To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]: [EMAIL PROTECTED]: Thu, 9 Oct 2008 16:43:01
+0000Subject: [canals-list] Re: BW Annual Meeting
Richard wrote:Or there's the other other option which is pretty much what I
said at the AGM: volunteer involvement on a very large scale.The National Trust
gets 3.1 million volunteer hours every year (I said 2.3 million yesterday:
someone with more up-to-date figures has since corrected me!). Even at minimum
wage, i.e. assuming largely unskilled volunteers, that works out at £18m
equivalent.If some of the volunteers are skilled then you're getting a lot
closer to closing that £29m gap. BW has historically considered volunteers
suitable only for towpath clean-ups or for shovelling mud. The NT and lots of
comparable organisations, however, have volunteers at every, every level - the
"search for volunteer opportunities" bit of their website is really
illuminating. A lot of what BW does can be done by volunteers - indeed, on the
Chelmer & Blackwater (and to some extent the Avon) it _is_. BW is currently way
behind the curve.The good bit is that this is in itself an extra contribution
(over and above GiA) from walkers, cyclists etc. - because most volunteers
wouldn't be boaters.The difficult bit is that you have to reinvent BW, maybe
even restructuring "OpCo" as a charitable trust (one of the things mentioned in
the KPMG report), so that people _want_ to volunteer for it, so that people
feel a sense of ownership. People need to feel that they're our waterways, not
BW's.
Moose says what about Wrg, a lot of the weekends and digs that are carried out
during the course of a normal year, working on various project etc count for
match funding, and yes, hours working on a scrub bash is charged less than say
brick work.
I think a lot of Wrg would say that BW need to change there thoughts on say H&S
and the way they treat volunteers, but all them hours for the National trust,
how much is (still important), litter picking and cutting a the grass or tiding
the borders. Slightly different on a H&S side to clearing out a lock.
No we don't have so many volunteers, but I wonder if because the work could be
so different.
You mention the Chelmer and Blackwater, here is a IWA lead waterway, how about
all the boaters and armchair readers reading this come along, for a working
party (all volunteers) on the first weekend of November no experience required?
As you can guess I'm leading the weekend there should be a few! people there,
book in through Head Office (IWA), don't even have to do a whole day?
Any questions can always email off line
Moose
nb theeverhopeful
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