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Chris Darmon mentioned it at the Groups Conference, and now Karl’s confirmed it on the YHA forum, the compulsory bed and breakfast policy in force at many popular hostels is being reviewed. Some hostels will have to remain B&B (because they don’t have members kitchens), but others may return to the old book-it-if-you-want-it system.

Personally, I’d be glad to see the back of this policy. Hostels are supposed to be catering (no pun intended) to people on a budget. Charging them an extra three or four quid for a breakfast that they could make themselves for much less does not fit in with this ethos. Furthermore, if you need to make an early start, or you have special dietary requirements, the breakfast you have to pay for may be of no use to you.

That’s not to say hostel breakfasts aren’t any good – I’ve had some excellent ones, but customers should have the choice of whether to buy one, or to make one (or even to skip one if they fancy a little extra time in bed or on the hill).

I also hope that any decision is applied even-handedly, to groups as well as to individuals. If it’s OK for a dozen individual members to make their own breakfasts, it should be OK for a dozen individuals who happen to be members of a YHA group. I know my own group has not been able to stay at some hostels because we’re not willing to abandon self catering.

Thirty-one members of fifteen groups assembled at National Forest YH for this year’s Affiliated Groups’ Conference. Jeff Murry took the chair, and welcomed the delegates to the day’s proceedings.

First up was a presentation by yours truly on How to Improve on Your Website. Subjects covered included ways of getting an online presence in the first place, what content to include, and some of the features made available by people like Google Code.

If you’re interested, you can read my presentation slides. There’ll also soon be a series of practical articles on this website showing how to incorporate features like Google Maps and RSS feeds.

After a break for tea & coffee and a welcome from the hostel manager, it was time for the main event of the morning: a talk by YHA Chairman Chris Darmon. With the YHA’s financial year having just finished, Chris was able to fill us in on how YHA is weathering the credit crunch.

As you might expect, it’s not good news – overnights down 1% and a “difficult year” for food and beverage sales. Overall the association ran a trading deficit of £0.5 million.

That’s not a situation that can be sustained, and hard decisions need to be taken to remedy it. Fortuantely, Chris said, the almost total replacement of the management team over the last year or so has given the Association its best leadership in years. On the agenda are a rethink on hostel catering – “home cooked, solid food, traditional food” – more shepherd’s pies and less posh nosh. With hostel staff already cut to the bone, staffing cuts will need to be made at national office – 15 redundancies are expected at Matlock. Over all the aim is to break even next year and be strong for 2011: “At the end of this recession, YHA needs to be here, needs to be vibrant and ready to respond to the new world.”

That’s not to say that YHA won’t be spending money over the next couple of years. There’s £11.5 million’s worth of work underway making hostels “fit for purpose”, with £37 million still planned for. Improvements will not just benefit hostellers, staff accommodation is to be improved too. Not a moment too soon, reckons Chris, “You wouldn’t put your dog in places that we ask some of our staff to live in!”

Inevitably, hostel closures are under consideration. One already earmarked to go is London Thameside (formerly Rotherhithe), which will close some time after 2012. Not that YHA’s looking to get out of the capital, far from it! The weak pound is making London such a hot destination that the seven London hostels provided 25% of YHA’s income last year. What they’re looking for is a big 400-bed hostel along the lines of Sydney Central. The property crash may give them the chance.

Chris then went on to talk about the ongoing governance review. Still smarting at the check administered at last month’s EGM, he said that the Board has no choice but to come back on governance proposals. Should the proposals be rejected a second time we would be in “a crisis of governance“, and Chris believes that the Charity Commission would intervene.

With that in mind, perhaps, he encouraged affiliated group members to go to their next regional council meeting and get elected to attend the AGM. Personally, I’m not sure that this is entirely constitutional, since Councils elect their delegations from amongst their members, and they were elected back in the autumn. Still, no doubt many councils would welcome an influx of new blood however late in the year it arrives.

It was good to see the YHA Chairman attending the Groups’ conference, and to see him so positive about our role within the organisation. Hopefully it signals a thaw in our sometimes frosty relationship with Matlock.

After an improvised lunch, we returned to elect five delegates to the national AGM. They were:

• Ann Mayhew – Bedford
• Chris Moyle – Stafford
• Alan Summers – Leicester
• Matthew Webber – Harrogate
• Paul Wright – Ipswich

Next was the presentation of the President’s Awards. As head of the judges, Paul Madge read out the results in each category as well as the overall winner. This year was dominated by two groups, with Croydon and Barnet dividing all the categories between them.

Paul noted that the structure of the awards had not changed since the abolition of the old NHLGC. Does it need to be updated? Are groups doing new things that need to have awards? Paul’s open to ideas, so contact him or comment below if you have a view.

The presentation was followed by the chance for each winning group to describe what they did, and to field questions from the rest of us. Hopefully, enough tips were picked up to ensure a wider spread of results next year!

