Dear All,

Thank you to everyone who gave feedback on the proposal to stop advertising social walks in Strider and instead move to solely electronic advertising. There were just 7 members who wished to retain advertising in Strider so we have decided to drop the Strider adverts for a trial period. There are several advantages to this; it will encourage leaders who cannot plan too far ahead to offer walks, it will enable us to be more flexible as the infection risk unfolds, it should result in fewer amendments needing to be made, and it will take the pressure off particular deadlines for inputting data.

Some walk leaders expressed concern that they would no longer be able to say 'see Strider for contact details' rather than sharing their personal contact information on the internet. This is something that the National Committee is aware of and is working on. Please rest assured that no-one will need to publish contact details openly on the internet unless they are comfortable with this.

Inevitably there will be some of you who are disappointed with this decision, but I would ask you to give the electronic system a try. The social walk search facility is excellent if you are going away somewhere; you can search for walks of your chosen length within a radius of a particular place. There is thus no need to search through all the local groups' listings. If after a reasonable trial you still feel the system isn't working for you then please contact me to discuss.

I hope we will soon get news that we can begin to offer some LDWA social walks, but in the meantime please put all your independent lock-down walks to good use and plan something that you could lead in future.

With best wishes and hoping to see you again soon,

Anne Brown

Dorset LDWA Walks Secretary

dorset.ldwa.walks@gmail.com

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