by Carol Beam, PTC President (reprinted from the May-June 2013 edition of the Philadelphia Trail Club Bulletin)
Taking steps. That's what we're all about. Taking steps into the wonderful parks all around us, taking time to be with our PTC friends.
It also is what we've been doing as a club. Our communications are shifting more and more to electronic and social media modes. And the internet is where we have a beautiful home, a great website (philadelphiatrailclub.org). This is where everyone can learn about the club, get the latest updates, and see great photos of recent hikes and events.
A very big step has been our recent venture onto a social networking site called MeetUp.com. Debby Lamb now manages our listing there, tracking hike sign-ups and responding to questions and comments from MeetUp members. It's free for participants to register for MeetUp and select the type of activities they would be interested in joining in on. These can be anything from quilting bees to pub crawls. Many hiking groups are listed there. Now we are too, and to date have gotten about 200 new people who have signed up to receive emails about our hikes. We've already had dozens of them show up on outings.
This is an exciting and challenging new approach to expanding our members, and time will tell if these drop-ins become members. We certainly hope so and encourage them to do so. Please welcome these new participants when you hike with them.
While this step is geared to our future, we also have wonderful news about our past. PTC member Carol Cameran-Sears, our new Archivist, is sorting through the wealth of photos and papers in our collection, going back to the earliest days of our club. Soon she will be getting some of this beautiful stuff onto our website for all of us to enjoy.
Now the most important step: You, gentle reader, can step out with us on a hike now that glorious weather is here. See you out there.
~Carol