This is a guide to the Bath BC WhatsApp Community. We are hoping this can be helpful for players looking for an ad-hoc partner for one of the sessions. This is a new venture and it is possible that we get things wrong when setting this up so if you have any suggestions please message us.
 

How does it work?

• You join the community. 
• Once you've joined, you can sign up to the partnering group(s) associated with any of our regular sessions, e.g. Tuesday morning Social Pairs and Wednesday evening Social Pairs.
• If you're looking for a partner for a particular session, you post a message to that group, which is relayed to all its members.
• Anyone interested in partnering you can reply to you - privately - offering to play.
• Once you've decided which if any offer you'd like to accept (assuming there are any, of course) you reply to each respondent either accepting the offer or saying 'Thanks, but I'm sorted now' (or words to that effect).
• You then delete your original request - this signals to the other group members that you're no longer seeking a partner.

Why 'privately'?

It's important that the correspondence between two members remains private. This avoids everyone having their mailboxes cluttered up with unwanted and irrelevant messages, and also avoids any embarrassment that might otherwise arise from offers that are refused.

How to do it?

Follow the simple step-by-step instructions below! 

To join the community click on the picture link below. Alternatively, you can give your mobile number to someone who is already in the group and they can add you. It is also possible to use WhatsApp on your computer if you prefer that.

Note: if you want to sign up on your phone, it's best for you to be reading this on your phone rather than a laptop!
 

Once you've been welcomed into the community (see top screenshot), you'll see a list of groups:
 

As you can see we have created groups for each of the sessions at Bath BC and you are free to join the chats for any group you are interested in. To join a group, simply click on it and then on Join group.
 

If you are looking for a partner you would post something like this:
 

Chris’s name appears here because he has set that in the settings -> profile area of his WhatsApp. Alternatively, you can identify yourself in the group by signing your name at the end of your message.

When someone is looking for a partner there is no obligation on them to agree to partner the first person who responds and we want to keep the number of messages in the group chat to a minimum so we would like everyone to reply privately to the person. The way to do this is to click and hold on the message and the following will pop up (on an Apple device):
 

If you click More… you will see the following:
 

Now click on Reply privately and you will now have a chat open with the person who wrote the post and if you write a message it will only be between you and them. 

By the end of the day the person who wrote the original post should decide who they are going to partner if they have received multiple offers and reply to everyone who messaged them.

Please also delete the original post so that you get no more replies. You can do this by clicking on the message and selecting the Delete option, as shown above.

And that's it!

There are, of course, members who might want to seek a partner but who don't have a mobile phone or are uncomfortable with social media or who lack confidence online.

In these cases, there's nothing to stop a friend (or regular partner) joining the community and acting on their behalf. If you'd need a helping hand in using this new partnering facility - or know someone who might - try and sort something out. If nothing materialises, get in touch with us (via the WhatsApp group) and we'll do our best to come up with something that works for you.

Stuart Bridge & Wendy Powney, January 2025