TRIAL CHANGE TO QUALIFYING EVENTS FOR EBB 100
When I'm out walking the topic of qualifiers for the 100 comes up fairly often in conversation. The consensus of opinion seems to be that having completed a LDWA hundred is as good preparation for a future one, in terms of understanding what is required, as a possibly more recent 50 mile event.
At the recent NEC meeting it was agreed to trial allowing completion of one of the last 3 LDWA hundreds (or their marshals' events) to count as a qualifier. It does have to be completion of the whole event not just the first 50 miles. This would add the Hadrian (with the appalling overnight weather!) and the virtual Sir Fynwy hundreds to the list as it stands. After the event we will look at how many people used this route to qualify and whether there were any unintended consequences.
I would welcome any comments based on experience where this would have helped or hindered are welcome. Sara Dyer 100s Coordinator
THE NATIONAL OUTDOOR EXPO NEC BIRMINGHAM 18/19 March 2023
The LDWA is sponsoring a stand at the National Outdoor Expo. The Stand will be operated by John Pucknell
John is going to be the Speaker at the 2023 AGM where he will talk about his adventures on the European Long Distance Paths. His book about his travels, Six Pairs of Boots: Spain to Cyprus on the E4 Trail has been reviewed in Strider.
John will be publicising his book and telling people about the LDWA. If anyone wants to join him at the NEC to tell people about Challenge Walks he would welcome some support
STRIDER SURVEY
Thanks to all of you who responded. We got far more replies than we expected and the Data Analysis team are working flat out to make sense of it all. There will be an update at the Local Group Officers Weekend later this month and we hope to get a report on provisional findings ready for the AGM so that the new Strider Editor will have something to work with when he takes over for the August issue
A NEW MEMBERSHIP SYSTEM
The role of Membership Secretary has always the most arduous of the NEC posts as it involved processing all new membership applications and the annual round of membership renewals. Now that we have in the region of 12000 members and with new members joining almost daily the workload is just too much even for a dedicated volunteer. The membership renewals on 31st December will be the end of an era. After that the system will be gradually transferred to SiEntries who will be handling new membership applications from March 2023 and most membership renewals in December 2023.
We will let you know more as the new system comes into play
VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES
As well as vacancies on the NEC for Local Groups Officer, Environment Officer and Membership Secretary there are a lot of other roles behind the scenes
Most of these will not take more than an hour or so a week
Details of all the available jobs are in the Toolkit
This time I want to ask you to think about taking on the job of Discounts officer . Ideally you should have some marketing skills and be comfortable in negotiating with large and small firms to tell them about what we can offer them in exchange for members discounts.
These discounts are one of the big advantages of LDWA Membership and we need to make sure that members get the best terms available when they buy walking related stuff
