Having just seen the list of cities... I notice that (just like the French Government)... It gives Brittany a miss...(and Normandy doesn't have one either)...
Is it because of Linda Hembrow's "Brittany People" which is already getting chatty that we are not being further divided?
Or is it that "I can only do one thing at a time and I haven't ********** finished yet!!!!"
What about a group for Cluny/Macon?
I don't know about other departments and I don't know if I'm typical of SFN members or not - but although I live in the southern Vendée and generally I don't go much further afield than about 30km around my home.
Personally I would be more interested in information about the main towns (prefecture, sous-prefecture)...
As to contributing - I would be happy to, but as there is so much going on what level of detail would it be? Would we want to know that there is a Belote evening in the local village hall - or a new course of Country Dancing starting? If it was department level then it could quickly become more or less useless (for people like me) as I doubt I'd be interested in something happening in the northern part of the department and could find I have to wade through too much that is not of interest to find something that is.
Hence - my vote would go for the major towns - so people can select which areas they are specifically interested in.
Thanks Carol :)
Let me have a think....most peeps moving to the area go to the tourist office..but there is also an english tea shop....and I think that might be a good idea for them...let me have a word this wee
Yes that would be excellent Carol, what do you suggest? I can produce some flyers, would that be any use?
James is there any chance we might put info out locally about SFN? for instance in our town there is a very active forum....I am happy to spread the word...ok...not exactly on topic...but I am just thinking how useful this site is and comparing to the local forum which is frankly not very friendly and very clique....whaddya think?
Having thought about this I can't decide which will work best, departmental groups will mean that each area only gets a discussion thread, so whilst tidier and more logical it's not as flexible. Single groups for individual areas is better in that a whole group is devoted to that area where you will have a dedicated wall, pages and discussions, the downside being we could end up with loads of groups. We already have 80 groups though so they are not exactly easy to navigate in any case. So I propose we try both, Annette, if you would like to setup your LR group however you think it would work best I would love to see how that works. Anyone else who would like to run a local group just let me know and I'll set you up.
Thanks
James
One for Bordeaux/the Gironde would be very good, especially as we are not the Dordogne here (contrary to what a certain ex-pat forum appears to think)!
Count me in for St Brieuc too! Or better still Guingamp or Lannion
Yes please to St Brieuc
We are 25 minutes south of St Brieuc (just ... 43km) - Just near enough to visit without it feeling like a trek... Rennes is 100km Quimper is 143km Redon is 111km.
I think that if James creates a framework of departments on SFM it could 'fly'...in terms of folks being able to make it work for them in their 'micro' areas. It's really good to watch it develop.
Sorry Chris. I suggested these places just off the top of my head mainly because they are not difficult to get to. Rennes - North east, Quimper North west and Redon (a town) with CGV, fairly centred for access from Vannes and south east. How far away are you in St Brieuc?
Joe
Joe...You missed out St Brieuc...City of the Valleys - We need a bit of Northern representation
There used to be a member distribution map on SFN, so it would be a good idea to use this for people to get in touch with each other.
We have a problem with getting our marketing material into the tourist offices and informing our visitors of what is going on in the area as we are located in the north east corner of 64 and border on 32, the Gers and the Landes department border is just 3kms away. Groups which are cross border, centred on a major town in the centre of a group of members as dictated by the distribution map would be helpful.
Thanks James :)
Great ideas, When Lynda started the Brittany group I was delighted and keen to meet other SFNrs loally. The problem is that Brittany, like other departments, is much too big for one group to meet up and feel local. I think it would work if best with one large group (department) then sub-divided into smaller groups based on the local cities or towns. For Brittany these might be Quimper, Rennes and Redon, for example.
Joe
Houlgate, Normandie. And if not there, in Paris 75006.
How would you approach it? As one big heading with sub-divisions by department so they're all located in one 'file' or individual groups with department names so if you type 'Dordogne' in the search box, you'll find relevant info that way?
For example, if I start a blog called 'Haute Vienne', put in some piccies, the big festival that's coming up, could you do something with it?
Or perhaps departements?