If I were to say the two simple words “thank you” face-to-face to every single person of the Ramblers’ volunteer force, it would take 25 days, non-stop. 18,000 people give their time and expertise to help the Ramblers – whether leading walks, checking footpaths, running groups, recruiting members, or the myriad of other jobs involved in running the Ramblers.
Without you, there wouldn’t be a Ramblers. I had a reminder this morning that this is “National Volunteers Week”, so I thought this was as good a time as ever to say ‘thank you’. You know who you are, you know what you do, and you know the difference you make.
I appreciate that we can help you by finding ways to make volunteering easier and less bureaucratic. One of the points often made by potential volunteers is that they would like to form a new walking group – for example, for short walks, or for people who want to walk dogs, or early morning walks – but they don’t want to go through the bureaucracy and hurdles of having to set up a fully-fledged group from scratch. This also stops us increasing the range of walks we can offer – which is vital for membership growth.
After consultation with Areas and Groups, we’re trialling out a new type of Ramblers group, which we’re calling ‘Easygroups’. The idea is that they are easy to set up and run – without needing a committee, a constitution, etc. We’re going to pilot this concept with a small number of existing groups that are finding it hard to fill all of their committee places, and with people who want to set up new walking groups from scratch. If you’d like to know more about this, there’s an article on the volunteer website: http://www.ramblers.org.uk/Volunteer/News/easygroupsnews
This is just one of the ways that I hope we’re making it easier to volunteer with the Ramblers.
Tom Franklin
Chief Executive
Follow my tweets at http://twitter.com/RamblersTom
Follow my blog for Ramblers volunteers at http://www.ramblers.org.uk/Volunteer/chief+executives+blog
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The Ramblers’ Association is a registered charity (England & Wales no 1093577, Scotland no SC039799) and a company limited by guarantee, registered in England & Wales (no 4458492). Registered office: 2nd floor, Camelford House, 87-90 Albert Embankment, London SE1 7TW.
Visit our website at:
www.ramblers.org.uk
www.ramblers.org.uk/scotland
www.ramblers.org.uk/wales
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