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Is this forum a reputational risk?

Posted: 9 Dec 2016, 4:37pm
by mjr
Have the contributions on this Forum from anybody caused a reputational risk to the CTC/CUK? Please give reasons in replies.

(Question asked by someone on facebook.)

Re: Is this forum a reputational risk?

Posted: 9 Dec 2016, 4:43pm
by landsurfer
I think posters obsession with polls may bring the CTC into disrepute !!

Re: Is this forum a reputational risk?

Posted: 9 Dec 2016, 5:26pm
by Bez
There's an option for "abstain"? But… I…

Re: Is this forum a reputational risk?

Posted: 9 Dec 2016, 5:30pm
by gaz
mjr wrote:Have the contributions on this Forum from anybody caused a reputational risk to the CTC/CUK? Please give reasons in replies.

(Question asked by someone on facebook.)

A similar thread was pulled from this very forum board a little earlier this afternoon, perhaps there was a risk of it bringing the forum into disrepute :wink: .

Concerns were expressed that the "Blacking Up" thread in the Tea Shop may have brought CTC/Cycling UK into disrepute, it was locked but has since been pulled from the boards.

Charlie the cat's Trivia Tree contained much political incorrectness and may have befallen a similar fate.

Re: Is this forum a reputational risk?

Posted: 9 Dec 2016, 5:46pm
by thirdcrank
There's obviously a risk that members of the public stumbling across this forum might discover it's intended for cyclists :shock: although thankfully, that's not immediately obvious from many of the threads.

Re: Is this forum a reputational risk?

Posted: 9 Dec 2016, 6:00pm
by gaz
I am currently considering whether to vote in the above poll (I have a bit of history with polls that may have been pulled from the forum boards due to a risk of them bringing the forum into disrepute).

At the present time I notice that there are neither Goretex jackets nor Garmins on offer to encourage my participation. I am also unclear on how to give my undirected vote to the Chair as my proxy, I feel my decision deserves the benefit of his greater wisdom :wink: .

Re: Is this forum a reputational risk?

Posted: 9 Dec 2016, 6:37pm
by mjr
Bez wrote:There's an option for "abstain"? But… I…

Yes/No/Abstain is the default in the co-op I most often run votes for and I didn't see why not to allow an explicit I-saw-it-but-I'm-not-going-to-tell-you type of vote here too!

Re: Is this forum a reputational risk?

Posted: 9 Dec 2016, 10:06pm
by gaz
gaz wrote:(I have a bit of history with polls that may have been pulled from the forum boards due to a risk of them bringing the forum into disrepute)

By way of explanation.

Long before YEWBAB joined the forum, a small section had been dedicated to discussions about a proposal to convert the CTC to a Charity. Some might say that the proposal was somewhat controversial :wink: .

In April 2010 I posted a poll (IIRC including caveats that the forum was open to non-CTC members and the poll could not be considered representative, it was just a bit of fun) on whether the forum members would be voting "Yes" or "No" to the Charity conversion.

Shortly after I placed it the post was removed, it now resides in the section only accessible to the forum volunteer staff. I received a PM from the mods by way of explanation. I haven't kept a copy so what follows is paraphrasing from my memory rather than verbatim.

It was reported to me that at the time of setting up the Charity Debate boards the mods had decided that polls would be a bad idea. They had not announced this on the forum. They foresaw problems in the seemingly likely event that the result of a forum poll did not mirror the result of the AGM vote. Having pulled it they'd then reviewed their decision and upon further reflection concluded it could go ahead since there were clear caveats in place. When they had tried to re-instate the post they discovered that the forum software of the time would not let them because of the poll. I was offered the opportunity to recreate the post and the poll therein myself, I declined.

I have never taken issue with that decision by the moderators, nor of any other decision to pull any of my posts (there have been a few :oops: ). I am probably taking liberties suggesting that posting my poll could have amounted to bringing the forum into disrepute, my bad :mrgreen: .

Re: Is this forum a reputational risk?

Posted: 10 Dec 2016, 4:43am
by YEWBAB
gaz wrote:
gaz wrote:(I have a bit of history with polls that may have been pulled from the forum boards due to a risk of them bringing the forum into disrepute)

By way of explanation.

Long before YEWBAB joined the forum, a small section had been dedicated to discussions about a proposal to convert the CTC to a Charity. Some might say that the proposal was somewhat controversial :wink: .

