Nbn Southern Meet.

[Smoggy]

23 minutes ago, Chelsea14Ian said:

.He shouted Chelsea,always knew he had good taste!

Nothing to do with taste, he was just warning the others to keep going....

[JanetAnne]

I organise the Beccles Wooden Boat Show (just in case anyone reading this doesn't know) and we ran into a problem a couple of years ago where the event was being thought to be an NBN event because people had used the BWBS thread to try and book places etc. In fact there is, somewhere on here, a statement dis associating the BWBS and the NBN which I wrote at the time.

The BWBS is now promoted by direct mail and the NBN hosts a thread every year with information only. Of course NBN members still talk about the event on here just like they talk about Strictly Come Dancing or stain glass window lessons. But they can't book through NBN and maybe that is the key?

If you can't book it with the NBN then it ain't an NBN event no matter what or where it is. 

 

By the way JM, a trip through the lock and a night on Lake Lothing sounds a brilliant idea. The amount of people I speak to who have never 'been through' but would like to would make a decent event.

 

[Vaughan]

4 minutes ago, psychicsurveyor said:

If someone is injured in a tug of war then the Forum owner could be liable if a full risk assessment had not been undertaken and implemented.

Well I suppose my answer to that would have to be, to question whether a tug of war is necessary at a meeting of boaters on an overnight mooring but that is a matter of choice.

Boatyards survive this sort of litigation because they have clearly laid-down conditions of hire. Perhaps the forum, to protect itself, should oblige conditions of attendance at its functions? If you are that worried then that is not as silly as it might seem.

[ExSurveyor]

As you will know Vaughan, the boatyards will have many policies in place that they have to follow to the letter or risk being without public liability cover.

If hirers sign to agree to certain standards but the yard fails to follow its own policies, we both know who will carry the can.

Perhaps my tug of war example was not the best one but I bet between us we could come up with a long list of potential risks at an organised meet.

Strange though that if you and I and a couple of others meet up informally, have a tug of war and end up in hospital we would only have ourselves to blame.

The ambulance chasers wouldn't give us the time of day as they would be unable to identify an easy target to go after.

Sad world but it is the one we now live in.

[grendel]

Having been a bit incommunicado ddue to a training course in Leeds I will give you my take on this. Suppose someone organised an informal gathering here, with a sign up thread, then went to the venue and booked moorings under the auspices of the NBN, is went in and said to the owner, I would like to book 10 berths for an informal NBN meet. Now the meet happens, 7 people turn up and pay their mooring fee to the organiser, who pays the mooring owner.

Ah but says the owner, you need to pay for the 10 moorings you booked. Organiser comes back with, but only 7 of us moored there and will only pay for those 7.

As the mooring was booked under the auspices of the NBN, and organised on a thread on the forum, we ( the NBN committee) now become liable for those unpaid fees.

So when it says organised through or under the auspices of, that means if someone starts a thread for booking moorings here, then uses that to book with the mooring owner, then we have a liability.

If on the other hand they say, I will be at a place, anyone want to meet me, then people sort their moorings out themselves, no problem.

And remember, that's just the moorings side of it, anything else that uses the name of the forum for booking or paying or just organising, brings a liability to the forum. The team need to be able to control these risks and liabilities.

Thus for organised (formal or informal) events that are organised here, or use the forum name in any way, we have to retain control, is we need to know who is doing the work on our behalf, and that they are going to do it in a manner that is responsible and safe.

We have risk assessments, we put in place, covering everything we can perceive as a risk, including people falling into the water after drinking a pint too many, maybe tug of war wasn't the best example, but Man overboard is a serious incident, so if we don't have a process in place, via a risk assessment, we could be held liable.

Now Tim will probably come along and highlight all the points I have got wrong, but the above is my understanding of the whys and wherefores.

[grendel]

10 hours ago, D46 said:

Question , was there a risk assessment etc in place when s group of NBN members met as organized on the forum while working on Royal Tudor ? 

Senior members of the team organised that and should have known all the rules and paperwork would need to be in place as that was clearly an organised NBN meet for the purpose of work rather than relaxation , to my memory it was never listed as a offical event but was deffinatly organized on the forum .

