J Bay Residents Association Communication Overview

One of the main goals of the J Bay Residents Association (Jbayra) is to improve communications between members on matters of interest to the town. We have setup quite a sophisticated infrastructure to help reach this goal, catering for different tastes and levels of computer knowledge. This article brings together all the different communication channels in one place.

1. The website – www.jbayra.com
   
   This is one of our most important resources. On the website you can
1. Link to many other useful J Bay websites
2. On the News page, read about recent developments in the town
3. On the Afrikaans page, read a Q&A about the JBRA, meet the committee, see the JBRA constitution, learn how to join the JBRA, or simply contact us, in Afrikaans.
4. On the English page, you can do all the above in English.
5. On the Info page, see a list of emergency and Municipality contact numbers, download useful forms, view a detailed map of J Bay, and read about the history of J Bay.
6. Plus many other useful features.
   
   
2. The blog - http://jbayra.blogspot.com/
   
   Articles of interest to our town and area are published on the blog, where anyone can read and comment on them. You can register on the blog to receive email notification whenever a new article is published. You can read past articles in the archive. If you would like to submit an article of your own for publication, simply email it to admin@jbayra.com.
   The blog is meant to encourage open and lively debate by residents on the issues confronting the town. You can comment anonymously if you want to.
   
   
3. The email discussion group - https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/jag1
   
   If your computer expertise doesn’t extend much beyond emails, then this is the group for you. You can join the group by visiting the address above, or you can request an invitation to join by sending an email to admin@jbayra.com. Once registered, you can contribute your opinion to the J Bay Activities Group just by sending an email to jag1@googlegroups.com. You will also receive opinions and comments from everybody else in the jag1 googlegroup. It’s a great way to conduct a fast and furious conversation with your fellow residents. If it all gets too much for you, you can limit what you receive, or leave the group at any time.
   
   
4. The Facebook Group - http://www.facebook.com/groups/362765243790458/
   
   If you are addicted to Facebook, then join our Facebook group, called Jbay Residents Association. Invite your friends and neighbours. Share your opinion. Just do it!
   
   
5. Mobilitate Issue Reporting – www.mobilitate.co.za
   
   Some very kind people in Centurion have spent a vast amount of time and money setting up a superb website for municipal oversight, which they make available for FREE. On this website you can
1. Log issues such as potholes, fire hazards, poor service, etc
2. Have these issues automatically escalated to your ward councillor and municipal manager
3. Get stats on all issues logged in your area, responses by councillors and managers, see comments from other residents, etc.
4. Get up to date contact details for your municipality, ward, residents association and community policing forum.
5. Log all crimes committed in your area, view them on a map, gets crime stats, share information with other residents.
6. Get free SMS notification of crime and safety alerts, such as bridge collapse, suspicious characters, etc.
7. And much more.
   
   To take full advantage of Mobilitate you must first register on their website. You can use your Facebook account to register and login very simply.
   
   
6.  Mobilitate Crimespotter -  http://gotcha.crimespotter.co.za
   
   This is a facility within the Mobilitate website to setup a Community Policing Forum (CPF) on which crimes and crime alerts can be logged, displayed on a map, communicated to other CPF members (by email and SMS), and manage neighbourhood watch patrols.
   You don’t have to rely on dubious annual police stats to know what is going on in your own area.

All of these facilities depend totally on one thing – the willingness of Jeffreys Bay Residents to use them! 

You can proudly claim that you are not computer literate enough, that you are too old for these things, that its too complicated, that no one is interested in your opinion, that you don’t want to look like a fool in public, that nobody reads this stuff anyway, that nothing will happen or be done, that its all just a waste of time. 

Or you can do something. You can take a risk. You can make the effort. Its up to you.