Is it me or is Local GN divisive?

And perhaps it doesn't matter that GN develops.

When it started there were hardly any negative or combative posts. As everyone became more familiar with the personalities of others, there were stronger arguments which still kept to the subject and did not descend into abuse. Should we reurn to no-one disagreeing with anyone else? Are controversial subjects a no-no?

So long as we continue to repect one another's right to have and express an opinion without ridicule or personal abuse, whether we restrict the contact to words or extend it to meeting in face to face is irrelevant.

I certainly wasn't being critical, and I'm sure Ella wasn't. We were just giving our opinions and I'm not inclined to defend or expand upon mine.

I dont see a change in posts since the meet ups began, I throughly enjoy meeting other members, but often people have other things happening in their lives and Gn has to take a back seat.
But I do think that some people prefer to keep a low profile when things get heated.

Back to the OP - I don't know which meetup you saw that annoyed you, *Gracesmum" but if it was an Edinburgh one the reason it started with "Some of us are meeting . . ." was to encourage those who are new joiners, or thinking of joining, and might feel a bit inhibited at being the first to say "Yes! Ill be there" to a proposed meeting.

One of the purposes of the Local sites and regular meetings is to encourage local people who are isolated for one reason or another to make contact. If they are invited to come to something which already has a few people at it, who will be welcoming, they would feel encouraged. That was the reasoning, anyway.

Then you won't mind others having different opinions, Ana. There are many ways of looking at things.

Of course I don't Elegran, I don't think I have ever implied anything of the sort!

I've read through this thread and conclude from it that gransnet is not cast in stone, but flexible, innovative, encouraging, enabling and constantly changing subtly as it grows, though with the same core principles it ever had. I conclude, from remarks that no-one has lost out in any way, that there isn't a problem.

I wish I could attend meet ups. Being a newcomer to a country area where the nearest town (twenty miles away) doesn't appear to even have a U3A is very isolating. I am babysitting GD 17 months four days a week, sometimes five, so I am quite restricted. I am taking her to a play group tomorrow where apparently there are three other grandmothers who take their grandchildren. I think you all are so fortunate to have the opportunity to meet up with other women.

Local GN is not diluting Norfolk or Norwich. I don't think there's anyone else here!

I think it was a Northern meet up actually (not that I would have been going there anyway) - it just gave the impression like there are different levels of communication - groups who talk to each other but not necessarily to the wider GN as a whole. Maybe my imagination, but GN no longer feels like a homogeneous forum for everybody - more of a network of cells who interact within each one. Perhaps the local forums are ideal for people in specific areas to meet up with each other, but the Midlands meet-up which I (and I hope others) enjoyed back in October, covered a much wider geographical area than would be covered by any local forum. I would not have ever met Galen or Tegan or OGM if we had restricted ourselves to "local".I am also seeing names who do not appear to be posting on general topic threads (OK everybody's prerogative) so again, a feeling of 2-tier membership.
Just thinking aloud.

Which Northern meet up grace ? The last we had was for absent leaving and she threw it open to anyone who would like to come.

We're planning a NW meet-up which would cover quite a number of local groups, but I think that's what people want.

I'm finding this thread quite strange! Surely it is a matter of choice if people want to meet up, whether via the main GN site or the Local sites? All the get-togethers are open to any who wish to go along. I've enjoyed going to Edinburgh (quite a long way from where I live) by choice and also more local meet-ups.

We are all individuals and presumably may do as we please?

Now I feel I am being really petty!! It was actually North Yorks which seemed to be all planned for about the day after and just sounded as if it had all been fixed up without any reference to the national forum. Oh I will shut up about it as we don't have a local forum around here and even if we did I am not sure I could cope with checking posts in 2 places - it would be like the multiple thread syndrome. I do remember the general invite to Absent's do and was really sorry it was too far for me to get to - but nice to be included!

There will always be different levels of communication in any group or organisation grace. If a new factory or office opened for example, to start with all the new staff would chat fairly equally amongst themselves. Over time, that would change as people found they shared common experiences or viewpoints.
Gransnet has evolved as any group does.

Ideally grace I think the meet-ups should be shown on the GN site as well as local sites then the situation you mention should not arise

The north-west covers North Wales, Cumbria, Lancashire, Cheshire, Derbyshire, Merseyside and Greater Manchester. To post on all the local forums within each area would be quite a task, but I've posted the invitation for our next meet-up in May on a few of them. Anyone visiting from out of those areas would, of course, be welcome to join us. We've had Gransnetters from Scotland, Bristol and France to previous meet-ups, as well as some GNHQers. Sounds pretty inclusive to me.

grace the North Yorks editor is yayajen and when the local sites became live she set a thread up on that local for a meet up and a few of us from the usual Northern group said we would try to go as we wanted to support them, but I was unable to fit it into the school runs as would be 1 1/2 journey each way, but we had not met yayajen until she came to absent leaving party.

A couple of people mentioned "negative postings" possibly affecting people's participation on GN. What exactly are negative postings?

Any post that does not agree with the previous poster's views!

You invited GNHQers ? well really, like inviting your teacher to come to tea

I think they sort of invited themselves (and were very welcome - certainly not like teacher joining in, AND they paid the drinks bill!) so they could speak to us about starting local Gransnet, and to ask a few people to speak about what they enjoyed about Gransnet, as they were applying for funding.

Dear HQ if you are trying to apply for funding a good argument/pitch would be that Gransnet is used by many that are isolated and by people that would otherwise feel alone. You could also mention the amazing support/educated advise given and received on Gransnet, you could also mention the fact that unlike the SAGA forum, the Gransnet forum always tries to regulate/stop any unpleasantness.

Very best of luck with the funding

They got the funding last year cathy. That led to the local forums being launched recently, after they trained up some new local editors

Oh well that's good, didn't realise thanks