News

KAR/BCRR News Rundown Special

Important Policy Change on KAR/BCRR Yahoo! Group

Dear Running Friends,

Continue to enjoy our Yahoo! Group communications by joining Kalamazoo Area Runners and renewing membership annually! The club has historically maintained an open Yahoo! Group email membership policy, allowing both members and nonmembers to join and remain on our list. This practice enabled us to promote events, programs and other running related communications to a larger audience. At the April 2008 meeting, the KAR/BCRR Board unanimously voted to restrict Yahoo! Group membership to active club members effective August 1, 2008. The reasons for this change are threefold:

1. Over the past two years, the need to generate communications to the general membership has grown significantly. The addition of Race and Service Provider Discounts and the corresponding member code, as well as the introduction of member surveys and general club business communications has resulted in the need for a member exclusive email distribution. In the past, this open policy has required us to build separate member email lists when sending member only communications. Transitioning the Yahoo! Group to a membership exclusive database will require the maintenance of only one email distribution system.
2. There has been a significant increase in the number of spammers adding themselves to the KAR/BCRR Yahoo! Group and immediately attempting to send spam. Restricting the group exclusively to members will block spammers from joining and accessing our distribution
3. Based on the member survey, great value is placed on the communications disseminated via the KAR/BCRR Yahoo! Group. Access to this distribution is a benefit we believe enhances the value of club membership and adds value to our community partners.

The KAR/BCRR Board cordially invites nonmember running community friends currently on the Yahoo! Group distribution to join KAR/BCRR. Membership information and a registration form can be found here. Members are sent several reminders via email before their membership is due to expire. If you are unsure of your current membership status, please contact Julie Wojtaszek at membership_kar@yahoo.com. Nonmember friends will remain on the distribution until August 1, 2008, after which we will remove email addresses from the distribution if they do not have an active Club Membership. The Rundown and other KAR/BCRR communications will continue to be available to nonmember running friends via our website, www.kalamazooarearunners.com.

KAR/BCRR often receives requests from other organizations and groups within the running community to disseminate information to our membership. KAR/BCRR remains committed to serving the running community as a whole by promoting community events and programs upon request as we have in the past. The Board will be implementing a few new guidelines for non-club communications and will be in touch with our contacts to provide more detail on these changes.

Thank you for your continued support, understanding and commitment to the Kalamazoo Area Runners as we implement this important change to our communications system. Questions on this policy revision may be directed to Bonnie Sexton at besrun2003@yahoo.com.

Respectfully Yours,

The KAR/BCRR Executive Board