The Kiwikrane group was set up to form a community where the franchisees could openly communicate with each other, and remain informed with developments and updates. The benefit to the members since the inception of the group has been widely acknowledged and we wish to continue with the success of the group achieved so far. To do this, the group needs to maintain a positive decorum and encourage contributions from all the members. We need franchisees to contribute with constructive and relevant posts and not create negativity.

The purpose of the group is to:

• Post information on new products or events
• Run competitions
• Encourage franchisees to share successes or failures with machines, products, or sites
• Keep franchisees feeling as though they are part of a bigger whole
• Share Krane-related stories

The purpose of the group is not to:

• Complain, rant, rave, or grandstand
• Publicly embarrass the franchisor
• Address your unique issues
• Share personal non-business stories

By and large, the group is very positive. Many members make very valuable contributions to the forum, but others have become reluctant to post to the group due to adverse responses received when they post. Sometimes a positive post is made by a franchisee, and another will turn it around into something negative. In addition, statements are made from time to time without any real substance or backup that can cause confusion and uncertainty among new franchisees.

There are silent members out there who could have a major contribution to the group, and the objective is to create an environment to encourage posts from all members.

As members, you are encouraged to contribute to the group, share your experiences, get advice, and ask questions about products or projects, and we will try to answer. Please remember this is a business forum, and we are business people and expect professionalism of each other. We accept that we should be open to suggestions and improvement, so feel free to make those — but no one responds well to outright criticism, rude or offhand remarks in a public forum. Remember that all the team at Kiwikrane work very hard to make the business a success, and we are sensitive to criticism. You have a business that may not be perfect, but compared to many other businesses and franchises, the problems you have are generally minor. The most successful franchisees are those who see the glass as "Half full" not "Half empty" and work to improve what they have.

Group admins have the ability to authorize every post beforehand, but we don't want to go down this track unless we have to — we would rather let the posts flow naturally in a constructive manner with etiquette. Being a member of the Group is a privilege, not a right, and we will remove negative and nonconstructive posts or ban group members temporarily or permanently if required. Remember, there are often new franchisees whose first impression of the franchise will be the posts on this group. By maintaining a high standard on this group, you help to retain the value of your business as we create a community that is helpful and encouraging, not critical and depressing. And while we all love humour, most humour works because of the tone in which it is delivered. Because the written word has no tone, it can be easy to offend when you were originally just trying to be funny — so unless it's self-deprecating, be careful.

Regarding more serious disputes or problems: Don't use this group. There are proper channels if you have a dispute. Please read this section.

We do expect you at a minimum to be viewing posts. We would appreciate it if you regularly contributed with either positive posts, suggestions, ideas, or helpful comments on other people's posts.

Having said all that, we too want to keep this page positive. Kiwikrane group is a very worthwhile and encouraging forum, and we are proud of how it works.

Thank you for helping to make Kiwikrane Group a great place to be.