The conference will take place on 19th March. As usual, I’ll post more details when I have them (expect a draft agenda early in the new year).

Related Posts

• 2009 Conference Invitation
• Conference 2009 Draft Agenda
• Conference Agenda Mark 2

For 2009 the “Conservation” and “Work at a Hostel” categories were combined while a new ‘Best Display’ category was introduced.

Ten groups entered for 2009, two more than the previous year but two less than in 2007.

In 2008, unusually, just two groups dominated the awards but this time more groups have been successful again.

As usual each of the eight categories will be presented before moving on to the overall results.

First is the Best Conservation Project And / Or Work At A Hostel which was also entered by Croydon but was won by Epping Forest Outdoor Group. For their “Bramble Bash” about ten members of the Epping Forest Group spent a couple of days in January clearing brambles and other weeds from the grounds of the ROVSCO Hall in Snaresbook which is the Scout Hut used for their regular Thursday evening meetings.

Surprisingly just two groups, Barnet and Croydon, entered the Best Publicity Strategy category. Barnet YHA Group won with their efforts to publicise an active and vibrant club appealing to a range of ages. With personal contacts being an important source of recruitment they distributed many business cards as well as updating their website and producing new leaflets.

Seven groups entered the Best Programme category, and three groups shared second place, Barnet, Dunstable and Guildford. The category was won by COPSE, the Croydon YHA Group whose 75th anniversary year featured special events and many hostelling weekends as well as their usual varied Tuesday evening activities.

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. Some of the £990 proceeds from these events will be spent on a new internal partition ceiling at Puttenham Youth Hostel.

The new category this year of The Best Display About An Affiliated Group was surprisingly entered by only two groups, Croydon and Epping Forest. Epping Forest Outdoor Group won with their ten sheets featuring good clear photographs of the group’s varied activities.

Barnet, Croydon and Harrogate entered the Best Newsletter Or Magazine category. The clear winner again is Viewpoint from COPSE, the Croydon YHA Group which dates back to the 1930s and has about 32 pages with a variety of well written articles and many photographs.

The Best New Members Package category also had excellent entries from Croydon and Epping Forest groups but was won by Barnet YHA Group These three groups work hard to ensure that the potential new members they’ve attracted are integrated into the group.

Seven groups entered the Best Website category, with Barnet coming third and Dunstable Walking and Hostelling Group and Leicester YHA Group jointly winning with their websites, which are well worth seeking out.

With thanks to Jeff, Ivan and Kathy for judging the 2009 President’s Awards, we now move on to the overall results.

Guildford and Leicester Groups came joint fifth with Dunstable in fourth place.

In Third place are Epping Forest Outdoor Group.

Barnet YHA Group are the runners-up for 2009.

Winner of the President’s Trophy are the 2003, 2004, 2007 and 2008 winners,

COPSE, the Croydon YHA Group

Related Posts

• President’s Awards 2008
• President’s Awards 2007
• Rodings Rally

Friday 26th March

19:00 onwards

Arrival and Registration

During evening

Meet and Greet / socialise

Saturday 27th March

8:30

Breakfast

9:00

Day delegates arrival and registration

9:30

Opening Address – Jeff Murry, COPSE

1. Welcome and introductions
2. Warden of National Forest YH
3. Order of Agenda

9:40

Apologies for absence

9:45

Minutes of Previous Conference (circulated to groups previously)

1. Accuracy (to be notified to Chairman prior to meeting)
2. Matters Arising from the minutes

9:55

Fundraising – John Adams

10:30

Tea / Coffee Break

11:00

Key Speaker – Caroline White, YHA Chief Executive

12:00

Lunch – provided by hostel

13:00

Election of Representatives to 2010 Company AGM

13:15

Presentation of Presidents Award – Paul Madge, Stafford Group

13:40

Winning Groups talk about the categories they won

14:00

Proposals for future Presidents Awards – Paul Madge, Stafford group

14:20

Constitution – Alan Summers, Leicester Group

15:00

Motions to 2009 Company AGM

15:30

Open Forum

15:50

Date of Next Conference / Closing Notices

16:00

Close

Sunday 28th March

10:00

Walk – 7-8 miles led by Leicester Group

As I noted last week, delegates should be able to take advantage of the YHA Bed Sale and stay for just £9.95 a night, making it a cheap weekend as well as (I’m sure) an interesting one. I’m particularly looking forward to hearing from Caroline White. It’ll be the Chief Executive’s first official contact with groups (and vice versa), and an important chance to make a good impression.

If you have a motion to submit to the AGM, or other comments on the agenda, you should contact Jeff by email. Of course, you should also feel free to leave a comment here!

Related Posts

• Conference Agenda Mark 2
• Conference 2009 Draft Agenda
• 2009 Conference Invitation

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

Related Posts

• Local Groups’ Conference 2007
• 2009 Conference Invitation
• Conference 2009 Draft Agenda

Motion 1

Due to hostel closures there are now many areas of the country with gaps in the hostel network.

For example near Bedford and Northampton Badby and Ivinghoe have closed and this compromises our ability to explore our local countryside whilst using the YHA network. This also applies in other parts of the country.

We ask what is being done to address this issue.

Motion 2

Many newly opened hostels have extremely small self catering kitchens with inadequate fridge space. e.g. National Forest is advertised as Very small self catering kitchen -maximum of 8 guests at a time.

Many new hostels abroad have self catering kitchens which are enormous with plenty of fridges and are a positive pleasure to use and they still manage to sell food in cafés/restaurants which are also open to the public.

We call for a review of the policy of providing  minimal self catering kitchens.

Related Posts

• Conference Report 2009
• Northumberland Hostel News
• Praise for Whitby YH

Dear Affiliated Group,

The annual Affiliated Groups Conference will take place at YHA National Forest on 14th March 2009.

