<div><span style="font-family:garamond,serif">I think if we want to grow our club we need to let people communicate with us in the way they choose. Google numbers as voice mailboxes are pretty safe ways to let people communicate with us. My gay Jewish group also uses Google voice. We don't get any abusive phone calls and the number is published many places on the web. </span></div>
<font face="garamond,serif"><div><font face="garamond,serif"><br></font></div>I would suggest a telephone greeting along the line: "Thank you for calling Western Pennsylvania Linux Users Group. This phone line is intended to help people who want more information about our meetings. Calls for other purposes such as Linux help will not be returned. If you need information about a meeting, please leave a message. " After that, anyone with an expectation that their call is going to be returned will simply have to be disappointed. </font><div>
<font face="garamond, serif"><br></font></div><div><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Tue, Apr 10, 2012 at 13:29, Pat Barron <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:pat@lectroid.com">pat@lectroid.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">
I had assumed the P-G wanted a phone number as an administrative
contact (in case they had questions about the announcement itself
and needed to talk to us for clarification), not that they wanted it
for publication.<br>
<br>
I still don't think we should offer phone as a means of contact for
WPLUG participants (and potential participants), except perhaps as
an "I'm lost, please give me directions" hotline on meeting days. I
think doing so is just asking for potential pain. Publishing a
phone number for public use I think creates an expectation that the
phone is going to be answered when called, I do think it will
attract "help desk" calls, and I believe that folks who would use
the phone in preference to e-mail are not likely to really gain much
benefit from any interaction with WPLUG. I think it's good for
providing a phone contact number to entities that WPLUG may do
business with (like the bank, the media, etc.). Previous WPLUG
boards have also used the Google Voice number for outgoing
multi-party calls (though none of these seem to be documented
anywhere, I only know this from talking to Ted Rodgers).<br>
<br>
Of course, I'm only one person on a five person board, and may be
more cynical than most. Do any other board members have an opinion
(one way or the other)? The only ones taking a position on record
so far are Michael and me. Please speak up, whatever your thoughts
might be. If nobody else pipes up, Michael, I'd say go ahead and
use the number in our announcements and such, and we'll see what
happens. We can always stop using it and change the number later if
it becomes a problem.<span class="HOEnZb"><font color="#888888"><br>
<br>
--Pat.</font></span><div class="im"><br>
<br>
On 04/10/2012 11:18 AM, Michael Loomis wrote:
<blockquote type="cite">
<div><font face="garamond,serif">I know you don't want to have the
phone number be abused as a help desk number. On the other
hand, what's the point of having a phone number if we never
use it? </font></div>
<font face="garamond,serif">
<div>
It cost Google a little money to provide it for us, and we
should give the number back if we are adamant about not using
it. I hope we can agree to make it public on the Post-Gazette
website and expose here on the mailing list archive. You are
aware that the Google phone number can act as simply a mailbox
and that no one's phone needs to ring? Our greeting can
indicate that calls asking for help about Linux will not be
returned and suggest looking on line. </div>
</font><br>
</blockquote>
<br>
</div></div>
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