In keeping up with what’s going on in YHA, one vital source is the press release page on their web site. It’s the official outlet for YHA-related news stories.
But there’s a problem: the only way to know when a new story has been posted is to go and visit that page. Every day you have to check on the off-chance that a new announcement might have been made (well, you do if you’re running a hostelling news web site!), and pretty unrewarding those visits can be when you remember that YHA went for six months last year without finding a single story worth remarking on.
How much simpler life would be if the press release page had an RSS feed. Then we could keep track of it using a feed reader alongside whatever other blogs and news sources we might follow.
Well, rather than wait for the upcoming YHA website redesign to (hopefully) fill this need, I decided to do something about it myself. I’ve written a program that regularly visits the YHA web site, scans it for new stories, and generates an RSS feed from what it sees. It also checks the special offers page, and makes a feed from that too. All you have to do is pipe them into your feed reader of choice (personally I use Google Reader) and you can be kept right up-to-date on every new development at Matlock. I’ve also built similar feeds to pick up news from the other UK hostelling organisations.
These are pretty basic feeds: only the title of each story is shown, not the content, and the dates are either those given on the site (where there is one), or the date when my script first saw the story (where there isn’t). Note that the associations sometimes give a story a date that’s some days before (or even after) the date it appears on their website.
Feed readers aren’t the only place where RSS feeds can be useful. There are various tools out there that can use them to syndicate the content of the site providing the feed onto another (RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication”). I’ve used some of these tools to produce the “Hostelling News” box on the Leicester YHA home page – this shows the six most recent hostelling news stories from a variety of sources.
YHA have announced that 23 of their hostels have been accredited under the Red Tractor scheme, ensuring that the raw meat they use in their catering is 100% British produce.
The tractor mark also offers an assurance that farmers meet high standards of food safety and hygiene, animal welfare and environmental protection when producing the meat.
Membership of the scheme allows YHA to further its charitable objective – encouraging greater knowledge, love and care of the countryside by eating its products! It also serves the environmental aim of reducing food miles.
The one exception to the all-British plan is bacon, where the cheapness and availability of Danish supplies makes it hard to replace with British alternatives. However, this may change in the future. It’s also hoped that more hostels will be added to the scheme.
A number of our youth hostels now have alcohol licences, so you can buy a glass of wine or a beer to enjoy in the hostel in the evening. Look out for the wine glass symbol on the relevant hostel pages – so far Edinburgh Central, Glasgow, Corrour Station House, Stirling, Crianlarich and Rowardennan Lodge hostels all have licences. We are hoping to get alcohol licences for more of our hostels in the future, so you don’t have to bring drinks with you, but can still relax with a drink or two at the end of the day.
That last sentence raises the question “will hostellers still be allowed to bring their own drinks to licensed hostels?”. The rules are against this south of the border, and very unpopular rules they are too – as discussed before on the pages of this site.
I’ve written to SYHA for clarification on this matter, but a thumb through their Terms & Conditions brings some cause for optimism though (emphasis mine):
In licensed hostels beer, cider and wine purchased in the hostel are permitted within designated areas within the hostels as per the licensing laws in Scotland. The consumption of alcohol not purchased in the hostel is only permitted in the self catering dining rooms together with a meal at the discretion of the hostel manager. Guests are requested to consider the collective needs and comfort of others in the hostel (see Code of Conduct, section 1.3.5 below). Under Section 68 of The 1976 Licensing (Scotland) Act it is an offence for any person under 18 to buy or attempt to buy alcohol or consume alcohol. It is also an offence to buy alcohol for consumption by a person under 18.
Anyhow, I’m off to Scotland for some alcohol-fuelled hostelling…
* I’m not sure how new this actually is, but if they consider it “News”, so can I!
It’s not quite the end of electrical improvements at the hostel: the batteries used to store the solar energy for night time use are unable to deal with the amount of energy the new system can deliver – leading to wastage. New batteries will cost £3000, which is the next fundraising target for the “Friends of Skiddaw House”.
If you want to lend your own support, the hostel’s website has information on how you can help.
The Association will operate the college’s on-campus student accommodation, serving students during term-time and opening up as a hostel during the holidays. The regular hostel in Perth closed some years ago, so this will fill that gap in the network, albeit for only part of the year.
Hostels have long operated in student accommodation both north and south of the border, in Edinburgh and in Durham for example, but this is the first case I know of where a hostelling association has been a provider of such services as well as consumers of it. Who knows, if it works in Perth we may see this approach down here too.
Yahoo Travel and Visit Britain have put together a list of “Britain’s highest and most precarious places to rest your head” entitled Top 10 Rooms with a View. The good news for YHA is that two of the places selected are YHA youth hostels: Coniston Coppermines and Pen-Y-Pass.
Whilst I’m really pleased to see YHA getting such good publicity, it’s a slightly strange choice. As already established in a comment on this site, YHA has higher hostels than these two: Coniston at 190m and Pen-Y-Pass at 359m don’t measure up to Langdon Beck at 383m, and Skiddaw House towers above them all at 470m! I’m also not sure about the views – the view from Wastwater YH (albeit from the grounds rather than any of the rooms) was recently voted Britain’s favourite. I guess they were just spoiled for choice when it comes to lofty hostels with impressive views, where would you have chosen?
