Meeting Title: The Future of Meet Norwich - Minutes Purpose: To consider platform options for the continuation of Meet Norwich Date: Tuesday, 30 April 2019. Place: Sprowston Sports and Social Club Time: 19:30 to 22:00 hours Attendees: - Facilitator: Mark Johnson - Steering Group: Sharon Gabriel, Sandra Melton, Michael Kaye, Martyn Freear and Graham Bygrave - Minutes Secretary: Debbie Barr - 93 Meet Norwich Members (as per signing in sheet) Agenda Item Brief summary of discussion – facts noted Who Description (initials) 1. Welcome and Mark Johnson welcomed everyone to the meeting and gave MJ Introductions his background as being one of the very early Meet Norwich members. Mark introduced the Steering Group members individually and thanked the wider membership present. Actions/Decisions • None Agenda Item Brief summary of discussion – facts noted Who Description (initials) 2. Apologies for Andy Hendon Anne Barbara Cannell MJ Absence Bryan C Cindy Burgess David Elsie Griffin Jacqui G Jane Hale Janice Jenny Smith Jill Jonathan Lindsey Smith Judith Jul Humble Julie Weston Kate Massey Michael Mike N Nancy Kemp Roger D Sharon Hayes Susan C Teresa Tina P Valerie Nevill Vicki G Actions/Decisions • None Page No : 1 Agenda Item Brief summary of discussion – facts noted Who Description (initials) 3. Which • Why we can’t use Ning: MJ Platform - For the past 11 years Meet Norwich has run on Ning 2.0 Should Meet but increasingly problems occur (including data Norwich run breaches), which are not being resolved in a timely on manner. Ning isn’t safe: online forums indicate that users have had access to other members’ accounts. Ning wanted Meet Norwich to migrate to their new platform, Ning 3.0. User forums have highlighted problems with data migration to Ning 3 and the stability and reliability of the new version. • Facebook: SG - To access Meet Norwich via a Facebook Group you would need to have a personal Facebook account. - Personal accounts can be privatised, i.e.: you can edit your account to authorise who can and cannot see your posts; you have full control on anything another person might try to post to your page; you have privacy settings to authorise who sees your list of friends. - You can minimise traffic and timeline content by not accepting many/any friend requests but just use your Facebook account as a tool to gain access to the Meet Norwich Group page. Alternatively, you could build your own personal list of friends and either follow their posts or not by clicking “unfollowing” against the friend’s name (this does not alter the friendship status). - Facebook Groups are run by Administrators and Moderators, who are responsible for accepting/refusing requests received. In addition: Administrators have the facility to manage everything, including the Group’s settings. Moderators are responsible for daily tasks, ie respond to queries and add/delete comments. If over 250 group members, Administrators and Moderators have access to an ‘Audience Insight Tool’ which can analyse daily member usage and time of use, detail the group’s top contributors, geographics and demographics of members, daily member numbers, ascertain which members are active/inactive, plus much more. Page No : 2 - The on-line ‘private’ test page (not visible via searches) was shared and explained: Group chats are an option. Administrators/Moderators can pin announcements to the top of the page. Private messages are easily available. Events would follow a similar format to Meet Norwich, with photos uploaded alongside event. A calendar view is also available showing all events posted. Different activity groups can be added or linked. Should Facebook be the preferred option, it would be set up as a ‘closed’ group, enabling visibility when searching. - Negatives found during in-depth research: Hacking and security issues have been reported, however, some of this could be due to individuals being drawn in and clicking on click bait, fake news, playing games, etc, which can harvest personal information and can open doors to spam-filled websites with malicious content. All events will be shown on the Meet Norwich Group page, regardless of invitees. Private events can be posted via your own personal page. Discussion within forums highlights issues encountered by Groups that have events with large numbers of invitees (500+) which can be picked up by Facebook as spam, therefore, event advertising limit must be under 500. Facebook also picks up on numbers who register to attend events and if people send a large number of invites which others are just not responding to, Facebook will limit invitees even further for a short period of time. There is no guarantee that every member would receive a personal invite, however, the event would still be posted for all to see. Questions were received and answered as follows: ALL - How much access the group would have to personal information is dependent upon the settings on your own page. - You