Whatsap for a club?
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Discussion

gotoPzero

Original Poster:

20,792 posts

219 months

Monday 19th December 2022
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I am looking at how to set up a group for a club.

It would be used for general updates, emergency messages and invitations.

Is this reasonable use for this? I have never set up a group before?

Is it possible to have say 3 or 4 admins and have everyone else as read only?

I dont want it to descend into noise as some of the messages could be very important.

Currently this is done by email using a mailer but its slow (in that not everyone checks their email often) and only a couple of people have access so unless you can get hold of one of those two you cant get a message sent so there can be a delay of a day or two which is not much use.

Any advice from anyone? My other thought is SMS like text local, but there is a cost and also limited to just a text no photos or video.

Funk

27,708 posts

239 months

Monday 19th December 2022
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Is everyone who'll be in it happy with their mobile numbers all being shared with each other?

gotoPzero

Original Poster:

20,792 posts

219 months

Monday 19th December 2022
quotequote all
Funk said:
Is everyone who'll be in it happy with their mobile numbers all being shared with each other?
It would be an "opt in" situation.

I would have thought 90% of members would want to be in the group.


Brainpox

4,319 posts

181 months

Monday 19th December 2022
quotequote all
WhatsApp (on iOS at least) recently launched Communities. You can set up an announcement group which only admins can post to and then additional group chats if needed. It’s quite new so don’t know if it’s fully featured yet, but might be what you want.

paulrockliffe

16,592 posts

257 months

Monday 19th December 2022
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Microsoft have also added a load of stuff to Teams for personal use that I think put it ahead of WhatsApp for this sort of stuff, though WhatsApp ahs better buy-in with users generally, which may be more important.

arcturus

1,498 posts

293 months

Monday 19th December 2022
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Brainpox said:
WhatsApp (on iOS at least) recently launched Communities. You can set up an announcement group which only admins can post to and then additional group chats if needed. It’s quite new so don’t know if it’s fully featured yet, but might be what you want.
It is available on Android as well.

deckster

9,631 posts

285 months

Monday 19th December 2022
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WhatsApp is practically perfect for this. Pretty much every social & sporting group I belong to has a corresponding WhatsApp group and we'd be lost without them.

sjg

7,680 posts

295 months

Monday 19th December 2022
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Even outside Communities you can have multiple admins of a group and set so only they can change settings and/or post to the group.

It's pretty much the default for my kids' school stuff (parent-run groups for each year) and sports things.

croyde

26,411 posts

260 months

Monday 19th December 2022
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We have various ones at work for different depts and a new one is always set up for every freelance job I do.

Same for streets or estates you live on. My estate one is great for people giving away free furniture, reporting a badly parked car or a missing cat.

gotoPzero

Original Poster:

20,792 posts

219 months

Monday 19th December 2022
quotequote all
OK thanks it sounds good I will look into it cheers guys.

GliderRider

2,931 posts

111 months

Monday 19th December 2022
quotequote all
For urgent matters they are a good way of keeping people informed, and getting consensus quickly between committee meetings.

The danger is that those with plenty of time on their hands end up in long-winded conversations whilst the ones with lives and jobs get sick of reading the seemingly endless discussions, and those who can't join in at the time get left behind by the conversation before they have had an opportunity to contribute.

For a club committee it really needs to be 'everyone or no one' on the group. Otherwise the Whatsapp group end up a clique and the others end up finding that decisions which concern them are effectively done and dusted before they are even aware of the issue.

gotoPzero

Original Poster:

20,792 posts

219 months

Monday 19th December 2022
quotequote all
GliderRider said:
For urgent matters they are a good way of keeping people informed, and getting consensus quickly between committee meetings.

The danger is that those with plenty of time on their hands end up in long-winded conversations whilst the ones with lives and jobs get sick of reading the seemingly endless discussions, and those who can't join in at the time get left behind by the conversation before they have had an opportunity to contribute.

For a club committee it really needs to be 'everyone or no one' on the group. Otherwise the Whatsapp group end up a clique and the others end up finding that decisions which concern them are effectively done and dusted before they are even aware of the issue.
It would really be one way comms tbh. Which it sounds like is possible, so I am going to look at setting it up.