Membership distribution

[FranklinLeicester]

There has been talk recently about members\' names and addresses and whether such information should be disclosed to others for mutual benefit. Personally, I have no problem with this - my name, address, phone number and e.mail address have been published in Pitstop for several years as organiser of SEMS. My interest in this just now is sparked by the poor turn-out at recent SEMS meetings, Several staunch supporters have died or drifted away in the last year or two and at the last meeting when I was on holiday only one member turned up. I am curious to know how many members live within say 40 miles of Duddington, near Peterborough. I know that in the 12 years I have been a member the addresses of new members in Pitstop in my area (Leicestershire) could be counted on the fingers of one hand. I don\'t need to know who lives within the 40 mile radius, just how many out of the 500 plus membership. If I suupied the relevant post codes appertaining to the area, could this be done?

[Mike]

Re: Membership distribution

Franklin
Not sure how you can find out - I suspect I live within a 40 mile radius of Doddington, and have a PE11 post code. I have often thought about coming over and see what you get up to, but still have not finished my Cabrio!
Mike

[stevejgreen]

Re: Membership distribution

There is potentially a problem of publishing the full addresses of members in the public domain without individuals having the opportunity to opt out, as you might do with the Phone Book. There is however no problem with publishing the first part of the Post Code as it does not disclose \'personal\' information only a general location that could cover many square miles.
Many of as already publish our location on this forum with home town or county.

There should be no problem with the membership secretary providing limited personal data privately when it is to be used in the interest of the club, as Franklin would like.

Depending as the format of the new forum, we as members may have more control over the information disclosed. But this would only apply to those who actually use the forum, and many will choose to opt out.

It\'s a difficult one to manage as has been demonstrated already on this forum, and we forget just how much info is already available via Google and the like.

[keith_h]

Re: Membership distribution

Hi Franklin

To get a feel for where the membership is for the LE-JOG relay route I created a map from last years membership records (and caused a great deal of upset in the process)

I subsequently found a better mapping site and came up with:


http://batchgeo.com/map/97d07d8dedbb9a190448dd1e1e1c0577


To EDIT the map options & data, click the URL below:
http://batchgeo.com/map/edit/?780230&d=5edcd2a014c8c3a5d0755ddfb9827c9f

Simply click on the red dots (the numbers are the number of members in that region)

It was taken from last years membership data. Don\'t forget that this includes folks with their cars under construction or off the road so the numbers don\'t necessarily reflect the number of folk that might turn up to SEMS

[tim hawkesworth]

Re: Membership distribution

Keith, Thank you for responding as above, Steve, thank you also for your input, setting out the full picture.Franklin, Can you e mail me direct with postcodes/towns of the likely addresses that you wish to target and I will be happy to work with you in diceminating information I am not presently allowed to drivefor medical reasons so have plenty of time to fit this work in around Hospital visits

[stevejgreen]

Re: Membership distribution

Thats a good effort Keith, cant see how anyone can complain at that.
Is it not possible to use a current membership list?
By definition the database is bound to be innacurate with annual memberships during which time cars may be bought and sold etc etc.

The real value of the data is to be able to put names to locations, even if quite non specific locations, but that was the cause of the problem!

[FranklinLeicester]

Re: Membership distribution

Thanks for your interest in this matter chaps. I have taken up Tim\'s offer of help by sending him a list of about 50 post codes relating to the catchment area. As there seems to quite an interest in this topic, perhaps the committee could consider further discussion of publishing contact details of consenting members.

[daniels917]

Re: Membership distribution

Hi Franklin sorry i havn\'t got down to SEMS for a while but lots have happened, including a carrear change etc hope to be able to meet again soon I am in PE20 less than 30 miles away

[gaddbrose]

Re: Membership distribution

Hi Franklin. I see that you have sent a number of post codes to Tim H. for further info etc. Will you please note that Tim has been admitted to hospital for treatment, and will not be in a position to deal with your correspondence, until his release. Please be patient as I am sure it will be dealt with as soon as possible.

[keith_h]

Re: Membership distribution

Hi Franklin,

In Tim\'s absence (and let\'s hope it is a short one) you might like to try putting that list of post codes into the edit address I posted above.

http://batchgeo.com/map/edit/?780230&d=5edcd2a014c8c3a5d0755ddfb9827c9f

You simply delete all the entries shown on the page, insert your post codes and let it rip.

If you have any problems get in touch

Keith

[FranklinLeicester]

Re: Membership distribution

Keith, thanks for your suggestion. As I am a bit dim on the finer pints of computer use I had to defer to my wife who understood what you were getting at but could not make the system work for her. I think I'll wait for Tim's recovery to resolve this one.