Name Change

Discussion of the re-branding of CTC as Cycling UK.
Whimwham7
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Re: Name Change

Post by Whimwham7 »

Bicycler wrote:To give them credit, it's Cycling UK which has included the Winged Wheel. It's at the bottom of every page on the website http://www.cyclinguk.org , including the club pages it hosts for member groups.


Yes, at the BOTTOM of the page, where hardly anyone will see it having found what they wanted higher up. I believe this location is known as a "footer" where all the mandatory rubbish such as "T & C's apply" are dumped, or, more appropriately in this case, "the afterthought"

W
pfh1
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Joined: 28 Apr 2016, 2:57pm

Re: Name Change

Post by pfh1 »

Why was the membership not consulted about the change of name? And who made the change? Is it acceptable to the membership to have the change simply announced by the CEO in Cycle magazine?
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gaz
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Re: Name Change

Post by gaz »

Welcome to the forum.
pfh1 wrote:Why was the membership not consulted about the change of name? And who made the change?

This process began in August 2013. There have been consultations. Council announced in Dec 2013 edition of Cycle that they would take the rebrand decision informed by those consultations. It has featured regularly in Council minutes. Unsurprisingly it has happened, Council approved the change in January.

There is considerable debate over how comprehensive the consultation has been and whether Council had the moral authority to take the action without a vote by all members.

pfh1 wrote:Is it acceptable to the membership to have the change simply announced by the CEO in Cycle magazine?

Rather than being a simple announcement by the CEO in Cycle, the change of branding followed two and a half years of consultation and development with final approval from Council (15 for 1 against) in January.

Nevertheless a successful petition has been raised for a Poll of the Whole Club to take place on Council's decision: viewtopic.php?f=48&t=103825

This will appear in the next issue of Cycle along with voting papers.
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Paulatic
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Re: Name Change

Post by Paulatic »

Has this forum been hacked?
If you were to click on the weareCyclingUK link
Image
You were being redirected to
Image
Yesterday it changed to
Image
Whatever I am, wherever I am, this is me. This is my life

https://stcleve.wordpress.com/category/lejog/
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Vorpal
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Re: Name Change

Post by Vorpal »

Paulatic wrote:Has this forum been hacked?
If you were to click on the weareCyclingUK link

We are aware of it.
“In some ways, it is easier to be a dissident, for then one is without responsibility.”
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weareCyclingUK
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Joined: 8 Apr 2016, 9:18am

Re: Name Change

Post by weareCyclingUK »

Nothing untoward, don't worry - nothing has been hacked.

We were having a bit of fun with the domain on the back of the branding cat being let out of its bag a little early and catching CTC on the hop; but some big organisations were starting to mistake us for Cycling UK, and since it was never our intention to cause any harm we've brought things to a halt.

We've taken down the Twitter and Facebook accounts, and (initially) redirected the website link to Robgul's site (since we like the ethos of what they're trying to do), but understandably Rob didn't want us to do that and asked us to stop. We removed the links and have reverted the domains to their default DNS (hence the Hover holding page).

We wish the CTC well and everyone a long and safe cycling life.

Cheers,
The "no longer" We are Cycling UK team ... :lol:
Psamathe
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Re: Name Change

Post by Psamathe »

pfh1 wrote:Why was the membership not consulted about the change of name? And who made the change? Is it acceptable to the membership to have the change simply announced by the CEO in Cycle magazine?

A lot of people here agree with you. There was a petition run (needing 200 member signatures) to force the organisation to run a poll of the entire membership. It far exceeded the required number of signatures to force a poll. The poll in thus "in progress" according to the timescales laid-out in the Articles. However, the Council/National Office have ploughed ahead anyway - whatever the outcome of the poll.

It's called "ignoring your membership". Many active here who are unhappy have left the organisation (though you might get an insulting e-mail sent to you if you provide negative feedback, followed by a T-shirt in the post). Many leaving members have been refunded their unused membership fe (k.e. pro-rata'd).

I left when the made their Technical Officer redundant (more because of the incompetent way it was done showing management inability which I found ver concerning).

Ian
Psamathe
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Re: Name Change

Post by Psamathe »

Paulatic wrote:Has this forum been hacked?
If you were to click on the weareCyclingUK link
Image
You were being redirected to
Image
Yesterday it changed to
Image

I'd have expected CUK to have taken such related domain names before anything was announced. That they didn't rather beggars belief. Again, inadequate experience they should have had in-house yet didn't and didn't get appropriate consultants in to fill the gap.

Whenever we started a new company we purchased all the similar domain names/abbreviations in many TLDs and SLDs (redirecting them all to the real domain). It's not expensive and takes no time!

Ian
weareCyclingUK
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Re: Name Change

Post by weareCyclingUK »

Psamathe wrote:I'd have expected CUK to have taken such related domain names before anything was announced. That they didn't rather beggars belief. Again, inadequate experience they should have had in-house yet didn't and didn't get appropriate consultants in to fill the gap.

