Welcome and thank you for volunteering to lead a walk for the Surrey group. We are gathering together everything you need to know in one place on this page to make life simpler.

Thinking of offering a walk?  Talk to the Walks Secretary about suitable dates and give them a rough idea of the location so we can offer members some variety.  S/he will agree a date with you.  

In order to publish the details they’ll need some information about the proposed walk from you, preferable a couple of months before the walk date.  Specifically:

Date

Start Time

Distance - in miles

Place of start and finish - name and grid reference  you may also wish to note the W3W and postcode.  Note that one postcode can have a large coverage in a rural area.

Pace - relaxed, moderate or brisk

Terrain - flat, undulating or hilly

(Definitions of pace and terrain can be found here.)

Your name

Your contact details - email and/or ‘phone number.  Due to the long lead time needed, we no longer publish our social walks in Strider, just on our web page.  

Brief description of the walk including route, highlights and whether you will allow dogs.  Availability, if any, of cafés, pubs, etc  

You will need to recce the walk beforehand, once you have planned it.  If you would like someone to come with you just ask.  There are experienced walk leaders who would be very happy to walk round it with you.  Whilst going round note any potential hazards or problems and do a risk assessment.  You may find it useful to put this in writing for reference - see this reference list.  Think about where you plan to have coffee, tea and lunch stops - maybe near some logs/seats or maybe somewhere sheltered or with a nice view.  

On the day arrive at least 15 minutes before the start time and ask walkers to complete the social walks register which you have printed off beforehand and brought with you.  Appoint a back marker - their role is to stay at the back and ensure that no one gets lost on the way.  They will need to be aware when people peel off for comfort stops to make sure they rejoin the walk.  Also ask someone to take some pics along the way for our archives. Ensure new people are happy for their pic to be taken and used, if not ensure the picture person knows this and any pics inadvertently including such people are deleted. When it’s time to start give a brief introduction and then set off. Before you set off count the number of walkers and repeat this count when you wait for the group to regroup at intervals, eg after ascending a steep hill or when the group has become too spread out.  Stay aware of the whole group, including faster walkers at the front and those at the back. At lunch time announce clearly when and where, you want people to regroup to restart the walk.

You should know where you are at all times, in case you need to summon help or lead the group off the route for any reason.  

All walkers should carry a personal first aid kit.  There are a number of qualified first aiders amongst our regular walkers who can help if first aid is required.  Should anything untoward happen and an ambulance be required make the ‘phone call and send someone to the nearest access point/road to guide the crew to the casualty.  Keep the rest of the group calm and at a distance from the incident.  If necessary you may delegate a competent person/persons to accompany the person concerned to leave the walk and access transport back to the start/their vehicle/public transport.  If appropriate an accident form should be completed and the group secretary sent a copy - they will help you complete this.  This is best done as soon as you return home from the walk.

At the end of the walk give the walks register to the walks secretary if present, or email it to them.  If emailed then destroy the original by shredding etc to maintain confidentiality.  Ask the pic person to forward the pics to the secretary. 

The national guidelines for leading a walk have been updated and provide useful information for both experienced leaders and those relatively new to the scene.

Finally thank you for leading the walk, without walk leaders we would have no social walks.  If you have any further queries don’t hesitate to ask the walks secretary.