In fact, given that their core business is delivering accommodation in scenic parts of the country, “A Room with a View” would be a really good slogan for YHA to use. They’d certainly have no shortage of suitable rooms to choose from.
If you want a cheap break, try a hostel - many are geared up to families these days. The YHA says it has family rooms still available on various dates over the summer holidays at family-friendly hostels in Ambleside (the Lake District), Malham (North Yorkshire) and Sheringham (the North Norfolk coast), and at the recently built National Forest hostel in Derbyshire.
So be prepared to meet a few Mail-reading families in the common rooms of Britain, and – who knows – with all this A Room with a View stuff, maybe Helena Bonham-Carter too!
The information provided suggests the buyer might want to continue to operate each site as a hostel, and offers to include fixtures and fittings to that purpose. So there’s a possibility that each of these might survive in some form, albeit as independents.
The six-storey, grade 2 listed Granary is in the process of becoming a vibrant multi-use facility including a Youth Hostel, meeting rooms and bistro managed by YHA and Art Gallery managed by Dewars Lane Art Gallery Company.
The third and fourth floor of the building will be the Youth Hostel accommodation which will have 55 beds, all en suite and facilities for disabled guests.
The Marketing team are currently making plans for YHA Berwick’s website page to be built so we can start promoting the new facility to our customers and start taking bookings over the coming months before the hostel officially opens in February 2011.
The building is still predominantly a building site at the moment, but most of the hostel bedrooms and bathrooms are now painted along with the communal areas such as the lounge, dining room and self catering kitchen so our newest edition to the YHA network is coming along nicely!
YHA Berwick fact: The building has a 1.2 metre lean – greater than the famous leaning Tower of Pisa!
Further south in the county, there’s further news of a scheme we last heard of back in November: a hostel opening in Alnwick. According to the Northumberland Gazette, the Alnwick Community Development Trust has been working with the YHA on plans to open a hostel in the town. If those plans are approved, the 57 bed hostel could be open as early as spring next year. It’ll be a proper hostel too:
The hostel will have a reception, small shop, lounge, drying room and boot store, as well as a classroom, communal dining room, self-catering kitchen and a serviced kitchen.
Delegates met at Oxford earlier this month for the YHA’s 80th anniversary Annual General Meeting. This is the Association’s yearly chance to hear reports from the leadership and to hold them to account. This is my view of how it went.
As usual, the meeting started by considering the minutes of the previous year’s meeting and any matters arising from them.
It was announced that, in response to environmental and other concerns raised by hostellers, bed packs will no longer be wrapped in plastic by the end of the year. This won’t be without problems, but at least hostels won’t have a mountain of clingfilm to dispose of every weekend.
The business of this year’s meeting started with a report from Richard Cockcroft on the work of the Council Nominations Panel. This body, in its first year of operation, is responsible for selecting people for election to the Board of Trustees. The Panel is tasked with selecting twice as many candidates as there are posts, with the final selection taking place through a vote at the AGM (of which more later). Judging by the set of candidates they picked this year, they’re doing a pretty good job.
Next up, YHA Vice-Chairman Barbara Smith presented a review of 2009/10 tied in with this year’s Annual Review. This document, like previous years’, has been published on the YHA web site – so I’ll leave you to read it there. As part of the presentation she showed the Community Spirit video I’ve already reported on. Little films like this commonly form part of AGM presentations, I’m glad they’ve started to show them to a wider audience.
It was the the turn of Alan Bourne, the YHA’s Treasurer, to take us through the accounts. As might be expected, in a year when we’re closing eight hostels, the situation isn’t exactly rosy, but it’s not desperate either. Improvements in efficiency have seen the annual surplus reach the same level as it was in 2000 (allowing for inflation). It’s not enough though – it needs to be half as much again for real financial security.
As usual with Alan’s presentations, a host of detail was presented in such a way that financial laymen like yours truly could understand it. I wish it could be more widely circulated, though matters of commercial confidentiality would make it difficult to do so fully.
Last of the officers to speak to the meeting was Chairman Chris Darmon, who gave a typically barnstorming presentation entitled Taking the Past into the Future. Looking back over 80 years Chris talked about how we can carry the YHA ethos forward, adapting for modern times whilst remaining true to our principles.
Talking about the current wave of hostel closures, he had good news for the small hostels beloved of many hostelling groups. Places like Idwal Cottage were described as “the jewel in YHA’s crown” and are to be ringfenced from closure. “Nobody else could have a Bretton.” Chris said “The problem’s not Bretton or Black Sail, but the crummy hostels that are not going to make the journey with us!” There may be as many as 30 of those places closing in the next 5 years.
Looking to the future, he mentioned research that said that young people are looking for similar standards to that they receive in student accommodation. To mark out what that means in the 21st century, he showed us this film:
Squaring that sort of facility with the “simple accommodation” ethos is going to be quite a challenge!
