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Old 10-03-2014, 07:36 PM   #1
Radio
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Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Fayetteville, GA, USA
Posts: 3,017
Default First Impressions

Along time ago on a forum far away, the late Mike Rimmer asked me to become a moderator, and that began a journey that resulted in the creation of Open Roads Radio.net

That forum was dedicated to RV camping and specifically to the RVs manufactured by a certain company. I got my feet wet in running forums there and later Mike and I started ORR.net. When Mike was diagnosed with cancer he turned ORR.net entirely over to me.

This is a copy of my first post as a forum moderator. I still maintain this philosophy in day to day operations of ORR.net. I'd like to think it shows. And I'd like to think ORR.net is a gateway for those interested in either (or both) ham radio and RV camping, to encourage the wanna-be to be come the in-fact- is, whether RVer or ham operator. That other forum was the encouragement and guiding force in adopting RV camping as my 3rd great social interest.

I would never want ORR.net to discourage anyone from either hobby.

So here's how your beloved admin views Open Roads Radio.net. And hopefully you do, too.

OK, for some reason the powers that be chose to make me a moderator. Let me tell you what I think. (First off, it's sort of like being hit by a meteor on you way out to the mailbox...WHAP!!....ouch, why me??)

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Out side of work and family I only have two social interests, one is my church and the other is my amateur radio group. What they have in common is that they are both actively looking for new people to join and become involved in both. And they are both largely populated by some of the nicest folk you ever met.

When I'm at church, I/we keep our eye peeled looking for that new face that seems just a bit out of place. This my be the first and last time that person ever comes to our (or any other) church. I/we make it a point to make that person feel welcome and at home. "Can we help you get the kids settled in the nursery?" or "Would you like to come to my Sunday School class? We have coffee and doughnuts!"

We do this because we know eternity may hang in the balance for that person and we only get one chance to make a first impression.

In our amateur radio group we self-police our repeater system (it's like a chat room or forum, except on the radio) because thousands of would-be ham-ops are out there listening via scanners. They hear what we say. We know that someone has a budding interest in radio, and all we need to do is encourage them a bit. We don't need to say something ugly, stupid or mean (offensive) because we also know...we only have one chance to make a first impression.

Which brings me to my point: There are right now thousands of people who are interested in taking their families to the outdoors, or at least Ft. Wilderness, who are searching the internet for information. They are vicariously camping with us, changing flat Carlise tires with us, haggling the RV dealer with us, sitting around the campfire with us, upgrading the water pump with us. Desiring one day to be us.

And then, once in a while, we get all eat up with the desire to be a smart-@ss, to win the argument at all cost, to throw manners in the black tank and d@mmit all, we have free speech here and we'll just shove our opinions down each others virtual throat!!

And the young couple sharing the laptop on the couch thinks to themselves "Do I really want to spend all that money just to park next to a bunch of jerks all weekend? I think not..." So now their two kids sleeping upstairs will never have the memory of going to the Grand Canyon in a Class C.

So while we enjoy (or plan to enjoy) the RV past time, and we share with each other about flat tires, black tanks, state parks, campfires, chiggers and last weekend in the mountains, let's not forget...we are making that first impression on many people as they pass through our forum. And we only have one chance. Let's not embarrass ourselves.

Let's make them want to share a campfire with us.

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Radio
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KU4OJ "Wade" Ships Captain, CFO, Chief Engineer
KG4DQQ "Kathy" 1st Officer, Navigator, Best Friend
2007 F-150 SuperCab - 2009 Rockwood 8280SS
Lot's of mostly Kenwood stuff

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