NEW PROCEDURE FOR FOR SALE AND WANTED ADS
Many of you who do not read the monthly newsletters may not be aware that the Club Secretary is no longer sending out For Sale notices via email. In the past few years, the number of notices going out has increased dramatically and has become a great deal of work for the Secretary. We have also had repeated issues with members marking the BGC email address as “junk mail” or “spam” because they do not want to get the For Sale notices. The problem is, when a member labels our email address as SPAM or JUNK mail, their browser automatically remembers this label and they no longer receive ANY emails from the club, including important updates from the Board and your renewal invoices for dues.
This has resulted in a logistical mess for the club treasurer and secretary getting calls from upset members during annual renewals who didn’t get a dues notice, and we have even had members dropped from the roles because we had no way to contact them. To solve this, we have now gone to a website-based system for ads where members can place their own notices for For Sale and Wanted items, browse ads placed by others, and even see pictures of items being sold. You will find these ads on the FORUMS area of your personal MEMBERS ONLY page. It is fairly self-explanatory to use, but below are the detailed instructions for how use the page if you need them. The default setting is for all members to receive these emails when an item is posted, but if you don’t want them, you can easily OPT OUT with the click of one button (see instructions below).
INSTRUCTIONS: The default setting for the forum is now for members to be “OPTED IN”/SUBSCRIBED to each of the 4 Forums main pages (For Sale, Wanted, Lost & Found and Virtual Suggestion Box). If you don’t want to get these email notices when an item is posted, simply click on the orange UNSUBSCRIBE button on the pages at any time (you can hit the button to re-subscribe later if you change your mind).
2. When you click on one of the 4 category listings under “FORUMS” (For Sale, Wanted, Lost & Found, or Club Suggestion Box) on your personal profile page, a window will open showing any current postings and topics. You can click on the ones that interest you to read each post and reply to the person who placed it directly. Below, you will see a sample of how to “Create New Topic” in For Sale.
3. To place an ad, first, give your post a title in the “Topic Title” box, then go down to the box below and write in a good description of what you want to sell (or buy), include your contact name, phone number and email. You can even post pictures now by clicking on ATTACHMENTS, “CHOOSE FILE” at the bottom of the page to upload a jpeg picture file. After typing your ad, be sure to hit the “NOTIFY ME” button just below the description window so you will see replies, and also CLICK ON THE orange “SUBMIT” button at the bottom. Ads will be posted to the website and go out in emails once they are approved by a moderator (usually within 48 hours) and removed after 30 days. If you want an ad removed sooner, please email the club secretary at BGCNCSecretary@gmail.com and we will pull it off the site for you. Here are some helpful screen shots to get you started:
