At the end of last season RDTTA members were invited (by email) to take part in a survey relating to their use of and thoughts about our Newsletter and Website. The volume of responses was surprisingly good (over 100) and produced some interesting comments & suggestions.
Almost all who responded said they were aware of this website and most of these use it on a regular basis. But surprisingly, 12% reported that they don’t normally get to see our Newsletter, which suggests that some members need to be made aware of its existence on this Website.
There were several questions & some suggestions about the Newsletter & Website which are detailed below, together with responses from the RDTTA Management Committee:
Newsletter
Q: Some divisional reports are little more than a re-hash of the results we knew weeks ago - it would be good if the newsletter contained more 'stories behind the scores'.
A: This is dependent on team captains providing information when submitting the match scorecards.
Q: I cannot access it on my laptop due to the format that it is in. I would like a copy if possible and would be willing to pay to get them
A: This is already catered for - Individual members may take out a subscription in order to receive a personal copy of each newsletter, subject to the agreement of the Newsletter Editor, at the same rate as for a team. (see Rule 7.8 on page 5 of the Handbook) Contact the Newsletter Editor if you would like this.
Q: Should be shorter but more frequent and sent to email subscribers
A: For the moment the frequency of 4 per season has proved to be optimum, given the volume of contributions and time required to produce each Newsletter.
Q: In this day and age, R&DTTA should not need to go to all the trouble and expense of printing and posting newsletters. All of the information we need is on the website.
A: There were several similar comments, so as part of the Team Registration all Clubs were asked whether each of their teams still needed a printed Newsletter. Unfortunately half of the Clubs did not complete that section of the form, but after further investigation we have identified 35 teams that no longer need a printed Newsletter. That leaves just 16 teams who have said they still wish to receive printed Newsletters this season.
Website
Q: Include contact information of Team Captains, email addresses and phone numbers
A: This is now available on our website, under the Contacts menu item. (If any team captain wishes to adjust their details as displayed on the website, login to the Table Tennis England/TT365 site & amend these details on the “Privacy” tab.
Q: The Club section should include each Club's secretary, with their email and phone number
A: it already does! Click on the Club name under the Contacts menu item.
Q: Fewer changes on the website would be appreciated
A: Most of the structural changes you see are made by the company who provide & support the software behind the website, TableTennis365. We have not been changing the basic layout or structure and currently have no plans to do so.
Q: More attention to typos and wrong entries on the league tables/stats
A: League tables & player averages are automatically created based on match results, while team & player names are taken from the database that sits behind the website, so there is little chance that any of this is a typo from the Divisional Fixture Secretary’s entry of match results.
Q: It would be useful to have a PDF version of the handbook, available to download from the site
A: Done! The RDTTA Handbook is now available on our website, under Information - Downloads.
General Suggestions
Q: Improvements: have the club venue address list published, in a printable format. This would help!
A: Have you tried looking in the RDTTA Handbook? It’s been there every year I can remember. (pages 28-31 this season)
Q: Provide space on website, to allow club secretaries and team captains to interact, to enable recruitment of new players
A: The problem of providing space on the website is that someone would have to monitor the posts to ensure nothing offensive has been posted. The email details of all Club Secretaries and team captains is now available on the website, which should help with this request.
