2012.... TNN Inc's big year?

[nova]

Soooo... (world's nosiest org. member here ) I saw signs up today for this year's EcoFest, and it got me wondering whether we are having a stand there this year?

And that got me also wondering... what else is TNN Inc. got going on at the mo? How are the hire kits & demo kits going? Did RNW events even happen last year? (naughty me if i didn't notice ) What is planned for this year?

I seem to recall starting a sort of similar thread last year around this time oh. yep. did anything ever come of any of that? we seemed to have a fair amount of people interested in what is going on

maybe committee discussion could happen in the committee discussion area? (is that visible to normal forum members? ) apart from 'sensitive' topics? then people might read what is actually going on day-to-day & see areas where they could help at the time? so members could pitch in more easily to make life simpler for committee members..???

e.g. I'm a bit of a fanatic when it comes to spreadsheets, and it would be a happy task for me to put together a google docs spreadsheet that whomever the appropriate committee members are have access to, so that the usernames.. oh god, too hard to explain.. like this-

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when someone joins, you put in their details, and then when someone pays the treasurer fills in the paid date (cos they can hopefully match the account name).

then whoever is in charge of reminding members when their payment is due for renewal could just sort the data into year order to see who needs emailing that month -

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see, my membership is due for renewal today, but no-one else is in january, so you only need to email a reminder to me

theeeeennnn... as people are paying, and the treasurer notes that they have paid, whoever sends the receipts out can sort it by receipt sent -

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and can easily see who has & hasn't been emailed their receipt, can email them (cos the emails are *right there*), and change the receipt sent box for that person to Yes!

AND you can see at a glance what jobs people have taken on for the Inc, and their emails, all in one place! Accessible anywhere! (but as private as you want ) and you can add any data to it that you like, addresses, phone numbers, whatever

would that help?? (just thinking of the various problems with who has paid, who's been sent their receipt, what's their email, etc etc etc.. the data could all be held in one place that is instantly available, not have to wait for another committee member to get back to you on a thread etc...?? and i can do that for ya..?? (well, i already have )



but the point is, why not make discussions a bit more public where possible? then members can see where they can help & what is going on....??

i'm just really keen to help out & really see stuff happening with MCN promotion, but really can't be a$#ed with all the quorum & minutes & meeting crap

[nova]

oh & google docs would be a really handy place to keep the membership form too, you could even make it public, with the link shared here, so if anyone wants to join they could just download it, fill it in, then email it to the appropriate person..???

[Kaz]

I'm with you on the happy to do stuff but don't want to do meetings and stuff - I always end up forgetting to log in

I somehow get the feeling that the role of TNN is changing. Cloth is more mainstream and we don't seem to be doing the same amount of cloth promotion as we did. Sadly too I'm personally burnt out, last year I tried getting people invloved in sorting an event, but only one or two people committed to helping. I made a decision not to overstress myself with it and consequently nothing was done

Luckily Marsha who now owns Ecobots and Nappyline ran a series of cloth nappy events, but that's a whole different thing when you have a vested financial interest in something. My husband has often commented on the amount of work that I've put into things in the past for someone else to benefit financially and unfortunately I'm starting to feel that I'm running out of passion.

I also feel that a lot of people using the forum have very little interest in cloth promotion/education. I miss the old days.

[Janie]

Cloth nappy stuff is happening, and it is mainstream, and it is not on this forum.

Have a look here for example http://www.facebook.com/#!/ClothNappyWeek
NZ page, 1000 likers, competitions, organisation, irl events....

[nova]

So that is Kate right? So umm... WHY aren't we working with that???

when i saw people nominating their babies to 'be the face' i thought it was an australian based thing, cos surely if it was in NZ we'd be involved somehow

[Janie]

So that is Kate right? So umm... WHY aren't we working with that???

when i saw people nominating their babies to 'be the face' i thought it was an australian based thing, cos surely if it was in NZ we'd be involved somehow

Possibly because it doesn't need TNN at all in the slightest, why would they want to complicate something that is working for them? There were cloth nappy events last year, I attended one and posted a thread about on here, and it completely passed TNN (in any shape or form) by.

[Amethyst]

There were issues a while ago with TNN wanting to adopt the Australian real nappy week, while pretty much all the retailers were promoting the international real nappy week. I think Kate might have been disappointed with how it was handled by the board at the time (as myself and several other retailers I spoke to were as well might I add).