With the presentations part over with, the meeting embarked on a rather technical bit of business – approving a new set of standing orders. As a result of decisions made at last year’s meeting, rather considerable changes had been made to the way in which AGMs are conducted and these need to be reflected in the rules. Concerns were raised over the wording of some sections, but the new orders were approved on the understanding that refinements would be made in the future.
After lunch, we reconvened to hear from two guest speakers. First was Andy Eccleston who gave some feedback on the Get Involved trial programme of forums, rallies and volunteering events. The experiment seems to have had mixed results, with some new people attracted, but not in the numbers (or age groups) hoped for. It’s going to have lasting results in Wales though, as noted in the accompanying paper:
Although Wales Council does not wish to continue with the experiment, we would not wish to return to the previous system. we will therefore be changing our programme for Council Meeting days. In future there will be a short formal session in the morning and a more relaxed discussion period in the afternoon. We will attempt to find interesting topics for the afternoon Forum sessions in an attempt to attract new members to meetings.
Following Andy, it was the turn of Ken Kilkenny – President of An Òige, the Irish hostelling association. Ken shared with us his own experience of leading a painful and controversial hostel closure programme – a feat that even led to his being lambasted in Private Eye for some weeks. However the closures funded two new hostels, and Ken remains convinced that An Òige is stronger as a result.
It was now time for delegates to flex their voting cards. First it was the turn of the three officers of the Association. Chris Darmon and Alan Bourne, Chairman and Treasurer respectively, were re-elected unopposed, but there was a three-way fight for the post of Vice Chairman. The three candidates: David Huber, Karl Shepherdson and Barbara Smith each gave a short speech and answered questions from the floor. The decision was then made via a secret ballot.
I’m very pleased to say that Karl was the winner by an overwhelming majority. It’s good to see someone with a proven commitment to communicating with ordinary members right at the top table of YHA. Let’s hope he can help deliver long overdue improvements in that area.
Next it was the turn of those hoping to join YHA’s Board of Trustees. A total of twelve candidates were standing to fill just four posts, and it was difficult to choose from such a strong field. After more speeches, questions and ballotting the following people were selected:
Steven Boyd
Lindsey Fairbrother
Helen Maurice-Jones
Pauline Scott
A nice blend of “old hands” Helen and Pauline with “new brooms” Steven and Lindsey. Lindsey is a prominent member of Potteries Group, and whilst I don’t suggest this will influence her unduly in her new role, it can’t hurt to have someone from a groups background on the board. Hopefully those would-be Trustees who were unsuccessful will remain involved with the YHA in some way – it would be a shame to lose their undeniable talents.
Finally, after approving Nick Hardwick and Paul Shearman as members of the Council Nominations Panel, it was time to debate the motions presented to the conference. Only one was voted for, and overwhelmingly carried:
This meeting asks that YHA provide a network of rural youth hostels
What, if anything, this means in practical terms remains to be seen.
All in all an interesting and enlightening meeting. The YHA staff, both at the hostel and in the meeting, did an excellent job of keeping things running smoothly and should be commended. For another view of the meeting, you can read the YHA press release about it.
If, like me, you missed this interesting documentary when it was shown last year, you have a second chance to catch it as part of the BBC’s Call of the Wild season. Here’s how they describe it:
Nation on Film documentary telling the story of youth hostelling, which was founded in 1909 in Germany and was established in Britain in 1930, through fascinating archive films discovered in a storeroom at the Youth Hostel Association’s headquarters in Derbyshire.
The films chart the progress of the movement, as well as the nation’s changing attitudes towards ‘youth’ and the countryside. The images show young people enjoying a new sense of freedom – hiking, rock climbing, folk singing and even the odd bit of skinny-dipping.
The collection includes everything from silent movies through to video, and all promote the YHA’s central mission of encouraging young people to enjoy the benefits of the countryside. Most of the films have not been broadcast before, as they were originally shown in cinemas, hostels and community halls.
Contributors include Lord Puttnam, hostel workers, film-makers, actors and historians.
Seasoned hostellers will enjoy naming all the hostels – old and new – featured in the films.
Catch it on iPlayer, where it’s available until 2:34am on Thursday 29th July.
In keeping up with what’s going on in YHA, one vital source is the press release page on their web site. It’s the official outlet for YHA-related news stories.
YHA 
That last sentence raises the question “will hostellers still be allowed to bring their own drinks to licensed hostels?”. The rules are against this south of the border, and very unpopular rules they are too – as 
Delegates met at Oxford earlier this month for the YHA’s 80th anniversary Annual General Meeting. This is the Association’s yearly chance to hear reports from the leadership and to hold them to account. This is my view of how it went.
Next up, YHA Vice-Chairman Barbara Smith presented a review of 2009/10 tied in with 
It was now time for delegates to flex their voting cards. First it was the turn of the three officers of the Association. Chris Darmon and Alan Bourne, Chairman and Treasurer respectively, were re-elected unopposed, but there was a three-way fight for the post of Vice Chairman. The three candidates: David Huber, Karl Shepherdson and Barbara Smith each gave a short speech and answered questions from the floor. The decision was then made via a secret ballot.