do not have to be an administrator to create an event, which can be undertaken by any member. - Facebook took over WhatsApp and Instagram – founders of both sites have not honoured security. Page No : 3 - The attendee lists for each event can be seen by all members. Private events should not be advertised on the group page (also bear in mind that your friends can see events posted on your own page depending on your privacy settings). - ‘Messenger’ would most likely be required to facilitate communication one-to-one. - Membership would be monitored the same as current practice - application and acceptance by administrator. There is the opportunity on Facebook to ask prospective members further questions. - Administrators and moderators would be required, should this be the preferred platform. - Sharon explained the difference between the private group (where you would not be able to find Meet Norwich when searching) and a closed group (which would be visible). • Meetup MJ - Established after the 9/11 attacks to bring people together. Currently 225,000 groups across 80 countries. - Event attendance can be limited automatically. When numbers have been reached, anyone registering attendance will automatically transfer to a waiting list. - In addition to members registering their own attendance at an event, they can also input their own guests. - A mobile phone app is available. - The on-line activity area was shared, which included venue maps, attendees, photos. - A calendar view is available. - To add events, members must click on ‘schedule’ to add the information. There are several optional settings towards the end of the page before the event can be published and, if required, a separate invitation notification can be sent to all members/selected members. - 58 people have already applied to join the new Meet Norwich Group which was established for this meeting. They are all currently held in pending. Organisers approve applications based on the answers received to two questions. - Message boards and a poll area are also available. Questions were received and answered as follows: ALL - Members cannot post private events; however, they can invite specific friends to a personal event. Page No : 4 - You have to join Meetup prior to joining individual groups (including Meet Norwich). - Every member would need to upload a profile picture. - Platform cost is approximately £138 per annum. - David has recently had a cull and Meet Norwich membership is currently 526. - Existing Meet Norwich ‘Ning’ data will be destroyed. No migrating of data is permissible. - To join Meetup you need to provide your name (forename and initial/full surname), email address (definitely required) and the first part of your postcode. - Prospective members from outside the county would not be approved, however, if they are currently a Meet Norwich member an exception to this rule would be considered. - Negatives, slight dilution of Meet Norwich as all groups can be seen. • GoSocial: GB - Graham Bygrave gave his background; Committee Member for IVC prior to joining City Socialising where he was a host for a little while until it disbanded. He established GoSocial about six years ago. - The platform used is open source software on a dedicated server. - Newsfeed is the first view when accessing the membership area, which shows the most recent ten comments. - A calendar of events is available which can also be shown as a list view, in date order. - Events can be private or public. Numbers can be limited but an automatic waiting list is not available. - Name, postcode, date of birth and interest questions are required to be answered when applying. - Members become ‘verified members’ once they have been met in person by Graham. Only verified members can put events on. Verified members must have their photograph on their page. - There are currently 955 members with no membership limit. - Voluntary membership donations fund GoSocial. Questions were received and answered as follows: ALL - There is no definitive timescale between application and membership approval. Page No : 5 - There is no upper age limit although most members are aged between 30-50 and you must be 18 or over to apply. Membership age breakdown is currently: Teens : 01% 20s : 18% 30s : 28% 40s : 26% 50s : 20% 60s+ : 08% - The average contribution is around £5 per month per active member. - The running cost is around £50 per month which covers the dedicated server, domain name, backup plan, etc. - The differences between the groups should be embraced. Everyone is invited to join GoSocial but the Meet Norwich name could not be maintained. This option would be a merging of one group into another. Actions/Decisions • Check with David (Meet Norwich) to ensure all personal details / profiles are deleted automatically in one go from Ning and that members do not need to individually delete. MJ Ask David to put a message on the Meet Norwich website prior to closure.