Our WhatsApp groups are a primary and vital form of communication for our members.
The groups have grown extensively over the few years that they have been in existence.
But we have recently identified a problem with regard to our groups;
1) Over the years, some members have failed to renew their membership – there can be a variety of reasons for this;
Houses change hands and members come and go – and not all new residents elect to join OWLS.
Since the disastrous fires, we lost a large number of residents for obvious reasons.
Some tragically lost everything and have moved, some have just elected to sell up, move and start anew.
Some have been squeezed financially through their loss and with all good intention, just can’t manage.
2) As such we have several names/numbers on our WA groups whom are no longer paid up members, or members who don’t need this communication anymore.
While our ethic is to look after ALL residents in the neighbourhood, it is only fair that contributing members should have the advantage of our WA communications.
3) As we are part of a greater crime fighting initiative, working with various other bodies (e.g. SAPS, CPF, Allsound etc), we are bound to a standard code of conduct.
As sensitive information is shared between these bodies, one of the rules is that the WA groups must be restricted to members only.
As such we are obliged to manage our WA groups accordingly.
So, as many of you will have noticed, we have been updating our WA groups these last few days, removing non-current members.
We would like nothing more than to have every single household on board for our membership (wishful thinking!).
It is really a massive time consuming task chasing up member renewals and trying to enlist new members not yet in the fold.
Our committee are all volunteers giving up our own free time to run our association, but our time and resources are limited.
So, to anyone who was removed in error (we hope there are NO people in this category!), please accept our humble apologies.
If you are such a “victim”, please communicate with us urgently on email at owls@owlsknysna.co.za and we will fix our error.
To those who were members last year and have just not renewed subs PLEASE, we beg of you to catch up immediately so we can put you back on. We have a new single form for all aspects of membership.
(We truly need every household we can get, to be on board – it’s for our joint good!)
And to anybody that has been thinking about joining and just not got around to it, please do it ASAP – we need you as much as you may need us!
Kind regards,
Your Committee.