A reasonable minimum frequency to "ping" mailing list members

[whole diary]

[grahame]

I'm interest in member's views ... I signed up with a (rail) group quite a while back while they were actively trawling for new members and was assured I've been added to their mailing list to be kept in touch.   Not heard anything in what feels like an age, and in a (real) conversation I raised this with one of the key people - "hey - I haven't heard from you - did I really make it to the list".  Answer "we've not had anything to report / raise so I'm not surprised you've not heard".

What do members feel is a realistic minimum frequency for a rail group to be in touch with its members?

I am aware that the Coffee Shop - with online sign ons and discussions - is something of a different case when it comes to our members lists - general emails are very very rare indeed and reserved for emergency situations as we are in touch otherwise as often as you like.  This is NOT a question about the Coffee Shop (though I would be very interested if members feel we should do a monthly / quarterly mailing, mind!)

[PhilWakely]

Personally, I would be happy with quarterly newsletters.

However, I sympathise with the 'there has been nothing to report' response as I volunteered, a few years back, to edit the newsletter of a [non-railway] club that my wife ran. I was asked to produce a monthly newsletter and it was fine for about a year as I was being fed items quite frequently. However, a combination of waning enthusiasm from members and 'not much to report' sounded the death knell for the regular newsletter and it became a 'we will send you a newsletter when necessary'.

[grahame]

What do members feel is a realistic minimum frequency for a rail group to be in touch with its members?

Most days   - 9.1%
Most weeks   - 0%
At least once a month   - 9.1%
At least once a quarter   - 63.6%
At least twice a year   - 9.1%
At least annually   - 9.1%
Less than once a year is fine - I'll remember   - 0%

Coming back to summarise ... many thanks for the votes; although this didn't attract many votes (about as interesting as voting for the Police and Crime Commissioner locally) it has rather confirmed good practise to keep in touch as least quarterly.   In this case, it's the result I would have guessed, but far better to have even limited evidence than just assume