My Opinion

A place to discuss the issues relating to the proposed change in the national CTC’s structure.
Karen Sutton
Posts: 608
Joined: 9 Jan 2007, 11:18pm
Location: Greater Manchester

Re: My Opinion

Post by Karen Sutton »

In view of Greg's comments above, I sincerely hope that going forward the Club is not going to make the full payment to the Trust for the Services of very part time cover by a member of staff who is unfamiliar with the operation and needs of Member Groups, and who is, I believe employed part time in her actual CTC employment, before being asked to be the main contact at CTC for Member Groups.

I sent an email yesterday asking this member of staff for a member database for our Group. This was sent to me on a monthly basis by the Local Groups Officer before he left. It may be that we now have to request one each time we want it. However, the autoreply i received confirmed that she is, as Greg says, part time. This is what it said:

"Hi this is Julie Rand, the new Membership Coordinator. I have taken over for the time being from Adrian Lawson, who has now left CTC. Please use the email address groups@ctc.org.uk in future for all correspondence about Member Groups. I will try to respond as soon as possible but, as I have other duties, it may take a few days".

Membership co-ordinator does seem to be a strange title for someone supporting Member groups. Let's hope it works, and we get the support we need.
Karen Sutton
Posts: 608
Joined: 9 Jan 2007, 11:18pm
Location: Greater Manchester

Re: My Opinion

Post by Karen Sutton »

Karen Sutton wrote:In view of Greg's comments above, I sincerely hope that going forward the Club is not going to make the full payment to the Trust for the Services of very part time cover by a member of staff who is unfamiliar with the operation and needs of Member Groups, and who is, I believe employed part time in her actual CTC employment, before being asked to be the main contact at CTC for Member Groups.

I sent an email yesterday asking this member of staff for a member database for our Group. This was sent to me on a monthly basis by the Local Groups Officer before he left. It may be that we now have to request one each time we want it. However, the autoreply i received confirmed that she is, as Greg says, part time. This is what it said:

"Hi this is Julie Rand, the new Membership Coordinator. I have taken over for the time being from Adrian Lawson, who has now left CTC. Please use the email address groups@ctc.org.uk in future for all correspondence about Member Groups. I will try to respond as soon as possible but, as I have other duties, it may take a few days".

Membership co-ordinator does seem to be a strange title for someone supporting Member groups. Let's hope it works, and we get the support we need.



Well, it's a week tomorrow since I sent that email to Julie, and since her auto response.
I'm still waiting for a reply. I think I may just have to call her tomorrow. I think a week is long enough to allow.
EDIT: I have just received an email response; that is that my request will hopefully be dealt with by the end of the week. Let's hope it is.
thirdcrank
Posts: 36776
Joined: 9 Jan 2007, 2:44pm

Re: My Opinion

Post by thirdcrank »

I always feel uncomfortable with controversial first posts, especially if the moderators feel the need to do a bit of editing. On the other hand, I'm grateful to the OP for starting a thread which led to the posting of this valuable insight:

Simon L6 wrote:.... I've heard Kevin speak about the need for caution on certain subjects in the run-up to a Big Lottery bid. .....


It comes as no surprise, I suppose, because dangling the bait of a bit of public money (in whatever guise) has caused many a campaigning organisation to falter.
Mattie
Posts: 421
Joined: 23 Feb 2009, 9:19pm

Re: My Opinion

Post by Mattie »

I remember this line from King Lear and have given it a lot of thought as to whether it applies to this debate. It has to be used with caution otherwise it can be used as a layabouts charter ! but I think it has merit in this debate:

"Striving to better, oft we mar what's well"

P.90
King Lear
ISBN 0140707247


edit: P.90
Last edited by Mattie on 28 Dec 2010, 4:57pm, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
Yorkshireman
Posts: 352
Joined: 6 Jan 2007, 6:59am
Location: North Hykeham, Lincoln.
Contact:

Re: My Opinion

Post by Yorkshireman »

Ah!
'If it's not broke - Don't fix it' :wink:
Colin N.
Lincolnshire is mostly flat ... but the wind is mostly in your face!
http://www.freewebs.com/yorkshireman1/
LANDSURFER74

Re: My Opinion

Post by LANDSURFER74 »

"Hi this is Julie Rand, the new Membership Coordinator. I have taken over for the time being from Adrian Lawson, who has now left CTC. Please use the email address groups@ctc.org.uk in future for all correspondence about Member Groups. I will try to respond as soon as possible but, as I have other duties, it may take a few days".



