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[spraxyt]

It has been recognised for some time that the current UserGroup Constitution was good in parts but inappropriately bureaucratic and unworkable in others. The structure of the UserGroup was also unclear, particularly to new members. PUG has worked up a 'Rules of Association' document to replace the Constitution in its entirety.

The current draft of this document is appended as the first reply in this topic; comments and suggestions on how it might be improved are invited for the next 7 days. We will update the draft where appropriate as we go along.

What we are now referring to as the 'Full members' will be voting to accept or reject the new Rules in early March 2008.

The PUG FAQs document has been updated in line with the new rules (link). Comments on that are also welcome.

David

[spraxyt]

Link to website Rules of Association

Edit: To ensure this post continues to reference the latest Issue of the Rules the text previously posted in this reply has been replaced by a website link.

[Penny]

The PlusNet UserGroup
Rules of Association

Minimal comments from me simply because about to move house (again  ) and simply no time anywhere.  From a (very) brief glance through:

Such members shall have the right of appeal to the Full members who shall make such arrangements as seems appropriate

(seem?)

In the event that the Facilitator is unable to achieve a Team of appropriate size, or if members do not confirm that offered the current Coordination Team shall resolve the matter in accordance with Rule 4g.

(couldn't follow the sense of the last bit from comma onwards)

Full and Supporting members will revert to Forum membership should they cease to be broadband customers of PlusNet plc or become members of staff.

PUG's now broadband-only?  Why not just "subscription customers" (?)  There must be quite a significant number of PN's customers who are either only dial-up or only hosting or a combination of those two.  Bit disappointed at this development, guys.

Regards,

Penny.

[Penny]

The PUG FAQs document has been updated in line with the new rules (link). Comments on that are also welcome.

again (very) brief comments for sheer lack of time

>>Although PlusNet already openly communicates with its customers through several mediums, PUG is intended as a formal method of getting further assistance from customers the aim of improved services for everyone.

(word missing somewhere?)(or comma after customers, and replace "aim of" with "aim being" ?)

>>different Operating Systems’s (Win9x/Me/XP/NT/2K/2003/Vista, Linux, Mac etc)

(Systems ?)

>>PlusNet or the UserGroup accept no responsibility for any loss of damage

(loss or damage ?)

Penny 

[spraxyt]

Thanks for comments on the Rules and FAQs Penny, mostly related to typos that will be fixed. With regard to those that aren't:

In the event that the Facilitator is unable to achieve a Team of appropriate size, or if members do not confirm that offered the current Coordination Team shall resolve the matter in accordance with Rule 4g.

(couldn't follow the sense of the last bit from comma onwards)

I think there's a comma missing, added in red in the following quote:

In the event that the Facilitator is unable to achieve a Team of appropriate size, or if members do not confirm that offered, the current Coordination Team shall resolve the matter in accordance with Rule 4g.

The "or if members do not confirm that offered" phrase refers to the Team put forward by the Facilitator being rejected by the members when they vote. Is "put forward" better than "offered" (or can anyone suggest a better phrase to describe this)?

Full and Supporting members will revert to Forum membership should they cease to be broadband customers of PlusNet plc or become members of staff.

PUG's now broadband-only?  Why not just "subscription customers" (?)  There must be quite a significant number of PN's customers who are either only dial-up or only hosting or a combination of those two.  Bit disappointed at this development, guys.

Just the wrong word again, it should be "subscription customers".

David

[Penny]

In the event that the Facilitator is unable to achieve a Team of appropriate size, or if members do not confirm that offered, the current Coordination Team shall resolve the matter in accordance with Rule 4g.

The "or if members do not confirm that offered" phrase refers to the Team put forward by the Facilitator being rejected by the members when they vote. Is "put forward" better than "offered" (or can anyone suggest a better phrase to describe this)?

Thanks for the clarification on this. Wd the following wording clarify:

In the event that the Facilitator is unable to achieve a Team of appropriate size, or if Full members disagree with the Team list proposed by the Facilitator, the current Coordination Team shall resolve the matter in accordance with Rule 4g.

"disagree with" could be substituted by "reject" or "have issues with" (or whatever)

Just the wrong word again, it should be "subscription customers".

Reassured

Penny

[bobmilton]

a.   To provide a dynamic, effective and business-like body to work in partnership with PlusNet plc for the benefit of customers within the entire PlusNet community.

