Is anybody out there...?

[kevinashworth]

Is anybody out there...?

The forum has been quiet for ages now, where y'all at?

C'mon all you OPRsters, you lurkers, lurking in the background, you silent geniuses, you "newbies" you "long time heroes" you pipers at the gates of dawn, you artists, you amazing team.. you worldwide crew...

Is anybody out there...?

[Pat]

My sentiments exactly Kevin!

We have a wonderful group of volunteers here just waiting to give a warm welcome to all you newbies out there.  Quite a few of you who have yet to introduce yourselves.  I can't stress enough how much more rewarding your experience as an OPR volunteer will be made by joining the forum.  It's a wonderful place to learn and grow your skills.  Posting your WIP will bring you a wealth of friendly tips and advice should you run into problems or have questions.

Pat

[Mhayes]

My sentiments as well, Kev. My excuse for lying low this past week is that I was down with a bad cold. Part of the lull on the forum may be spring fever and the desire to get away from the computer and a chance to enjoy being outdoors. Sometimes it feels like we are beating a dead horse trying to get more volunteer participation. What helps is when a  newsletter goes out asking for help and listing links to the forum. Other times when we have photos returned by volunteers that will not pass Quality Control and the distriburor ask the volunteer to post to the forum to get some feedback. This is good because there is more than one way to approach a problem. Some volunteers take the hint and post, but I have had others who don't answer  or I get a curt: "Put it back in the gallery." I know the need to use tact so  not to hurt someones feeling, but I sometimes get the feeling that volunteering to help others is really more of a trip to gain skills to help promote their own interest.

Remember when I decided to have a group project for 3 dogs in my gallery. I thought this would be fun and no pressure on any one person to pull it off. You want to know how many people volunteered?  Two----Tess and one other volunteer who doesn't read the forum.

Right now my gallery is empty and with 3 distributors I would like to devote more time to getting the word out about OPR and fundraising. Also, we are going into spring when the weather turns nasty and the need for a copy run will happen.

With only 10 people signing in on the forum today Kev; I don't look for much in the way of feedback. Like a lot of organizations, there are those who carry the load and those who sit on the sidelines.

Margie

[Tess (Tassie D)]

I pop in every day and the faithful few have posted. I don't often try to direct repairs as I don't use Photoshop.
It used to be very chatty here, a good laugh and a cry when someone lost a family member or  pet.
For anyone thats interested we have a blog of our travels around part of this huge country of Australia. We haven't really scratched the surface but that will come. Yes I always have the laptop with me, even on holiday. http://tassied.wordpress.com

[G3User]

Kev

Thanks for the reminder Kev.

I have checked and I am "HERE". Pulse seems to be still ticking over though the benefits of our month in Queensland are long gone, what with mowing, gardening, catching up with the grandchildren etc.

Looks like rain for the next couple of days so have a couple of easy ones from Tess to work on. Great blog Tess, I have bookmarked it. Please let me know when you get to the "big smoke"

Margie, why does the weather turn nasty in spring. It doesn't here, perhaps you are living in the wrong hemisphere ^-^

Athol

[Tori803]

Hi Kev,

I'm out here too. My husband and I have both been busy with various doctor's visits so I haven't been getting much done otherwise.

Athol, our portion of the northern hemisphere sees the jet stream from the north slam in to moisture coming up from the Gulf of Mexico so there's lots of turbulent weather in the spring. We even get tornadoes in the spring sometimes. Here's a photo of one forming just above our house that touched down about 10 miles from us:


tornado by Tori803, on Flickr

Fear not, I head straight to the basement now when there's a tornado siren!

Tori

[Hannie]

Great post Kev and it worked too!  You are now officially our OPR town crier, hopefully you don't mind to be on duty every once in  a while to wake us all up.



I have been busy with repair and paint jobs around my place, where did the energy go that I had when I was young?   

Hannie

[kevinashworth]

It just struck me as odd how the most users online together was 147.

Thanks to all you usual suspects for being "out there", and also to the unknown folks who don't use the forum. To the newbies - don't be shy!

Hannie how funny!  "Oyez! Oyez!"   ;D

[JTJB]

Kev,

Thanks for the gentle reminder.  Apologies to all for disappearing, however, things have been a little hectic with a major influx of what you might call a bit of everything.  I am in the process of finishing off a restoration that I am a little embarrassed to say got pushed down the task list for a while.

Here's to getting it sent home and hopefully things will slow down back to normal shortly.

JB

[Johnboy]

Kevin you must have read my mind. I was in the forum over the weekend and was thinking that there really hasn't been much traffic. I remember back a few years ago when we were out of restorations and were being promised a future run. Things got real wild during that time. Also one of our more verbose members, Glenna, hasn't been around for a while. I am aware she has had some serious bumps in the road, but she could at least say hi. Maybe the distributors are just keeping everyone too busy. I really can't say too much about that since I haven't done one in a while. Then there are times I check in and depending on the restoration I feel there isn't much I can add.

:wow: :funny: :loveit: :cool: ;D :halo: :crazy: :D :knuppel: :wnw:

Johnboy