We will be shutting down the SMCARA reflector soon. There are a few reasons we decided to do this, but it comes down to the fact that there are better options such as Groups.IO, which is where we are moving to. We have been test-driving groups.io for nearly a year now and it’s been working great. This will be the primary place to get up to date information regarding the SMCARA Club activities and Ham related news in St Mary’s County. Everyone is welcome. You do not have to be a HAM or even a SMCARA member to join.
SMCARA.Groups.IO
We have set up a groups.io for the SMCARA members and guests. If you are not familiar with groups.io, it is a forum-like space where announcements can be made and discussion can be had, much like a bulletin board. This is intended to pick up some of the slack of capabilities that the reflector doesn’t offer. Look below at the Getting Started with Groups.IO for how to get started.
The SMCARA.Groups.IO site will be a place where everyone can have discussions, share pictures, and make announcements without the need to go through a web admin to post information on the club website. We encourage all Hams in St. Mary’s County to check in to see what Ham activities are going on in the county .
There is a small learning curve but I’m sure it will be second nature in no time. Here are some of the groups we have started. The structure is simple; there is one primary group (SMCARA) with multiple subgroups for special interest. In addition to the message postings, each group has its own calendar, place for photos, place for files and Wiki page to make use of.
Primary group:
SMCARA – Public
– This is the primary group and is open to everyone
– This is where most general postings and conversations will take place
– Anyone can read messages from this group, but you must join this group to post a message
Subgroups:
SMCARA – Club
– This subgroup is a restricted group to SMCARA club members
– Meeting minutes and other information will be posted and discussed here
Getting Started with Groups.IO
There are two basic step to do, create a Groups.IO account and then Join the SMCARA.Groups.IO
Create Groups.IO account
– Go to the groups.io website and select Sign Up in the upper right.
– You can sign up with and email address, or register with Google or Facebook
Join our group
– Once you have created an account the go to SMCARA.groups.io and look for the blue button [+Apply For Membership in This Group]
If you have any questions, need help, or have feedback, please contact me at N3AK.jon@gmail.com. If there is an interest, we can set up a Zoom session to help get people started.
Here are a few links to help pages and YouTube videos.
https://groups.io/helpcenter/membersmanual
73,
Jon – N3AK