Just a quick apology for the weird construction of some sentences. I have a new laptop and the bloody cursor jumps around and I find myself typing in a the middle of a sentence that I have already finished and I usually spot it but on re-reading the post below I see some glaring examples that I missed so words appear where there shouldn't and are missing where they should be. [Its obviously a driver problem but I've been unable to fnd the solution] So I hope that you were able to make some sense of 'I predict that you will SOW and all user groups' which should have read 'I predict you fill find that SOW and all user groups'
Cheers Will From: nbquidditch Sent: Thursday, October 09, 2008 6:46 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [canals-list] Re: BW Annual Meeting --- In [email protected], Steve Wood <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Will wrote: > > > In a nutshell, SOW's strategy is to get members organised in > > constituency units which will enable our members to campaign in a > > concerted way to make sure issues (and opportunities) affecting their > > local waterways are understood and supported by MP's and local > > authorities. > > My understanding when SOW started was it was a specific response to the > government cuts. It now sounds increasingly like it wants to be a rival > to IWA. Replace the letters "SOW" with "IWA" in the above... Should we > really be trying to splinter off in multiple directions at such an > important time? Will, I admire your enthusiasm for the fight but I can't > help thinking that the growth you are looking for in SOW will actually > harm not help the single big cause we are all fighting for. > There is no intention to compete with or emulate IWA or, indeed, any other user group. When we became a membership-based organisation last April we made it clear that our main thrust would be to attract members from amongst what we call 'casual users' of the waterways. In other words, people who are not represented by any user group but who happen to be 95% of all users, namely, the non-specialist users of the waterways. The dog walker, the family out on a Sunday stroll, people that enjoy the waterside pub of our open strategy meeting just because it is what it is, a free recreational space. In the past, IWA have intimated that they represent such members but we think there is little evidence of that. If you only used your local canal towpath for a Sunday walk to the pub would you join IWA (At £26/pa)? On the other hand, if SOW pointed out to you that the towpath that you use to walk to the pub might be unusable in a few years time, I venture to suggest that you might support SOW for a fiver. I hasten to add that we already have the support of user groups like Nabo and AWCC as well as many Regional and local IWA branches. I predict that you will SOW and all user groups working very closely together in the very near future in a way that makes it quite clear what different roles we are playing. All of these points and many other related issues will be raised at our strategy meeting at the Lichfield Cruising Club this Saturday. It is at these meetings that future SOW campaign issues are decided and the meetings are open to all comers. I don't think we can do much more than that. So come along and support us by helping to formulate our policies. See the agenda and other details on www.saveourwaterways.org. Cheers Will [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
