Push Bikes continues to have committee meetings during the pandemic, but they are now online using Zoom. You are welcome to join us (they are on the first Thursday of every month), but you would need to contact us first in order to receive the Zoom invite,
There is something that comes up fairly often in the committee meetings. It always goes along the lines of "I've been contacted by a Mrs Trellis of Northfield about Push Bikes, but I've no idea how or why I've received it, and I've no idea how to reply". The end result is always the same; Mrs Trellis doesn't get a reply. We think the messages come via Facebook. However, for various, overlapping political, moral, philosophical, and technical reasons, Push Bikes committee members are very uneasy about Facebook, as a company and a platform. Personally I refuse to have a Facebook account. So if you have sent a message via Facebook, sorry, but it's probably fallen into a black hole. By far and away the best way to contact us is via the contact form on our website. The web server will then send an email to us with your email address, so we can reply.
Although posts on the Push Bikes website appear on Facebook, and we monitor and value your comments, the transfer is automatic. That transfer works using the RSS news feed on the website, which you can use yourself to receive direct notifications in your news reader, emailer, or no doubt other applications. A couple of committee members do provide some manual input to Facebook, but one of them will be leaving the country later in the year, and none of the remaining committee members wants to take the baton. However, we would like to improve the conversation, and one committee member volunteered at the last meeting to improve our presence on Twitter, which has gone awry of late. Our website does facilitate comments, but that feature is currently switched off, because we lack sufficient active members who are familiar with the technology. One advantage of Facebook is that the platform takes some of the burden of policing commenters. The internet is a great resource for legitimate users, but dealing with spammers and trolls is a real problem for volunteer-run organisations. One of my first tasks when taking on the Push Bikes server was to plough my way through thousands of emails looking for the legitimate ones. Most of the emails were from people offering themselves as "Russian brides", quite a few of whom appeared to be more in need of a plumber than a cycling campaigner. The contact form put paid to all that.
So apologies if you you sent a message and didn't get a reply. Please try again using the contact form, especially if you would like to volunteer! However, if you want to offload a Russian bride, I'm good thanks. No, really, don't trouble yourself. Sigh. Why Russian? Is it something to do with potholes? Why "bride"? Call me old-fashioned, but doesn't that normally involve getting to know someone first? Nope (shakes head), don't get it.
