Well done, Greater Manchester and High Peak Ramblers, and Get Walking, Keep Walking
There have been some fantastic 75th anniversary baton walks taking place across the country since the start of our anniversary year. In March, it was the turn of Wales, with a thumping 83% of Ramblers Groups putting on baton walks. Last Saturday, I attended the special baton walk to the top of Kinder Scout, organised by the Groups in Greater Manchester and High Peak Area, together with our Get Walking, Keep Walking scheme, on the anniversary of the 1932 Kinder mass trespass. A short video of the event is below. It was a brilliant event, and received some great publicity, including in the Manchester Evening News.
To me, it highlighted one of the benefits of doing Get Walking, Keep Walking-style schemes to introduce new people to walking. I lost count of the number of people on Saturday who told me that Get Walking, Keep Walking had inspired them to take up walking. It was moving to see experienced Ramblers members supporting and encouraging those who were attempting such a strenuous walk for the first time - and you could see in those newcomers’ faces the sense of achievement when they succeeded. And the people on the walk were a reflection of society as it is today: young and old; white, black and asian; men and women. The event on Saturday showed why we must never stop reaching out to new people.
I feel sure that, 78 years on, those who took part in that Kinder Scout trespass would have felt pride in that Ramblers walk - mixed, welcoming, and positive. Congratulations to all the many volunteers who put the event on.
624 and rising....
That’s the number of Parliamentary Candidates who have now signed up to our manifesto, thanks to the huge effort from Areas and Groups, and our non-Area and Group volunteers too. 35 of them are specific ‘targets’ - in other words, candidates who we have identified as having no prior contact with the Ramblers and yet likely (well...on paper likely!) to win their seat - and thus potential MPs we can cultivate a relationship with.
So more than one in four of all candidates standing have now signed up to the manifesto. Our biggest ‘catch’ so far is none other than Nick Clegg. If we want to get one in three signed up we need to reach 712 candidates - so if you haven’t done so already, email your candidates now...it’s the last opportunity to do so.
By the way, I’m a fan of us using social networking media like Facebook and Twitter to help with our campaigning (something else which isn’t popular with everyone - but I think is essential if we are to engage younger people). Through the Ramblers Facebook page and website, we’ve had 675 people helping to get candidates signed up - many of them have not been involved in Ramblers campaigning before.
If you’re a member of Facebook, why not join the Ramblers Facebook Page? It’s easy - click here. If you’re not a member of Facebook, then why not join up (it’s free) and then join our Facebook page?
Membership applications and renewals
As of last Friday, the central office membership team were processing all membership applications and renewals, and responding to all post and emails, within 10 working days of receipt (the target) - and most were much quicker than this.
This is a major improvement. Not that long ago, whichever Ramblers Area or Group I was visiting, the biggest issue that volunteers would be concerned about would be membership processing and the CRM system. That is rarely the case these days.
It has been a very long journey, and I know there are still some issues, but the situation is now far better, and continuing to improve.
We are this year going to commission a short review, looking at the lessons of what went wrong, to help with next time a major project like this is undertaken.
In the meantime, now that membership processing is working, I’d like to see the focus for the coming year being to boost membership - to finish the year with more members than we started. If we achieved this, it would be the about the first time in a decade!
Areas and Groups are vitally important in boosting membership, and you may want to look at the information we’ve published about groups - showing the range in size and activities. We want to know more about why some groups are growing, while others are shrinking.
Celebrating our unsung volunteer heroes
I often mention the Ramblers unsung volunteer heroes in my blog. But I know there are other volunteers, who I don’t know about, doing amazing things for the Ramblers. On 1st June, as part of our 75th anniversary celebrations, we are launching our Volunteer Awards. There are lots of categories, and we’re looking for nominations for people in traditional roles – such as protecting footpaths – to new roles – such as web masters. Details, and the nomination form, will be published in the June edition of Walk Magazine and also online.
That’s all for now. I shall look forward to seeing many of you at the various special baton walks and Get Walking Day walks taking place during May.
