Great Western Coffee Shop

A big "thank you" to everyone who came along to yesterday's inaugural Coffee Shop AGM; the discussions / comments about what is and isn't used and what's "wouldn't it be nice if" on the forum were really useful to informing me as code developer / maintainer.  The majority were no surprises, the majority already well know, and the majority of outstanding issues really need to follow the software upgrade to avoid me doing a lotta work just to scrap it and start again. 

One of the thing that we agreed is to run a survey (needs more that just a poll or two) to work out which "wouldn't it be nice if"s to implement, which are practical, etc, and yesterday's discussion have helped give ideas to formulate the questions to be asked.  That's probably an autumn thing, once I get to understand the practicallity (myself) of some of the ideas - don't want to run a survey that says "would you like xxxx" just to answer that "xxxx can't be done" when you all say yes.   There are, however, one or two things that are blindingly obvious that you would like and are no more than a few lines of code and it's reasonable for me to shove those in to the current version and re-implement them in the next.

I have added at the very very bottom of the pages a "jump to top of page" link - this will help those of you on mobile / tablet devices get back to the menus at the top go each page without silly amounts of scrolling

Also at the very very bottom of the pages a "jump to home page" link - which will get you to the top of the Coffee Shop from the bottom of any page.

I have resisted the temptation at this point to try and add in contextual jumps at the bottom of each page (i.e. jumps depending on the particular page you are on), though that's a possibility in the future.  Should I start referring to these things that may come as "BC" (Before Crossrail fully open) or "AD" (After ... can someone suggest what "D" might stand for??).   Contextual jumps are BC ...

The room chosen for the AGM was an overwhelming success - the venue of Taunton, as well as being the forum's spiritual holiday home after Melksham, suits (or is equally unsuitable) for all our members from far and wide, the place itself just across the taxi rank from the station's south barriers, the place steeped in railway history and the  staff very welcoming. Price suits too.  So I have booked the room for Saturday 4th April 2020 - Coffee Shop AGM - that's just 10 months away; earlier date chosen so that we're earlier in our financial year and in a month convenient for most members.  It's a week before Easter (yes, we did check!).  New train timetables start (we think  ;D ;D ) this December, and AGM start timing will be based on train arrivals from London and from the Far West;  current Saturday timing of the first train from Westbury set the time for this year.   We plan to have a guest speaker; without such an attraction this year we may have lost some attendance, but we weren't short of things to do with a key look through where the software could go, and there are other timing elements to save.

Edit to add ...

I have just added (back) a random image at the top right of each page ... uploading images at the moment.  You should be able to click on any image and see it MUCH bigger.  Image names will be permanent if you want to refer to / comment / ask about any of them.  For a couple of days they may be larger than I would like; network issues at the moment / I will switch to another and compressed set in the next few days.

Works very well saves a great deal of scrolling,for which very many thanks Grahame.

For 4th April next year ... been looking at Saturday train times.  Am I reading this right - as far as I can see the first train from Pewsey / Westbury / Castle Cary doesn't reach Taunton until 10:33 ... nearly half an hour later that at present. 

Am I missing something, or is this all a part of the "race from London" which is degrading intermediate station opportunities?

I think we have multiple threads running that talk about our AGM - however, I'm adding on this one as the one coming up in the calendar.  I will have a look at merging later.

All on tap for the AGM - all welcome, though only members can vote if we have any formal votes. I'm going to suggest  formal start at 11 a.m. with proviso for starting late if the 10:33 (first arrive from Westbury) is absurdly late.

The admin team met with GWR yesterday for our quarterly meeting - hence the splurge of posts this morning - and it' confirmed we'll have a significant update from our major train operator as part of the agenda - be it formal in the AGM, or just before or just after.  Various names were mentioned, but as there are a considerable number of unknowns around, a definite decision as to who's most appropriate will come in a few weeks.

I haven't found the actual address mentioned anywhere.

The Great Western Hotel
Station Approach
Taunton TA1 1QW

If you are coming by train walk out the gate line on the town side (platform 2) and it is the building to the right opposite the station buildings.

Sadly, exits on that side have all been closed  .... the original one to put a gateline in towards the London end, then that new one because the area outside is being redeveloped.  Should be temporary, but ...