Finally, it was time to discuss the two motions raised by Bedford Group. The first, it was agreed, was not really a motion in its original form and was amended to read:

We call on the Trustees to explore filling the gaps in the hostel network as soon as finances allow, where viable.

In this form it was passed 12-1, though just when finances might be so abundant as to consider a return to low-demand places like Ivinghoe is an open question.

The second motion, calling on hostels to have members’ kitchens was pushing at an open door with YHA’s new management. “My advice is to pass this motion and move on” was Chris Darmon’s suggestion, so the conference did just that. Unanimously.

An open forum at the end allowed a few loose ends to be tied up. What will YHA do to celebrate its 80th birthday next year? “Time we had a rally”, thinks the Chairman, probably a major event at Ilam Hall to which we’ll invite the Queen (who is patron of the Association).

With nothing else of note to discuss, it was time to fix a date for next year’s conference. The most likely date is 20th March, or possibly the 27th. However, it was made clear that we need to get more groups to attend. I hope this site can contribute to making next year’s event something that meets groups’ needs, and that they want to turn up to.

My thanks to Ivan Morley for providing some of the photographs used on this and the previous story

The 2010 Affiliate Groups Conference will be held on 27th March 2010 at National Forest YH, 48 Bath Lane, Moira, SWADLINCOTE, DE12 6BD (see map below). More details can be found in the agenda and in an invitation to the conference.

The President’s Awards were introduced in 1985 to recognise the work that local groups do for the YHA and 2008 marked the twenty-fourth year of the awards.

Eight groups entered for 2008, sadly down from twelve the previous year, but the standard of entries remained high and not only for the two groups that have dominated the awards this time.

Four judges marked the awards this time, rather than the usual three, and as usual each of the categories will be presented before moving on to the overall results.

First of the eight categories is for the Best Conservation Project and this was won by COPSE, the Croydon YHA Group. Several members of the group spent a couple of days working with the Downlands Countryside Management Project thinning out a band of scrubby woodland adjacent to the ancient woodland at Banstead Woods near Coulsdon just south of Croydon.

Good entries for the Best Publicity Strategy were submitted by Barnet, Guildford and Stafford Groups but the winner is COPSE, the Croydon YHA Group who organised outdoor events that would attract the general public, produced and widely distributed a new full colour leaflet, introduced a new promotional booklet, revamped their display stands and made the most of their email list and website.

Six groups entered the Best Programme category with Guildford in third place, Croydon a close second and Barnet YHA Group winning. Barnet offer two hostelling weekends a month, day walks, evening walks and a wide variety of evening social events.

COPSE, the Croydon YHA Group won the Best Fundraising Initiative category with a mock auction of unwanted Christmas presents, the Weald Walkers Wander and the Gatliff Marathon, the proceeds of these events going towards Puttenham Youth Hostel, last year’s conference and a fund for future projects.

Croydon came second in the Best Work Undertaken At A Hostel category which was won by Barnet YHA Group. A dozen members of Barnet group spent a January weekend redecorating eleven dormitories at Cambridge Youth Hostel.

Stagger from St Albans Group and Footprint from Barnet Group were excellent entries for the Best Newsletter Or Magazine category but the clear winner yet again is Viewpoint from COPSE, the Croydon YHA Group. Dating back to the 1930s, Viewpoint now has up to 28 pages with a variety of well written articles and many photographs.

Barnet YHA Group and COPSE, the Croydon YHA Group are joint winners of the Best New Members Package category. Both groups work hard to ensure that the potential new members they’ve attracted are integrated into the group.

Six groups entered the Best Website category, with Dunstable coming third, Croydon second and Barnet YHA Group winning. www.barnetyha.org first features a welcoming countryside photo, then prominently shows forthcoming events and a welcome to the group and has easy access to other well prepared areas such as a photo album, membership details and the public version of the groups newsletters.

With thanks to Alan, Ivan, Kathy and Maggy for judging the 2008 President’s Awards, we now move on to the overall results.

• Dunstable and St Albans Groups came joint fifth.
• In Fourth place are Stafford YHA Group.
• Guildford Outdoor Group gained Third place.
• Barnet YHA Group are the runners-up for 2008.
• Winner of the President’s Trophy are the 2003, 2004 and 2007 winners,COPSE, the Croydon YHA Group

A walk starting and and finishing in Baslow (see map below) to raise money for the YHA Breaks 4 Kids charitable fund.

The walk covers 25 miles of mixed terrain, including the Derbyshire gritstone edges, Eyam and Longstone moors, as well as dales in both the Dark (gritstone) Peak and the white (limestone) areas. The later stages of the walk includes part of the Monsal Trail before finishing through the grounds of Chatsworth House. It is entirely set in the National Park and is a challenging walk with an 11 Hour time limit and contains 3500 feet of ascent.

See the event web site for more details.