Whenever we started a new company we purchased all the similar domain names/abbreviations in many TLDs and SLDs (redirecting them all to the real domain). It's not expensive and takes no time!

Ian


We're happy to negotitate the sale of the domains to Cycling UK: info@wearecyclinguk.org (or .com, or .net, or .co.uk, or .org.uk)
Psamathe
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Re: Name Change

Post by Psamathe »

weareCyclingUK wrote:
Psamathe wrote:I'd have expected CUK to have taken such related domain names before anything was announced. That they didn't rather beggars belief. Again, inadequate experience they should have had in-house yet didn't and didn't get appropriate consultants in to fill the gap.

Whenever we started a new company we purchased all the similar domain names/abbreviations in many TLDs and SLDs (redirecting them all to the real domain). It's not expensive and takes no time!

Ian


We're happy to negotitate the sale of the domains to Cycling UK: info@wearecyclinguk.org (or .com, or .net, or .co.uk, or .org.uk)

More than amazed CUK didn't sort all this out on chasing the name and long before any announcements slipped out. Surprised they have not purchased it from you as well. Makes you wonder about the organisation as more and more of their "inadequacies" are revealed.

Ian
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robgul
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Re: Name Change

Post by robgul »

Psamathe wrote:
Paulatic wrote:Has this forum been hacked?
If you were to click on the weareCyclingUK link
Image
You were being redirected to
Image
Yesterday it changed to
Image

I'd have expected CUK to have taken such related domain names before anything was announced. That they didn't rather beggars belief. Again, inadequate experience they should have had in-house yet didn't and didn't get appropriate consultants in to fill the gap.

Whenever we started a new company we purchased all the similar domain names/abbreviations in many TLDs and SLDs (redirecting them all to the real domain). It's not expensive and takes no time!


Ian


Responding on behalf of Touring Cyclist Club :

The wearecyclinguk owner (whoever that might be - we have no way of knowing) redirected all the domains to us WITHOUT ASKING and then sent a message saying they had done so - but saying that they would delete them if asked. There was mention of "having had some fun with CUK"

The anonymous poster had no email address = after some helpful intervention by the CTC Forum Admin we sent a message and the links were deleted.

Who is behind wearecyclinguk ? ......

AND the point about registering potential domains is very valid (we, that's Touring Cyclist Club) have a number for brand protection purposes.

The Touring Cyclist Club is a valid initiative that has attracted many hundreds of expressions of interest, about 200 Forum members - we are working on "the plan" and expect to launch a membership scheme - with a good-value insurance option - before the end of May 2016.


Rob
E2E http://www.cycle-endtoend.org.uk
HoECC http://www.heartofenglandcyclingclub.org.uk
Cytech accredited mechanic . . . and woodworker
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Paulatic
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Re: Name Change

Post by Paulatic »

The whole thing is a perfect example of how the chosen rebrand is totally unfit for purpose. Looks like no one has ever thought anything through properly. I'd be wanting a refund.
Whatever I am, wherever I am, this is me. This is my life

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weareCyclingUK
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Re: Name Change

Post by weareCyclingUK »

The logo doesn't help - they should have got some proper consultation before registering it as a trademark and releasing it into the wild.

The key element of the logo is 'cycling' ... and not Cycling UK (the actual organisation name). The cycling and UK should have been kept together, not placed and coloured independently.

The naming is then further confused by the inclusion of the "we are" element. Reading the logo in the natural order of left-to-right, top-to-bottom the organisation now appears to be called: we are cycling UK

The logo needs redesigning to make it blindingly obvious that the organisation name is - Cycling UK. In fact, they should consider dropping the whole "we are" thing altogether.

If they ignore this and continue with the one they've got now they are going to fail in many of their goals and confuse groups, organisations and individuals they deal with long into the future because they'll have to spend time defuzzing whether they are 'cycling', 'Cycling UK' or 'We are Cycling UK'.

CTC ... stop, listen, reevaluate the branding, and redo it after taking some proper (and it doesn't need to be expensive) advice; we should know, we've designed plenty of successful ones over the years!! :wink:

Regards,

Keen cyclists and
former CTC members
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ribblerouser
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Re: Name Change

Post by ribblerouser »

CTC has been a broad church for a long time now, it could simply have officially rebranded from "Cyclists Touring Club" to "CTC".
RS Components is a well known supplier of electrical and electronic components and tools etc. but many many years ago they started live as Radiospares, because that was all they did, so the name changed to reflect this, but it still retains it's history, likewise BAE Systems.


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Si
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Re: Name Change

Post by Si »

ribblerouser wrote:CTC has been a broad church for a long time now, it could simply have officially rebranded from "Cyclists Touring Club" to "CTC".



It did, several years ago.
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