Good morning everyone!

If you were not aware, we have both a Facebook Page and a Facebook Group.  There are very good reasons why we have both and I’ll do my best in this post to explain why.  In search results, when someone searches for our club, they find the “Page” first.  I am not sure why that is the case, but that is just the way it is.  We created the page about three years ago.

https://www.facebook.com/delcityars

It didn’t take long before we noticed that when “non Admin” people post, it doesn’t show up on the main part of the page. It shows up on the left side bar and many times, I never see it for days or even ever.  I started making a point to scroll over to the side when I noticed that someone asked a question about using the node and I realized that they had posted this question days earlier.  I don’t like that because it discourages people from being a part and wanting to engage.

I wouldn’t want to engage either if 1. I felt like my opinion was less than that of some invisible Admin or 2. If no one ever answered me.  For this reason, we created a Facebook Group.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/delcityars/

In Facebook Groups, everyone’s post is shown front and center on the page under their own name.  The one negative to having a Group is that you have to click to “JOIN”.  When you join, someone has to accept it.  This is not our policy and some attempt at keeping certain individuals out but rather it is a built in feature of Facebook.  On the “Page”, all you do is click “Like” and no one has to approve it.  This difference may give people the impression that in the Group, it is limited to select individuals and some sort of elitist filter.  That is by no means the case. It is our wish that everyone join both the “Page” and the “Group” as well as people feel they are welcome and just as important as anyone else on either.

If you would like to be listed as an Admin on either the Page or the Group, by all means, send an email to club@delcityars.com and we’ll add you as an Admin.  The beauty of a Group is that everyone has equal posting authority and not only some Admin.  Anyone can openly engage in conversation without feeling like they have to plea to someone to get approval before posting.  I offer the Admin to others so that the Group can flow easily without one or two people running it.  I believe a good leader enables others to have ownership and not lead with an iron fist. 🙂

If you would like to read Facebook’s own explanation of the difference between a Facebook “Page” and “Group” as well as their intended roles, you can go to the following link…

https://www.facebook.com/help/155275634539412

Also don’t forget that if you are into Mesh Networking, you can also join our other group “Broadband Hamnet Oklahoma“.  We also have a Group for those that like to do some AM Broadcast DX at night.  That is our “AM-DX” group and I really enjoy doing that. Even though I’ve been a ham operator for 32 years, I still like to scan the AM radio at night to listen to far off stations.

Thank you for listening to me ramble but I felt that a lot of people were not understanding the difference and or purpose of having both a Page and a Group. That was evident by the great number difference in membership to the Page versus the Group.