TVT Communications

In an effort to improve communication and information, both to and between TVT members, the committee would like to take advantage of more electronic means, as well as the traditional paper based approach. Approximately 80% of the membership have provided an e-mail address when submitting their membership forms, but very few of you are actively using the new website facilities, so we would like to encourage you do so more frequently, if you can.

Please follow the procedure below where at all possible and lets all try to improve inter club communications.

1. Forums: All club communications should be via the forums in the first instance. The committee and all members should post any message they wish to share with the club directly into the forums and should encourage others to comment or join the discussion on that subject. For members that do not have access to the forums all messages can be sent to info@thamesvalleytriathletes.co.uk  which will be forwarded to Nick for inclusion on the website or to Penny for circulation via email if Nick is on holiday or not available for any reason. Confidential matters should be posted to the 'TVT Confidential' section in the forums which is reserved for members only.

2. Website: On a daily basis Nick will check the forums and info@thamesvalleytriathletes.co.uk  and highlight any important messages on the frontpage of our website: www.thamesvalleytriathletes.co.uk . Nick will also upload any attachments when requested via the above email address. This will ensure important messages are not buried in the forums and give members a single point to quickly check what's new each day.

3. TVT weekly e-newsletter: On a weekly basis Nick will produce an e-newsletter which Penny will email out to all TVT members who have supplied an email address. This e-newsletter will include headlines and links to the latest items on our website and in the forums. Members can then choose which articles to read. No other emails will be sent out to members unless there is an important last minute announcement, such as pool closures etc.. This will reduce email traffic from the club and encourage people to visit the forums to add their comments.

4. TVT newsletter: On a monthly basis Kingsley will produce a newsletter which will be posted to all TVT members. This will include a selection of items from the e-newsletter and any relevant documents downloaded from the website. This will reduce Kingsley's workload, ensure the newsletter has up to date info and enable all members without email or a computer to gain access to club information.

Forum Info

The TVT forums were established to give TVT club members an online environment to chat, share ideas, organise ad-hoc training sessions, and generally to have fun and help improve communication in the club.

 There are currently 5 forums:

General forum: this is the main club forum and should be used for most topics. To encourage debate this forum is completely open so you don't even have to register to use it. This will change later though so please register early to avoid disappointment.

Classifieds / For Sale: Do you have any items to sale? Post a message in this forum. To encourage debate this forum is completely open so you don't even have to register to use it. This will change later though so please register early to avoid disappointment.

Events: Post information re events or races you're interested in. To encourage debate this forum is completely open so you don't even have to register to use it. This will change later though so please register early to avoid disappointment.

Training / Coaching: Post any messages re training or coaching in this forum. To encourage debate this forum is completely open so you don't even have to register to use it. This will change later though so please register early to avoid disappointment.

TVT Confidential: This is for TVT internal matters only. Only registered members of TVT can view and post to this forum. You will only view this forum after registering and logging into the forums (which takes less than 1 min)

Forum Registration is very straight forward and should take no more than a minute. Simply click on the 'register' link and fill in the registration form. At this stage if you would prefer not to make your email address public simply specify this in the registration page and this will remain confidential. Users will still be able to send you a private message (pm) but your address will remain hidden and you will simply be sent a message from the forum administrator asking you to check your forum inbox if you have new mail.

 Once you submit your registration this will be sent to the forum administrator to be checked against the TVT membership list. This process may take a day or two, but will ensure only club members register and avoid the problems other forums have with hackers, spammers, etc.. So make sure you register now, even if you don't want to post any messages at the moment, to save any later delays.

 This is an online forum and unlike yahoo egroups, no messages posted to the group will be forwarded to your inbox which should save any time sorting through mails that are not relevant to you. Instead all messages will remain online which does mean you'll need to pop in to the forum on a regular basis to check what's new.

 Last point, please use your full name when registering to avoid any delays in checking our membership records or email me with the username you are registering, including your full name and details in the email so these can be checked against our records.

 Once you are registered and activated revisit the forum, sign in and away you go.

 Go straight to the forums and start by clicking here

 If you are still concerned about the registration process then take a look at this movie which takes you through each step, apart from the TVT membership approval step which is included in our forums.