BIG GROUP

[Bigsis]

2 APNs and counting!

Hi,

I would like to join Big Group.

Please let me know next steps, how to get access to PM, etc.



Thx

[webberg]

Now this may make me the most hated person on this area of the forum, and I may be old and cynical as a result of being hounded for every penny I ever made as a contractor but Admin (cojak?) , don't you even feel a little bit duped??


"Contractor UK terms and conditions for forum use:
....
6. No advertising or marketing of any kind, including non-profit organisations, not even subtle stuff, ever. Please use your company name as a user name to identify yourself when offering unbiased, expert advice only. We will not accept any "hard sell" on your services or products within posts or touting for business via private message (PM). No URLs, contact details or sales spiel on sigs either."

This is a valid criticism and one that I hope I've been careful to stay the right side of.

I have checked a lot of the material with cojak and others before posting, but there have also been instances where I've responded without checking. If those have crossed the line, the fault is mine.

I hope that I have stated my position with suitable disclaimers and caveats. I hope I've been clear where I'm posting an opinion and where I'm proposing a commercial position.

BG started as a member only mutual club to which I would tender my services in competition. It became obvious that the need was more urgent than that structure would allow and instead I brought it "in house".

Should a dedicated individual or group of individuals come forward, I'll happily revert to plan A as that removes a lot of admin from me. In the meantime, we are where we are and I hope that everything I've done is transparent. Nobody is forcing you to join/not join but I appreciate that I have been the fortunate recipient of circumstance.

I changed my user name and signature to reflect the commercial side prior to making the group live, so I hope nobody has been fooled. If so, my apologies and if you've joined but now wish to withdraw, please let me know and I'll arrange suitable refunds.

As I said this moved quickly and if I've posted in error, that's down to me and not the admin team.

[ads1980]

Big Group Twitter

Hi Webberg / Cojak,

I started a Twitter page for Big Group a while ago pointing people to this forum (with cojak's permission). Am I better to now change the URL to your website for people to join up there or would you rather I leave it how it is? I'm not sure how many people have actually joined in the back of the Twitter page but I'll keep it going anyway as it has picked up a few followers.

[webberg]

Hi Webberg / Cojak,

I started a Twitter page for Big Group a while ago pointing people to this forum. Am I better to now change the URL to your website for people to join up there or would you rather I leave it how it is? I'm not sure how many people have actually joined in the back of the Twitter page but I'll keep it going anyway as it has picked up a few followers.

That's very kind.

I think I need to check in with cojak and crew before we do much more.

back to you tomorrow.

[TheHat]

Now this may make me the most hated person on this area of the forum, and I may be old and cynical as a result of being hounded for every penny I ever made as a contractor but Admin (cojak?) , don't you even feel a little bit duped??


"Contractor UK terms and conditions for forum use:
....
6. No advertising or marketing of any kind, including non-profit organisations, not even subtle stuff, ever. Please use your company name as a user name to identify yourself when offering unbiased, expert advice only. We will not accept any "hard sell" on your services or products within posts or touting for business via private message (PM). No URLs, contact details or sales spiel on sigs either."

I share some of your concerns.

There have been others on these forums who have sold their 'wares' and taken a lot of flak as a result, some of it justified. I can think of accusations such as "ambulance chaser" being thrown around.

The more general accusation was that anyone, or any company needing to come on these forums to advertise their services or to drum up business may not be the best qualified to represent those on here needing representation.

I don't pretend to have the answer, otherwise I wouldn't be one of the people in this mess. I'm only pointing out that there are some of us with a level of discomfort and cynicism build up from our experiences.

[DotasScandal]

I share some of your concerns.
There have been others on these forums who have sold their 'wares' and taken a lot of flak as a result, some of it justified. I can think of accusations such as "ambulance chaser" being thrown around.
The more general accusation was that anyone, or any company needing to come on these forums to advertise their services or to drum up business may not be the best qualified to represent those on here needing representation.
I don't pretend to have the answer, otherwise I wouldn't be one of the people in this mess. I'm only pointing out that there are some of us with a level of discomfort and cynicism build up from our experiences.

Card-carrying cynic here....

I can understand the above, and personnally I think BIG GROUP would be better received if it remained BIG GROUP (as opposed to WTT BIG GROUP). I can understand how "WTT BIG GROUP is a trading name of .... " can ring alarm bells, especially in these troubled times, where people are busy defending against attacks HRMC 24/7, and are understandably more on their guard than usual. Maybe this move was a bit unfortunate.

With that being said....this thing ain't gonna run itself.

I would have preferred a non-for-profit status, or at least a structure less visibly coupled with WTT, even if it is using the services of WTT.
But Webberg has presented the reasons behind this choice, which I am sure he has pondered carefully.

Maybe the communication strategy would need to be adjusted if we want to take BIG GROUP beyond the confines of these forums (and expanding beyond these forums is in fact not optional if we want to achieve any kind of success)

[LandRover]

Post 307 & 308

Any view on the non-Dotas Webberg, as many started on Dotas and moved onto non-Dotas...

[webberg]

Card-carrying cynic here....

I can understand the above, and personnally I think BIG GROUP would be better received if it remained BIG GROUP (as opposed to WTT BIG GROUP). I can understand how "WTT BIG GROUP is a trading name of .... " can ring alarm bells, especially in these troubled times, where people are busy defending against attacks HRMC 24/7, and are understandably more on their guard than usual. Maybe this move was a bit unfortunate.

With that being said....this thing ain't gonna run itself.

I would have preferred a non-for-profit status, or at least a structure less visibly coupled with WTT, even if it is using the services of WTT.
But Webberg has presented the reasons behind this choice, which I am sure he has pondered carefully.

Maybe the communication strategy would need to be adjusted if we want to take BIG GROUP beyond the confines of these forums (and expanding beyond these forums is in fact not optional if we want to achieve any kind of success)

We sought to register BIG GROUP as a company/website etc in order that it could be a stand alone entity in due course.

However we ran into issues because there is an advertising and marketing outfit called BIG GROUP and rather than change the name completely we simply added WTT to the front.

Yes a mutual would have been better and perhaps in due course it will become a mutual, but to get this up and growing, it needs leadership and not a committee.

[MercladUK]

We sought to register BIG GROUP as a company/website etc in order that it could be a stand alone entity in due course.

However we ran into issues because there is an advertising and marketing outfit called BIG GROUP and rather than change the name completely we simply added WTT to the front.

Yes a mutual would have been better and perhaps in due course it will become a mutual, but to get this up and growing, it needs leadership and not a committee.

I understand your quandary Webberg, but as the BIG GROUP concept has changed somewhat, from a committee to a commercial entity and that I am mostly Non DOTAS I shall defer membership for now.

I am sure that the goals will still be achieved and do think this is the best form of action against HMRC.

[webberg]

Picking up on another point, the first use of funds received is to build membership.

That means advertising by all routes available.

Pretty sure that we will be paying this site for space along with a lot of others.

As members join who are not also members of this forum, we will rely more and more upon the group's own forum rather than this thread.

I think therefore we have started the end of the beginning for this thread and in due course, aside from some updates the main communication will be via the dedicated forum we have set up.

It is a tricky issue though.