Sorry to come late to this but ... her other 'Duties' have a greater importance to her than the CTC .. thats how it reads to me !!
So why is she she in this post?????
Or have i got it wrong .....
User avatar
meic
Posts: 19355
Joined: 1 Feb 2007, 9:37pm
Location: Caerfyrddin (Carmarthen)

Re: My Opinion

Post by meic »

I think that she is actually talking about other duties within the CTC.
Yma o Hyd
LANDSURFER74

Re: My Opinion

Post by LANDSURFER74 »

Could some one please list her "other duties" ..possibly an issue of record for all the other members of the CTC
Karen Sutton
Posts: 608
Joined: 9 Jan 2007, 11:18pm
Location: Greater Manchester

Re: My Opinion

Post by Karen Sutton »

On the CTC Website there is a note for Member Groups from Business Development manager John Storms:

"Member Groups Officer Adrian Lawson is moving on from CTC at the end of October. In the meantime, the packs needed for the AGM / Affiliation process are on their way and Adrian will still handle what you need to get going for 2011.

We will also deliver what member groups need through the extremely experienced information team here at national office. This team is made up of very familiar names and faces at CTC: Mark Waters, Julie Rand, Andrew Hawes and Chris Juden. CTC membership services, Arvato can handle many queries and administration as well.

By 1 January 2011 we will have one key contact for member groups. We value feedback member groups have on what we can do to improve further. The most recent member groups survey is a good example of what we will look at for now.

As Business Development Manager at CTC since last November, it’s great to work with so many like-minded colleagues and members. Cycling is a real passion of mine, something I’ve loved for over 25 years: I’ve travelled the globe and it’s never without my bike. Since moving to the UK twelve years ago I have become a big fan of hill climbs and time trials, and since starting with CTC have tried my first challenge rides which were a great experience. My job is to ensure we provide your membership services at a high level, maintain and develop affinity partnerships with our members needs in mind, and initiate new business opportunities for CTC.

My enthusiasm for cycling has really helped in focusing my attention on the important things for our members. Through that focus we have seen the best ever performance from the membership services team at our provider, Arvato. Complaints are down from over 1000 last year to just over 300 in 2010, and that’s with an increased membership – we’re up 4,500 , + 7% this year."



At our Member Group AGM in October we were told by a member of CTC staff that John Storms was heading the information Team at CTC who were now dealing with Member Group queries. This sounded great as it appeared that there would be more than one person to deal with queries.

Yet the impression I have got since Adrian left, and from Julie's autoreply, is that Julie Rand is the only member of staff dealing with the queries. So it seems that she is the "one key contact for member groups" John refers to above. As she has other duties it seems that we are being allocated a small portion of CTC staff time.
Jonty

Re: My Opinion

Post by Jonty »

Hi Dancewithcats.
I appreciate your point of view. I also thought that the views of the CTC were reasonable, relevant and objective in contrast to much of the comment on this forum. Most people active on the forum seemed to be against the proposal but they are clearly not representative of the CTC membership: they are a vociferous minority. IMO some of them undermined their case and credibility by the way they expressed it, by not accepting obvious points, and by raising irrelevant issues possibly to try and fog the issue.
I got the impression that some of them had made up their minds and would put forward any argument in support of their case irrespective of how spurious.
However they obviously feel strongly about the proposal and I suspect that they could be good cycling companions: there certainly wouldn't be any shortage of conversation. Also some of the participants offer good technical advice freely on other parts of this forum. Some people simply love a good argument. I'm relatively new to cycling but I've discovered that some cyclists seem to be quite a bolchie lot with strong left-wing tendencies. :wink:
jonty
Post Reply