This is a noble objective.
Therefore it is important that the very existence of the PUG becomes known to customers of PlusNet. I registered with PUG out of curiosity, following a very inefficient wandering through a website, which as I have on many occasions indicated is very difficult for a novice. (I only bought a laptop in about June 2004 to replace a broken word processor). So I find myself a customer of PlusNet, (by recommendation!), and obviously pretty well totally ignorant of all this forum stuff etc.
What would have helped me would have been a 'welcome pack', which could have explained one or two things. One of which could have been the existence of PUG.
Perhaps then PUG might examine the usefulness of providing advice for newcomers. My caveat is of course it needs to be written in a way that novices can understand.
This is my challenge to PUG !!
Can you provide the necessary welcome in understandable language. I bet that some of the members of PUG will have difficulty in not talking in jargon or using a string of letters or acronyms.

PS
I've just had a look at the website homepage. There are tags which take me to Poland and other exotic places, but it looks as if PUG is off that particular map. Someone must think it is not worth mentioning or not very important.

[spraxyt]

The Rules of Association text has been updated to Issue 1.04 to include the changes suggested by Penny including correction of typos. Thanks for those.

Corrections to the FAQs still to be done.

@Bob

Thanks for your comments; the objective you quoted has been one of the UserGroup's aims since its inception (and that text is in the Constitution that is being replaced by the more practical Rules). PUG is involved with this far more than will be apparent, but there is always more that could be done.

I'm sure this will form an item for consideration by the Coordination Team to be formed once the Rules are in Place, as will the "challenge" you set out.

With regard to not mentioning Poland, as far as I know none of our members are particularly well versed in that country or its language. Perhaps that is something else the Coordination Team need to add to their agenda.

David

[bobmilton]

David,
Sorry, I didn't make myself clear in my reference to the homepage.
What I should have said is that there should be a tag which takes you directly to PUG as there are ones that takes you to 'community' etc.
There seems to be no obvious link. Perhaps that makes a bit more sense.
Bob

[jelv1]

I've commented on that before - try starting from portal.plus.net and see how long it takes you to find a reference to the usergroup without using the search facility (which obviously needs you to know there is a usergroup to search for in the first place!).

It is in there:

Help & Support
Customer Service
The PlusNet Community
The PlusNet Usertools and Usergroup websites

The PlusNet Usergroup

The PlusNet Usergroup (PUG) is an independent group of users from PlusNet, Free-Online and Force9 using the whole range of products and services with a diverse and varied degree of knowledge and expertise.

The group was conceived in April 2004 with the aim of being an officially recognised group of individuals working with each other and with PlusNet to ensure that the products, services, support and facilities are the best that you could ask for.

Launched on 4th October 2004, the Usergroup site is aimed at providing information on the Usergroup's activities, polls on areas to tackle next and progress reports. The site also provides a way of contacting the Usergroup if you feel there is some way that they can help you.

Usergroup home
Find your own way around the Usergroup website.

Usergroup FAQ
Find out more about the history, aims and purpose of the Usergroup.

Contact the Usergroup
Get in touch with the Usergroup if you have any issues or suggestions.

No mention of Metronet.

Usergroup FAQ and Contact the Usergroup are links that 404.

[jelv1]

How about asking Plusnet to put a link to the Usergroup at the end of every newsletter?

[spraxyt]

@bobmilton

Thanks for that clarification. I'd assumed you were referring to the UserGroup homepage and didn't spot any reference to Poland there so was confused. Publicising the UserGroup does need to be addressed, links to the website are provided in the Useful Links sticky post in the Community Support forum.

@jelv1

Thanks for pointing out the FAQs link that needs to be fixed. Edit: now fixed, they are here. The Contact Us link has been disabled as a temporary measure since it was being used as a medium for promoting meat products.

For everyone's information, the Rules of Association are now available here.

David

[MauriceB]

Thanks for the pointer JELV.  The FAQ link should now work again - an unfortunate type when I redid the text as a new page -
as is the 'Contact us' link.  The service provided via the link has been temporarily made unavailable, but the page now contains a message to that effect.

Maurice

[spraxyt]

The consultation period is now concluded. Changes suggested have all been incorporated. Thank you.

The PUG FAQs typos have been corrected and to ensure Reply #1 continues to reference the latest issue of the Rules the text previously posted there has been replaced by a website link (Rules of Association).

A formal vote by the Full members to accept or reject the new Rules will commence on Monday.