What’s up with Troop 743 on Facebook?

It was agreed to use this site as our primary tool to communicate information to our members (Scouts, adult leaders, and parents), but that the Facebook (FB) tool would be different. What’s different?
First of all, the Facebook page will not be a page, but a Facebook Group.

As the information on the Groups page says, we can:

• Chat as a group – the boys can get online and chat together – currently, FB members who chat from their own pages can only chat with one person at a time – Pages allow a group (only members of that group) to chat together. It’s going to be a secret group, and therefore no one will know the names of it’s members, or see the content from outside the group. Privacy is more secure this way.
• There will be a Group email address – members can post to the wall by sending to the email address, then, depending up their own notification settings, ALL members will receive the message. Want to set up a chat with your Patrol? Notify where and when, and then do it!
• Control our membership – the Committee is very concerned that we preserve the privacy and safety of our boys, and therefore, you can only be a member by being invited by a current member, and that membership has to be approved. When we start out, you will be able to do a search on FB for our group, which is called PA Troop 743, and then click on, "Request to Join this Group" under the group picture on the right side of the screen. You can also be added to a group by a friend who is already a member. Then, the administrator will have to approve the membership. We can also block specific people from joining if there were a reason to do so.
• Post to the group, share links, photos, and videos, and documents. Members can also comment, create events (automatically invites all members), and Chat, as mentioned in the first bullet. The good thing is that members of the group do not have to first “Friend” each other to chat or participate. It operates independently of that normal FB protocol.

Some changes from the old page:

1. The Group will NOT be another way of getting information on the troop’s calendar and act ivies, but a community for interaction by the troop. There will be no feed from the Troop 743 site, so you’ll need to make sure your email subscription is up to date to the site to get the news. If you’re not subscribed, just put your email address into this area on the right side of the site and follow instructions.
   
2. Parents are encourage to join, but participation should be mostly the Scouts. There will be moderation, but accountability is high since no one will be anonymous. Please do NOT invite people who are not members of the troop to join. Immediate family (Mom & Dad), and the Scouts themselves will be the only approved members.
3. We will reserve the right to delete postings (moderate), and to remove members, but expect that it will be uncommon, if not rare.
4. Scouts should feel free to post and express themselves. It can be used to invite your friends to events, but use common sense. If not, see #3, which always applies.
5. Posting photos will not be done on the troop site, but is encouraged on the Facebook Group.

What do you think? We believe it will be a great way for the Troop to interact and develop stronger friendships. We hope you do, too.
For More Information:
The Facebook Groups page
Overall Design of Groups
Group basics
Group features
Admin basics
Groups privacy and abuse