In April 2010 I posted a poll (IIRC including caveats that the forum was open to non-CTC members and the poll could not be considered representative, it was just a bit of fun) on whether the forum members would be voting "Yes" or "No" to the Charity conversion.

Shortly after I placed it the post was removed, it now resides in the section only accessible to the forum volunteer staff. I received a PM from the mods by way of explanation. I haven't kept a copy so what follows is paraphrasing from my memory rather than verbatim.

It was reported to me that at the time of setting up the Charity Debate boards the mods had decided that polls would be a bad idea. They had not announced this on the forum. They foresaw problems in the seemingly likely event that the result of a forum poll did not mirror the result of the AGM vote. Having pulled it they'd then reviewed their decision and upon further reflection concluded it could go ahead since there were clear caveats in place. When they had tried to re-instate the post they discovered that the forum software of the time would not let them because of the poll. I was offered the opportunity to recreate the post and the poll therein myself, I declined.

I have never taken issue with that decision by the moderators, nor of any other decision to pull any of my posts (there have been a few :oops: ). I am probably taking liberties suggesting that posting my poll could have amounted to bringing the forum into disrepute, my bad :mrgreen: .



Therefore, any view that is express on this forum about the running of or the policy of CUK that goes counter to that held by the BOARD OF TRUSTEES of the CUK should not be allowed?

Re: Is this forum a reputational risk?

Posted: 10 Dec 2016, 8:37am
by Audax67
With polls such as this there's certainly the risk of being thought unbearably stuffy and not fully in command of English. "Reputational" would have earned you a stern talking-to when I was at school.

Re: Is this forum a reputational risk?

Posted: 10 Dec 2016, 9:14am
by YEWBAB
Audax67 wrote:With polls such as this there's certainly the risk of being thought unbearably stuffy and not fully in command of English. "Reputational" would have earned you a stern talking-to when I was at school.


Explain?

Re: Is this forum a reputational risk?

Posted: 10 Dec 2016, 9:49am
by Audax67
You seriously need an explanation?

Re: Is this forum a reputational risk?

Posted: 10 Dec 2016, 10:38am
by gaz
YEWBAB wrote:Therefore, any view that is express on this forum about the running of or the policy of CUK that goes counter to that held by the BOARD OF TRUSTEES of the CUK should not be allowed?

Far from it and IMO that's a very odd question to infer from my post. Yours is a new profile on the forum, although I don't know how long you may have been lurking on the forum boards before you joined :mrgreen: .

Take a look at a few threads in the Cycling UK Topics and Discussions section, particularly the Charity Debate and Brand Refresh areas.

There are many posts on the forum critical of the Trustees (and Council before them). Debate and constructive criticism have always been welcome here.

Re: Is this forum a reputational risk?

Posted: 10 Dec 2016, 11:26am
by thirdcrank
Yes

A charity is a public body receiving generous tax relief to help it carry out its charitable objectives. As such, it is open to close public scrutiny as are its trustees. Obviously, Cycling UK is not compelled to provide a forum but if it does, posters are entitled to be critical so long as they observe the normal rules.

Re: Is this forum a reputational risk?

Posted: 10 Dec 2016, 11:29am
by Psamathe
Thinking about the question on the poll I can see that people are probably not answering the question they thought was asked. After all the many many "Ban politics" duplicate threads and polls of the last week I think most respondents (myself included) assumed they were answering "Are the political threads a reputational risk to the CTC?".

But thinking, there is nothing in the question that links it to the Tea Shop threads and I think that the CTC related threads, about the way the switch to a charity has destroyed the organisation, how it is no longer a club with members but a grant chasing body with donors, how it ignores resolutions passed at it's own AGM, how it casually makes long standing highly regarded staff redundant and then tries to gloss over that to the membership. I think those threads (i.e. discussing holding the CTC to account) are more relevant to the question. But such discussions do not risk reputational damage rather the behaviour of the CTC itself is the risk to reputational damage.

But it does illustrate how people (including myself) might think they are answering one question (based on recent history) whereas the question itself does not relate directly to those assumptions.

(Not suggesting this is anything deliberate in the question - which is explicit in that it is very open "Have the contributions on this Forum from anybody caused a reputational risk" and presents no implied forum area). Though I do wonder how such an open question would be useful.

Ian