Seasons' greetings from the committee of the Wiltshire LDWA

Hi everyone,

Seasons' greetings to all our members. If you read my manifesto which led to my election as your new Chair at our recent Annual General Meeting (AGM), you will already know how strongly I feel about the need for the committee to communicate with you all. Obviously there are many of you who are no longer able to walk with us, however your support is still valued. Since we may be unable to chat on walks, the newsletter bridges that gap.

I'd like to thank Andy Todd for his time as Chair. I'd also like to thank all those who worked hard to get me elected, and who attended the AGM to vote for me. Despite being elected the group’s Chair, I still don’t feel in anyway euphoric or victorious. I am, however, feeling excited and optimistic for the group’s future, and am looking forward to proving the doubters wrong. The AGM was not this group's finest hour. The venue was excellent, as was the food, but what followed wasn’t. Hosting a social occasion before a business meeting puts unnecessary added pressure on the person coordinating the latter. Personally, I think we need to change the running order, and present a slicker (scripted) meeting that is time limited. One good thing to note is that, if the voting circumstances are to be repeated next year, at least we now have a precedent to follow.

Seeing as I was voted in on the promise of delivering what I set out in my manifesto, that is what I now intend to do. The key deliverables will therefore be:

• The reintroduction of the monthly newsletter. The two essential features I want included each month are the walk leaders' volunteers list (that attendees were invited to add their names to, and the Forthcoming Walks for the month ahead (including those hosted by other groups within a 50-mile radius of ...);
• Committee meeting minutes will be published online via our website, with highlights summarised in the aforementioned newsletter;
• The walks programme will be based on - but not exclusively - a regular drumbeat, i.e. 1st and 3rd Sundays, and the middle Thursday. Hopefully the latter will start to include the popular pub lunch, which so many of us remember fondly;
• There will be a separate PDA sub-committee, which will report to the main group committee. One of the tasks of the sub-committee will be to look at the best system for recording entrants' progress. A couple of volunteers have put their names forward to run the PDA;
• All those volunteering at the Hundred will receive a financial 'thank you' for taking part. Those volunteering at the PDA will get their expenses paid and will continue to get a discount on their xmas meal. Members will be invited to submit ideas for how we spend the excess. Those ideas will be shared to all members, before any decision is reached;
• Walks details will be emailed to all primary members as early as possible. Meetup should be only used in support of our own walks listing. Walks details on Meetup must include 'the LDWA is a membership organisation. Walkers may attend 3 walks, before they are expected to join'. We also need to better manage the expectations of our members and those joining us, by including more details about the walks we offer;
• Walk registers will be reintroduced. Not only is it still a requirement of the LDWA, it is also useful to understand the health of the group. We need to know who our active members are, as they are potentially our walk leaders, committee members and volunteers of the future. We also need to monitor those who join walks via Meetup. The continued use of Meetup will be dependent on the number of LDWA members we actually recruit.

In the two weeks since the AGM, I'd like to think I've been busy on your behalf. My priority has been the organisation of the PDA. I've been 'chatting' to Janette regarding the organisation, and we've brought John French onboard to help with this. Hopefully we can set up the PDA sub-committee soon. I've also emailed the LDWA Chair, Madeleine Watson, regarding the closure of the Bristol & West group. Nothing appears to have been set in stone. Whilst those living in Gloucestershire have been allocated to the Heart of England (HofE) group, Madeleine's advice was to continue to lead walks in the county, and hope members will be drawn to us. She also suggested I contact the HofE group, so that we can avoid clashing with them. I've also tidied up our website. Thank you to Sue for arranging my access to the LDWA's online administration area.

New Walks

In future walks details will be sent directly to members by the walks secretary as soon as they are known. Since I have this opportunity I'll share the details of the two walks that have been published since the AGM, noting that there a still two walks this year.

• I am leading a walk from Kemble railway station on 4th January. Owing to some seriously waterlogged ground, this will  now be a 16½-mile walk. Jacqui and Tony 'helped' me recce the route on Sunday. They won't be happy if they have to wade through 12 inches of water again! The route heads over to Tarlton and Sapperton, before heading through Cirencester Park, and returning via Ewen; and
• Simon has offered to lead a 16-mile walk on 19th February from Smallgrain plantation car park up and over the North Wessex Downs.

Many names were added to the walk leaders list at the AGM. The list will published in each newsletter. Those in italics had question marks against their names on the original list. 

Pewsey Downsaround (PDA)

We had a good response when the volunteers list for the PDA was passed around at the AGM. However, Janette tells me that we still need more volunteers. There are a number of roles available. If you can't be available all day, don't worry. We'll gratefully accept whatever help you can provide. It's a popular event, and you will get to meet some lovely people. I particularly enjoy the camaraderie of working with others. Please contact me as soon as possible if you can help.

Walk Leaders Still Needed

As always we continue to need more individuals to lead walks. If you walk with us on a regular basis then please offer to lead a walk. Now is also the time to start thinking about any 'specials' that you could organise next year. These include walks where there is a cost to running the walk (e.g. a minibus), which the group can fund some of the cost. Chatting to some of our members who are no longer up to the 15 to 20 miles that the rest of us aspire to, it occurred to me that we should offer to lead more figure of 8 walks. 

Forthcoming Walks

Finally, here's the usual look ahead to all the group walks and challenge events that are taking place within a 50-mile radius of Chippenham.

That's it for this newsletter. All our newsletters will be available via the Wiltshire LDWA website. If you have anything to contribute to future editions, please can you get it to me or Sue by the 20th of each month. I look forward to seeing you out on our group walks on the 31st December and 4th January.

Warmest regards

Clive

Chair of the Wiltshire LDWA
wiltshire.chair@ldwa.org.uk