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Thank you, everybody, for electing me into the TB council.<br>
<br>
One thing that we can do better is to reach out to end users. Some
people are already working hard to give end users support. Thank you
for that!<br>
<p>We should also try to find new users. Most people I know just use
either webmail or a smartphone app to read mail. They know what an
email client is. Once I installed Thunderbird for some "mom and
dad" type users, they were overjoyed: "I don't have to log in
anymore. I just open Thunderbird on my computer and boom! All my
emails are there!" and "I have my 2 emails accounts both in the
same place. No need to check several websites. That saves so much
time". For me, the 3 key reasons are:</p>
<ul>
<li>efficient use</li>
<li>privacy</li>
<li>user empowerment</li>
</ul>
<p><br>
</p>
<h2>How can we reach new users?<br>
</h2>
<p>I have some ideas, but hopefully, you have more:<br>
</p>
<ul>
<li>Introduction tutorials for new users of Thunderbird, e.g.</li>
<ul>
<li>On the website, as explanations of the advantages of
Thunderbird for end users. Not just the power user features
like advanced filtering, but what Mom and Dad users get from
an email client.</li>
<li>As videos on YouTube or WebM</li>
</ul>
<li>A blog, Twitter account, Facebook: Posting new good
developments of Thunderbird. E.g. the vote of the new council,
any requests for contributors when we identified a need etc. Any
new features, releases we did.</li>
<li>Organizing "onboarding parties", where existing local users
and community members think of ways to make Thunderbird and the
concept of an email client (in contrast to webmail) and its
advantages known to a new group of users. Each group could find
their own ways of doing that. We'd establish a mailing list to
let these different regional groups can exchange experiences and
ideas and material.</li>
</ul>
<br>
Questions:<br>
<ul>
<li>How else could we get new Thunderbird users? Do you have any
other ideas?</li>
<li>Who would like to get active, in one of the above tasks? It
shouldn't just be a spur of the moment action, but a continuous
nurturing of the communication channels.</li>
</ul>
<br>
We've discussed this in the past, and there've been people already
itching to help with this. This is great! Those of you who want to
help, please reply with what you want to help with. If you have
already pertinent experience, please include it.<br>
<br>
Ben<br>
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