Ideas for reviewing your Ramblers Area (19/4/11)

Over the past year, Kent Area has been undertaking a strategic review, the first part of which focuses on membership recruitment and retention, and the organisation and management of the Area.  It’s been a very thorough job, and its conclusions are quite radical.  Neville Machin, the Area Chair, has written a piece for the ‘features’ section of the volunteer website – so that other Areas can see what Kent has done.  So if you’re thinking of doing something similar in your Area, you may not need to re-invent the wheel.

To read Neville’s article, follow this link: http://www.ramblers.org.uk/Volunteer/VolunteerFeatures/Best+Practice+Kent+Area+Review

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

 

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

General Council 2011 (17/4/11)

Ramblers General Council has now finished; thank you to Oxfordshire
Area for hosting the event so well, within the beautiful surroundings
of Keble College.

The new trustees elected to the board are Naseen Aktar, Andy Rogers,
and Max Grant (each elected for three years), Owen Plunkett (elected
for two years), and James Lawson (elected for one year). Also new to
the Board of Trustees is Denis McAteer, who joins in his capacity as
the new Chair of Wales.

All 17 motions were debated and decided on, of particular note today
being a resolution passed on forestry which makes it clear that we
expect the Ramblers five key tests on protecting and enhancing forest
access to be met before any forest sales, and that if those tests are
not met, sales shouldn't take place.

General Council also endorsed the excellent achievements of the
Ramblers Get Walking programme, aimed at those new to walking, calling
for the concept to be embedded in Ramblers activity after the funding
for this particular project, from the Big Lottery Fund and the
Ramblers Holidays Charitable Trust, comes to an end. It was great to
hear from delegate after delegate on the success of Get Walking in
cities like Manchester and Birmingham. Rodney Whittaker, Ramblers
Chair, made the point that Naseem Aktar - who topped the trustee poll
- first became involved in the Ramblers through Get Walking.

We'll be posting all the resolutions passed on the volunteer website
in the near future.

Tom Franklin
Sent from my iPhone

Ramblers - at the heart of walking
Please visit www.ramblers.org.uk to find out more
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

How do we increase Ramblers membership? (16/4/11)

It's General Council weekend - more than 250 delegates and guests are
heading to Oxford Keble College for the Ramblers AGM.

Delegates will be electing five members of the Board of Trustees,
debating 17 motions ranging from High Speed Rail to the future of
forests, and presenting awards to the 8 winners of the 75th
anniversary volunteer awards.

The theme of the weekend will be, 'How do we increase membership?' and
we will be hearing from Derek Twine, Chief Executive of the Scouts, on
how they achieved membership growth after years of decline.

Membership is vital to the Ramblers future. Members provide the money
to run campaigns and led walks; but they are also the potential
volunteers; and the more members the Ramblers has, the more clout we
have. The potential pool of Ramblers members is vast. There are more
than six million regular walkers in Britain.

I'd like to see more Groups and Areas experiment with different ways
to get in more members. It's only by running lots of small experiments
that we'll learn which ones work and which don't. During General
Council, there will be seven 'good ideas' sessions on membership where
volunteers share 'what works for them' with other volunteers.

Tom Franklin
Sent from my iPhone

Ramblers - at the heart of walking
Please visit www.ramblers.org.uk to find out more
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

Get ready for Ramblers routedls (14/4/11)

Thank you to the volunteers who have helped develop the online Ramblers routes system: Brian Hunt, David Thompson, Elizabeth Heverin, Gillian Salmon, Kate Harding and Kate Roome.

Are you wondering what the Ramblers routes system is?

Well, it's a spin off from Get Walking, Keep Walking, the Ramblers project funded by the Big Lottery Fund and Ramblers Holidays Charitable Trust. 

It's an online routes database, enabling Ramblers volunteers to upload their favourite walking routes. Initially, these will be shared with other volunteers (for example, it'll be a library of walking routes for walk leaders).  In the second phase, we're aiming to open the database to the wider membership and public (it may be that shorter routes are freely available, and longer routes are restricted to members - we're still working on this).

There are other routes libraries online, but ours is going to be the best - as befits Britain's walking charity!  Firstly, it'll be expert Ramblers volunteers uploading the routes; secondly, every route will need to be checked by a second volunteer before being accepted....a way to ensure quality. 

It's going to be rolled out in October [***NB please note: this is now likely to be 2012], but we have some demonstrations of it coming up in the next few months. For more info, check the Ramblers website:

 http://www.ramblers.org.uk/Volunteer/News/walkingroutes

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:

http://www.ramblers.org.uk/
www.ramblers.org.uk/scotland
www.ramblers.org.uk/wales

New National Park today (1/4/11)

Congratulations to the many Ramblers members and volunteers who have
campaigned over the decades for today's achievement: the new South
Downs National Park Authority begins its work from today.

It's a proud day for the Ramblers, alongside the CNP, the CPRE, the
South Downs Campaign, and others.

It'll mean greater protection for the flora and fauna and landscapes
and heritage of the South Downs, and, we hope, improved opportunities
for sustainable leisure activities.

I was on the Today Programme this morning debating with a
representative of the CLA, which wishes to see a watering down of the
planning rules for national parks. Watering down the rules would put
at risk the Park Authorities' ability to conserve that which is so
special about these areas of Britain.

Thanks to the Ramblers volunteers across Britain involved in national
park campaigning.

Tom Franklin
Sent from my iPhone

Ramblers - at the heart of walking
Please visit www.ramblers.org.uk to find out more
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