give a different perspective how to make your virtual club more vibrant instead of focusing on trivial things. To go on a witch hunt on which member is dormant or active and making registration more cumbersome are mammoth task and time consuming which you can ill afford.
You like everyone has finite resources and time and how you spend it will determine the vibrancy of the club. Being the owner/boss of this virtual club you have an unenviable task of making your activities (physical and virtual) more appealing and your site more users friendly that even an 90 years old member can easily navigate without assistance.
This will definitely make any dormant member become more active as they can ill afford not to participate in activities which are appealing and beneficial to their well-being – both physical and spiritual. :)
Thank you to members who have given their feedback on dormant members. I see that there are many reasons why members are dormant or inactive. One of them is they are busy and still working. From the club’s point of view, these dormant members do come back after some years, and participate in its activities.
For this reason, the Club will continue to keep this members on its membership list, unless the member decides otherwise. Again, thank you to the inactive members who have spoken out.
Terence Seah