Where do the buses to Minehead go from now?

https://www.gwr.com/plan-journey/stations-and-routes/taunton-upgrades from last autumn

Causing a thread drift here but that sounds like the rail/bus connections will be broken.

The stop for buses towards Minehead seems rather random. The "best" directions that I have been given is that the bus leaves from "outside the snooker club that was demolished"

I was in Taunton the other week and noticed then that the Minehead bus was stopped at a stop which was virtually under the railway bridge, on the far side of the road.

I was there again today, and noticed that there do not seem to be any signs at the foot of the road that leads up to the station from the town centre side to alert you that that access to the station is closed. So I imagine many must walk up the slope for a couple of hundred yards before discovering they are going to have to retrace their steps.

The now demolished snooker club WAS near the bridge and on the far side of the main road from station.
But yes, signage could be better.
A lot of bus stops on the route to Minehead are hidden, part of a policy to discourage use and justify withdrawal I cynically suspect.

With the effects (direct or indirect) of the Coronavirus changing the news and mobility now and in upcoming times, there has been a discussion within the moderator's area about our AGM, booked for 4th April in Taunton.  The plan is to send out an agenda at the weekend, but with a prominent statement that a final decision will be taken on a specific date (28th March - 7 days notice?) nearer the time when we can better assess the situation or be told by some higher authority that we cannot hold it.

Even as this plan has been developing, news (and higher authority reactions) have been changing. For the purpose of clarity, there is zero requirement on any member to attend the AGM, and we appreciate that a number of our members are in the higher risk groups. Admins / moderators would be mortified to have anyone feel that they were being put at risk (or indeed worse) by attending.   In any case, meeting notes go online.  No extraordinary resolutions.  And should the final decision be "no", the answer to "what now" may be an online meeting with probably a little longer to prepare, a postponement, or a cancellation for 2020.

Might be some clarification after Boris' Cobra meeting this afternoon?

I'm sure everyone wants to meet up, no substitute for that, but given that almost by definition, forum members are computer literate, if the situation deteriorates in reality (or even merely perception), some form of electronic meeting might be useful. No sure what software would be suitable for that?

As it's a railway related meeting, perhaps this...

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooke_and_Wheatstone_telegraph

Finding terminals and installing may take some time though. ;D

Rather that choosing something new, perhaps "meet the manager" runs as "meet the moderator" or "meet the [speaker]".   Perhaps not the perfect tool, but a tool we all know well, can already use, and don't have to download, don't have to sign up further for, don't have to get to know.

Interactive discussions might be a little slow.

This has, presumably, now been postponed?

Almost certainly.   Confirming change of plans tomorrow.

With the rapidly changing situation, we have pulled forward a decision on the AGM on 4th April - pointless waiting until a week before it was due to happen.


Periodic (usually annual) check point meeting such as our AGM are important milestones in organisations - but whilst they are important, they are rarely urgent.  It is certainly not worth putting our members at any significant risk of catching infection by having the travel to Taunton. It would also be utterly unfair of us on the admin / moderator team to continue with plans that push members into making really difficult "attend or not" decisions for a meeting that is not vital in real life at this point.

The forum continues to run (member will have noticed this!) and indeed provides perhaps ever more useful information, discussion and social facilities now and in the period to come.   Some members have gone very quiet as they deal with personal, work and family issues away from The Coffee Shop; other are here more rather than less - and it's to be celebrated that we're open and available.  New members welcome too.

So is the AGM cancelled, postponed, or replaced by something else?    I don't know; probability is that we'll have some sort of online checkpoint event/ meeting later in the spring - but a decision on the detail of that is a few weeks away.   Most likely we'll use a "Meet the Manager" style session as "Meet the team", but pre-loaded with publications so there's little to surprise anyone on the day.   One of the joys of the Coffee Shop is just how engaged member are all the time - our annual event is not "the one chance to meet the team" that it is at so many traditional AGMs.

Grahame,

Could we not try something like Zoom or similar?

Just a thought.

Tempted - but aware that adding a technology not familiar to all members could be a significant hurdle to them 'attending'.  Ideas under review; "few weeks" as described in the cancellation gives time to look into things and perhaps experiment.