This is an annual walking competition which has taken place for over forty years which tests the ability of teams from Y.H.A. local groups to navigate over unfamiliar territory and tests their general knowledge of things natural often related to the area that they are walking through.

Each YHA group can enter one or more teams of 2 to 4 persons per team.

The walk is mostly on footpaths avoiding roads where possible. It is a ‘circular’ course of total distance of approx 10 to 12 miles and will has approx 10 checkpoints including the hostel at the end.

At each each checkpoint (except the last) the team is given the grid map reference of the the next checkpoint and they have to work out their own best route.

At each checkpoint the team answers questions on a particular topic for example identifying from photographs birds/mammals/ trees etc; map symbols; national long distance paths and National Parks. There will also be questions on the Peak District where the walk is taking place.

The walk this year starts and finishes at Ravenstor YH in the Peak District on Sunday 27th September 2009. The first team will start off at 9.00am.

Teams start off at 5 minute intervals with a time limit of 5 hours for each team.

Points are awarded, in equal measure, for reaching a checkpoint and for correct answers to questions. The team with the highest number of points is the winner and their local group is the guardian of the Cadbury Cup till the competition next year.

The presentation will take place between 3 and 4pm at the hostel, at which there will be a free afternoon tea (tea, coffee, fruit juice with cakes, biscuits, scones, savory snacks etc.)

Hostel Details

Ravenstor YH is on the B6049, off the A6, 7 miles east of Buxton (see map below). The nearest small town is Tideswell and has several pubs. The Red Lion at nearby village of Litton is highly recommended.

Hostel GR is 152732. Postcode: SK17 8SS. Tel: 0870 770 6008. Current cost for dormitory accommodation is £18.95 per person per night. At present they have plenty of room on Saturday 26th Sept.

You will need either 1:50000 OS sheet 119 or OS explorer map OL 24. There is sufficient car parking space available at the hostel.

Contact Details

This year’s event is being organised by Potteries Outdoor Group (pog). If you are interested in taking part or just want more details please contact Mr P.W. Beynon either by email at postmaster@pwbeynon.plus.com or by writing to Mr P.W. Beynon, 7, Earlsbrook Drive, Trentham, Stoke-on-Trent. ST4 8DL. Please note that it is the responsibility of those taking part to book their own accommodation.

The event is free and there are no entry forms but the organisers do need to know in advance of the day the number of teams taking part and approximate numbers for refreshments at the presentation.

Each year, walkers descend on the Chatsworth estate in Derbyshire to take part in the 25-mile Chatsworth Challenge walk. The event raises money for charity, and this year’s beneficiary is the YHA’s Breaks 4 Kids fund.

If you or your group fancies taking part, entries cost £12 each and include refreshments en route, a meal at the end, and certificates and badges for all finishers. If 25 miles and 3500 feet of ascent in 11 hours is a bit beyond you, the organisers are looking for people to man checkpoints and otherwise help out.

This year’s walk takes place on the 13th Setember. Why not make a group weekend of it? YHA have a number of hostels and camping barns in the area that would provide a perfect base.

The Three Peaks Trial is an organised challenge walk arranged each year in March by the Cardiff Outdoor Group. It is a circular walk of about 20 miles and 5,000 feet of ascent, which crosses over three prominent peaks around Abergavenny in Monmouthshire; Skirrid, Sugar Loaf and Blorenge. Shorter routes are available for the less hardy walker.

This year, proceeds from the event, the 45th Three Peaks Trial will be split between the Longtown Mountain Rescue Team and the Elenydd Wilderness Trust to help maintain Ty’n Cornel & Dolgoch Youth Hostels. One quarter of the proceeds will go to Cardiff Outdoor Group.

Further details can be found on the Cardiff group’s website.

Turn out for the second of two weekends this winter to help redecorate YHA Marloes Sands.  This time they’ll be working on the Piggery.  All painting work will be indoors, so if you’re handy with a paintbrush please get in touch!

The event is open to anyone, but you do need to be relatively fit and healthy.  Families with children over 14 years are also invited.  If time permits, there should be some free time to explore the local area, including the fantastic beach.

Accommodation is provided free for volunteers at Marloes, but private and family rooms cannot be guaranteed.   There is room for a maximum of 20 volunteers.   A group meal will be prepared on Saturday evening, a nominal fee of £5 will be charged for all those joining in, to be payable on arrival.  For all other meals volunteers will need to self-cater.

Please bring old clothes and sensible shoes, like old walking boots, that you don’t mind getting a bit paint-splattered!  If you have gloves, please bring these too, however some will be provided.

For more information please contact the Volunteering team on 01629 592562, email getinvolvedwales@yha.org.uk or download the registration form and post it to Matlock.

The 2009 Affiliate Groups Conference will be held on the weekend 14-15th March 2009 at National Forest YH (see map below). There will be a walk on one of the days and a social event on Saturday evening.