On Sunday, July 15, 2007 10:39 AM [GMT+1=CET], Adrian Stott <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> "dave hearnden" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > wrote: >> Have you been to the trailboat rally, the campaign rally, Little >> Venice and all the other little festivals/rallys around the >> waterways that have been mentioned on this group >> or other groups as well? > > Yes to many. It is because these work much better as boater > gatherings that I am suggesting enhancing annual regional ones of them > as a replacement for using the National for this purpose. I go quite a long way with what Adrian says on this point - as somebody who has been attending Nationals and smaller events since 1978 - and who has seen Adrian at a lot of them. One thing that is claimed for the National is that it delivers national publicity for the waterways. I don't believe it succeeds in that aim. It does achieve very intense local and regional publicity. But we need to ask ourselves whether large gatherings of boats are the best vehicle for publicity aimed at the non-boating public. Personally when I'm at the National, then if I have time I always walk long some of the moorings to see the participating boats - to me they are of much greater interest than the new boats on display in the trade show - but then I'm a boater. What actually brings the public to the event is the area events, the fun-fair, the non-boaty traders and having a few boats to look at. I don't think that the bloated size of present-day Nationals adds very much. They have got themselves into a vicious circle where size is everything, which means they need a very expensive infrastructure. This means there has to be an admissions charge and a large, profitable trade show. The size and scope of the trade show means that good security is needed, which costs money, and an immense amount of volunteer time setting up and taking down overnight security fences. Even though I've worked at Nationals more years than not over the last 30, and, I think, every year in the last 20 or so, even I begin to wonder whether the return in terms of campaign publicity is worth the cost and effort that goes into the event. In terms of national campaign publicity, last year's was the first time I remember an IWA Chairman using the opening ceremony of the event for a campaigning speech. Well done, John, but what a waste of the past however-many years! I'd like to see a revival of what I think was the best publicity idea IWA ever tried. It was way back in 1983 and was called National Waterways Fortnight. It think the idea came from John Gagg. The idea was to have as many waterways events as possible in the compass of a fortnight. Every IWA Branch was asked to put on at least one event. Some did more than one. Some of these were boat gatherings, others were quite different. I remember taking part in three events in London, all of which had a profiund effect on the later shape of my waterways enthusiasm. One of them was the first Canalway Cavalcade (not then thought of as an annual event), one was an Open Weekend at Greenwich hosted by the (then) Thames Barge Sailing Club at Greenwich (I became a member and have done a lot of sailing with the Club - now a Trust), and the third was a guided walk round the Bow Back Rivers, which have been an obsesssion of mine ever since. Critics of the idea of replacing the National by a series of smaller events often cite as a rreason that there wouldn;t be enough volunteer labour to go round. But events in such a programme don't need necessarily to be miniature local versions of the National. Some of them could be, but it's not the only possibility. Of the three London events I mentioned above, Canalway Cavalcade was and still is like a smaller version of the National, requireing a lot of volunteer input, especially in the site & services department, where Moose and his team do a great job. The TBSC Open weekend only involved the Club members as volunteers - there were not site and services provisions needed because it was held at Greenwich Pier and used no facilities other than the pier and the barges. The Bow Back Rivers walk's requirement of volunteer time was one person for half a day to lead it (and presumably to do a preliminary reconnaissance) plus some work on publicity. Yet this sparked off a campaign to get the rivers restored which campaign, and eventually restoration, has been gpoing on ever wsince and is now going to be transformed (for good or ill) by the Olympic project. IWA needs to escape from the idea that campaigning can only take the form of gatherings of boats. I've always said that IWA will have truly come of age and become a powerful campaigning force when it can hold its National Rally in the true home of British campaigning - Trafalfar Square. Mike Stevens narrowboat Felis Catus III web-site www.mike-stevens.co.uk Defend the waterways. Visit the web site www.saveourwaterways.org.uk