An invitation and a draft agenda are attached to give you more information.

Please note that conference bookings should be sent to Jeff Murry (contact details are in the attachment) and accommodation bookings at National Forest should be directed straight to the Hostel (contact details also in the attachment).

If you have any queries about the Conference arrangements, please do contact Jeff in the first instance.

The Conference is open to all Affiliated Groups and whilst each Group has just 2 votes on Motions and Elections at the meeting, you are welcome to bring as many members of your group to the meeting as you like.

Please do spread the word about the event to the other members of your group and we look forward to seeing you there.

Kind regards
Crewenna

Thanks to a grant from the Gatliff Trust, the first 30 delegates to register will get an £8 discount from one of their overnights. Since the undiscounted rate for National Forest is £22.90 pppn, that’s pretty handy. It sounds like a perfect opportunity to try out one of YHA’s shiniest and newest hostels.

Jeff Murry deserves much credit for organising and arranging this year’s conference, aided by Crewenna Dymond and other YHA staff. All it needs now is for you to turn up and make the event a success!

Related Posts

• Early News of Conference 2009
• All Set for Conference 2010
• Conference 2009 Draft Agenda

Friday 13th March

19.00 onwards

Registration

During evening

Meet and Greet / socialise
Quiz

Saturday 14th March

8.30

Breakfast

9:30

Opening Address

1. Welcome and introductions
2. Warden of National Forest YH
3. Order of Agenda

9:40

Apologies for absence

9:45

Minutes of Previous Conference (circulated to groups previously)

1. Accuracy (to be notified to Chairman prior to meeting)
2. Matters Arising from the minutes

9:50

PRESENTATION – How to improve on your Website by Chris Hunt

10:30

Tea / Coffee Break

11:00

KEY SPEAKER – Chris Darmon, YHA Chairman

12:00

LUNCH

13:00

Election of Representatives to 2009 Company AGM

13:15

Presentation of Presidents Award

13:45

Winning Groups talk about the categories they won

14:30

Motions to 2009 Company AGM

15:00

Open Forum

15:20

Date of Next Conference / Closing Notices

15:30

Close

19:00

CONFERENCE DINNER

20:00

Social

Sunday 15th March

9:00

Breakfast

10:00

Walk – 7-8 miles led by Leicester Group

As you see, this version puts all the business of the meeting onto the Saturday, allowing delegates to save money by only staying one night if they want to. The cost is expected to be around £20 a night, with the first 40 delegates to book getting a discount (I’ll post the exact costs when I know them).

I think this is a huge step in the right direction, and congratulate Jeff on being able to move so quickly on the feedback he’s received. There’s still time to have your say, though, if there’s something else you want to see covered.

Related Posts

• Conference 2009 Draft Agenda
• All Set for Conference 2010
• 2009 Conference Invitation

Friday 13th March

19.00 onwards

Registration

During evening

Meet and Greet / socialise
Quiz

Saturday 14th March

8.30

Breakfast

9:30

Opening Address

1. Welcome and introductions
2. Warden of National Forest YH
3. Order of Agenda

9:40

Apologies for absence

9.45

Minutes of Previous Conference (circulated to groups previously)

1. Accuracy (to be notified to Chairman prior to meeting)
2. Matters Arising from the minutes

9.50

WORKSHOP 1 – Map Reading / Navigation

10.45

Tea / Coffee Break

11.15

KEY SPEAKER – Chris Darmon, YHA Chairman

12:00

PRESENTATION 1 – First Aid

12:45

LUNCH

14:00

Walk to include Map Reading Outside (put your skills to work)

19:00

CONFERENCE DINNER

20:00

Party time

Sunday 15th March

9:00

Breakfast

9:45

Election of Representatives to 2009 Company AGM

10:00

Presentation of Presidents Award

10:25

Motions to 2009 Company AGM

11:15

Web Site Workshop

11:45

Refreshments

12:00

Walk – 5-6 miles led by Leicester Group

16:00

Close

Personally, I’m less than impressed with this suggestion. Most of the work that the conference has to do – awards, elections and motions – is squeezed into 90 minutes on day 2, whilst huge swathes of time on day 1 are wasted on, heaven help us, yet another map reading exercise. Is anybody coming who can’t read a map? Can these sessions possibly teach them to do so?

How can the Conference best serve YHA and its affiliated groups? What would you like to see on the agenda? You might be as unhappy with Jeff’s agenda as I am, but at least he’s pulled his finger out and produced something. Without feedback from groups, he has no way of knowing what they want (and don’t want) to do in March.

PS. The “Web Site Workshop” scheduled for Sunday is a session Jeff wants me to lead. I think most groups who want a web presence have set one up by now, so how much use would such a session be? Is there any aspect of  the internet and its relationship to groups that you’d like to see covered?

Related Posts

• Conference Agenda Mark 2
• All Set for Conference 2010
• Conference 2011 Venue Decided

The conference is to take place at National Forest YH in Leicestershire, which opened earlier this year. It’s a modern building with good meeting facilities, located centrally within the country. If it has a drawback, it’s not a great place to get to by public transport, but I’m sure that can be handled nearer the time.

In another blast from the past, taking a leading role in the event’s organisation is Jeff Murry – long-standing member of Surrey YHA Group and the NHLGC.

If you have a view on what should (or should not, for that matter) be discussed at the conference, please contact Jeff  by email, by phone on 01737 362036 or by post to 40 Preston Lane, Tadworth, Surrey KT20 5HD. I’d also welcome any comments that you might have below…

Related Posts

• 2009 Conference Invitation
• Group Organisation
• Conference 2009 Draft Agenda

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• Last Call for Conference 2008
• The Last Gathering?
• Conference Agenda Mark 2