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Another open letter from John Annett prior to the forthcoming local groups’ conference:

To all YHA Local Groups

URGENT MESSAGE

I would be grateful if you could forward a message urgently to your delegates who are attending the National Local Groups Conference on 17th March at Matlock.

You may be aware that delegates at the November meeting formed an informal Local Groups coordinating committee on the Friday night because we were prevented from doing so formally at the meeting on Saturday.

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The papers released after the Coalport meeting give a pretty good picture of the package on offer to affiliated hostelling groups. There is much in it to be welcomed, and the staff at Matlock should be congratulated on listening to some group concerns and acting upon them.

However, there are significant downsides to the current offering too, and even well established groups may be hesitating to sign up under the YHA banner next year. What follows is a breakdown of the main pros and cons of affiliation, please comment if you think I missed anything out…

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The debate about the relationship between Groups and YHA rages on with the groups (us) falling into two or three camps as usual!! Many seem to want to continue a relationship with YHA in which they can have, as regular and experienced hostellers, a say in the governance of YHA and would like to keep formal links with the “parent” body as they see it, with or without the name “YHA Local Group” involved. Others, maybe fewer, still see themselves a PART of YHA so agree with the above but even more strongly. some see themselves as independent, with some of the same aims as YHA (used to have?) but no interest in governance – although they do usually have an interest in countryside hostels and often, a specific hostel.

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Harrow and Wembley Group will not be coming to the Coalport meeting. Their reasons are expressed in an email to Crewenna Dymond from their Chairman, John Palmer, from which this is an excerpt:

We will not be attending as it is too far to come to Coalport for an event that has little value as the YHA does not listen nor need to listen to its local groups. As it does not appreciate the great potential for business advantage to be had from local groups assisting in membership recruitment and retention, it will have to develop in a different direction until or unless it eventually realises the advantages of adopting a Ramblers-like local groups model. We do not mind waiting for the YHA to come back to us in several years time when it realises the competitive advantages we can offer and the value of a test bed for new marketing ideas.

Can we afford to wait for the YHA? Can they afford to keep us waiting? Discuss.

At the YHA Annual General Meeting held on Sunday 10th September 2006 Local Groups have survived. Last March a communication was sent to all groups indicating that fundamental changes were needed to be made, including removing ‘YHA’ or ‘Youth Hostelling’ from the group name. This was based on the recommendations of the Group Task Group. This requirement was not accepted by the General Meeting. There is an obligation by the Board of Trustees not to get rid of Local Groups contrary to any rumours presently circulating. The best news is that no action must be taken to change your group name should your organisation have ‘YHA’ or ‘Youth Hostelling’ in its title.

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