While that might seam confrontational it's not ment to be but it's exactly the same as a group of members organising to meet for a drink / meal etc , which is now disallowed as it's against the rules , I don't remember a rule change o can find no details of such hence my question ? 

That was one of the trigger events that highlighted the need to tighten up the paperwork side of things, I believe.

Plus most if not all of the actual attendance was organised by the forum private message system, we did have a few casuAl visitors on the day, who had a scraper or paintbrush thrust into their hands.

Each day a group meeting was held before work started, where the issues and risks were gone through, what could be termed a site / task specific risk assessment, is don't work here as someone is working above, etc.

The issue would be if anything went wrong and the NBN had been mentioned in association with the event, or by inference because it had been organised on the forum with a sign up thread, organising using th private message system on the forum would be a way around that, as PM's are private and not publicly available.

[grendel]

9 hours ago, Vaughan said:

Thanks for that Mr Nog and I suppose it may be a risk as far as the guy ropes of the tent are concerned.

I am sorry, but I am a boat hirer.  I grew up on a hire boatyard and I have been in the business for most of my career.  How would I have survived if I had to worry about this?  How do Richardsons survive, when they are sending out all those groups of all male parties?  For that matter, how about Griff's lad's week? That is advertised on the forum beforehand and it is reported on the forum, day by day, as it happens.  I am sure any other forum members meeting up with them are welcome to join them in the pub!  But does that make it a "forum event"?

I still don't see that the forum is any more responsible for its members' behaviour on Salhouse Broad, than a boatyard is for the behaviour of its customers, moored on exactly the same quay heading.

The next thing we know, the forum will be responsible for a boat which was seen making a wash, and flying the forum flag. That is silly, you think?  look how many people have said before, that bad behaviour on a hire boat should be reported to the boatyard!

I repeat, let's please not descend into wokeness.

No, lads week is organised via an email chain, it doesn't use the name of the NBN for any purpose during its duration, therefore it's not an NBN event, formal or informal. Over 50 percent of the participants are not even forum members.

[Ray]

12 hours ago, D46 said:

Look ray exactly how do you contact people you don't know without knowing their email ( and in that case you likey know them ) without using the forum , according to timbos post all froms of communication on the website , fb or forum regarding organization of meets is not allowed , all I have done is ask where that rule is in the list of general rules .

I think somehow things are getting misunderstood in this thread, perhaps I added to that.

If you look at Grendel's post he confirms that PMs are private. You could for example pick one or two members who seem likely to be based in the South and PM them with something along the lines of... "I wonder if you're interested in an unofficial meet on the South sometime? My email is xxxx@yyyy.com and please let others you think maybe interested know so we can make arrangements"

 

[grendel]

Or indeed a post saying I will be at xyz, pm me for details would probably be acceptable too, as long as whoever was organising it didn't then say to the location it's an NBN meet (or we could prove that it hadn't been openly organised on the forum or Facebook pages, is just an idea put forward by an individual and privately organised) we would I think find that acceptable

[CambridgeCabby]

A simple disclaimer stating that an intended get together is neither approved or sanctioned by the NBN in the opening of a thread of an upcoming unofficial gathering where there is no sign up or indication of attendance on an open forum  would satisfy any legal ramifications .

Those that did wish to join friends and fellow likeminded Broads lovers could then pm the op , I presume ??

[D46]

3 hours ago, grendel said:

Or indeed a post saying I will be at xyz, pm me for details would probably be acceptable too, as long as whoever was organising it didn't then say to the location it's an NBN meet (or we could prove that it hadn't been openly organised on the forum or Facebook pages, is just an idea put forward by an individual and privately organised) we would I think find that acceptable

Isn't this all that was asked for in the first place ? Obviously with some clarification as to the rules that I and alot of other's knew nothing about , it was even deamed  a good idea by a member of the events team and surely they know the rules regarding formal and informal meetings ? 

[boycee]

Ian you are confusing good taste and Chelsea- Your right I have good taste about lots of things but definetly  not Chelsea. I shouted Chelsea then as at the time I was unaware of your Christian name, so I used your forum name -simples

Boycee