[Kaz]

The Nappy retailers were more than happy with the International Real Nappy Week dates and TNNers seemed to prefer the Australian dates and seemed to part company in the organisation of things.

To some extent it makes more sense for retailers to be promoting their products seperately to TNN but the combined effort and unity makes things easier.

[Janie]

To some extent it makes more sense for retailers to be promoting their products seperately to TNN but the combined effort and unity makes things easier.

But if the retailers are doing promotion and have the following, why would TNN be trying to do it too/as well?
Is there any need for 'independant' promotion, given the vast number of products, brands, facebook pages, retailers? It isn't that hard to find information about cloth nappies any more, nor is it is unusual. I know of heaps of people in my little town using cloth and they are all getting the information and products from somewhere (not TNN).

[Claire]

see, my membership is due for renewal today, but no-one else is in january, so you only need to email a reminder to me

theeeeennnn... as people are paying, and the treasurer notes that they have paid, whoever sends the receipts out can sort it by receipt sent -

just on this.. the docs are in google docs. Leanne should be able to give you access

We changed the membership awhile back so that it just went yearly before the agm. We didn't have an agm last year so technically TNN doesn't have any paid members as all our memberships ran out.

[Kaz]

To some extent it makes more sense for retailers to be promoting their products seperately to TNN but the combined effort and unity makes things easier.

But if the retailers are doing promotion and have the following, why would TNN be trying to do it too/as well?
Is there any need for 'independant' promotion, given the vast number of products, brands, facebook pages, retailers? It isn't that hard to find information about cloth nappies any more, nor is it is unusual. I know of heaps of people in my little town using cloth and they are all getting the information and products from somewhere (not TNN).

It's part of why we were set up, to educate and support people with their choice to use cloth. We may need to reassess how this is done, but I don't think we should do nothing just because someone else is doing it too.

I personally think we need to help educate help agencies and facilitate programmes to aid lower income families into using cloth for the money saving aspects.

[Janie]

It's part of why we were set up, to educate and support people with their choice to use cloth. We may need to reassess how this is done, but I don't think we should do nothing just because someone else is doing it too.

I personally think we need to help educate help agencies and facilitate programmes to aid lower income families into using cloth for the money saving aspects.

There are quite a few low cost nappy options readily available, and a number of places where second hand nappies can be picked up cheaply and hire kits trialled. Even my teeny rural council has intro packs of mcn subsidised (because of Kate and her businesses).

I think if TNN is calling for volunteers, then TNN needs to be quite clear on what it is for, and whether there is actually a need for it. I personally wonder if there is a need for the advocacy role outside of the forum... is education and support for using cloth necessary in the mcn world of 2012? There are plenty of facebook pages for exactly that, and they don't need to be an 'inc'.

[nova]

There were issues a while ago with TNN wanting to adopt the Australian real nappy week, while pretty much all the retailers were promoting the international real nappy week. I think Kate might have been disappointed with how it was handled by the board at the time (as myself and several other retailers I spoke to were as well might I add).

any reason why we can't make it so this year? just because something didn't happen or work in the past doesn't mean it can't now! (let's not bicker over 'oo killed 'oo... )

janie, I'm not personally thinking that tnn needs to run separate events as well as those or anything, but perhaps we could support them via promotion on our website, using any spare advertising spots etc, perhaps they could have some tnn flyers/posters at events in exchange.. no need to double up, but we can support each other in what we do best facebook pages don't have the easily accessible massive archives of helpful information that we do either...

[Kaz]

Should I put my hand up to talk to Kate and get all the relevant info into one space and we can start from there?

[posh]

There were issues a while ago with TNN wanting to adopt the Australian real nappy week, while pretty much all the retailers were promoting the international real nappy week. I think Kate might have been disappointed with how it was handled by the board at the time (as myself and several other retailers I spoke to were as well might I add).

To be honest, I can't remember what happened here - can someone remind me

but perhaps we could support them via promotion on our website,

The main page on the website hardly ever gets updated. Most of the information there is quite out of date Whatever TNN decides to do, it MUST look after the main website and keep it up to date. I realise people are very busy, but I just feel that it is the first point of call for anyone googling cloth nappies - and you never get a second chance to make a good first impression Not everyone is going to want to go through to the forum (where the bulk of our information is).

TNN is for nappy advocacy - so it makes sense that they support or co-ordinate with Kate and Cloth Nappy Week - Kate and Cloth Nappy Week are also for cloth nappy advocacy - we should all be working toward the common goal