What is a Hostelling & Local Group?
The simple answer to this question is a collection of YHA members who meet regularly to enjoy hostelling together and to share in social activities with people with similar interests’. But of course there is much more than this to a true Local Group.
It is there to help all especially young people of limited means to a greater knowledge, love and care of the countryside. The Group will be composed of YHA members but there will always be newcomers, some yet to be introduced to the YHA.
The primary object of the Group must be to promote the core activity of YHA and to give a service to those people in its area who will enjoy what the YHA has to offer. But, as well as providing a hostelling programme, the Group offers a social meeting point. The social activities will include some clearly related to hostelling - day or evening walks or cycle runs, and countryside related visits - but there will always be other activities as well which help to bond the Group together.
In general, the membership of a Group will be drawn from a fairly compact area, though ‘local’ can have quite different meanings in urban and rural districts. It is a characteristic of YHA that members join the national organisation so that Local Groups must seek their own members from the larger body.
By adopting the name of a town or district, a Hostelling and Local group implies that it offers a service to all or at least most of the members of that district. There may be some who, for whatever reason, are unable to take part in all the activities on offer while for strictly practical reasons a Group may not be able to provide for some unaccompanied younger members. But a Group should try to provide a range of activities bearing in mind different ages and interests.
It is hoped that Groups will always remember two things; first, that the general public will see them as the local representatives of the YHA and second, that they are indeed part of a larger organisation. In planning their programmes Groups should try to integrate, they should bear in mind the major events in the YHA year, some of which are designed specifically for Groups and their members, and they should try to make full use of the opportunities to tell other groups and organisations and the general YHA membership about themselves.
Finally, Groups should try to get all those people in their own localities who are interested in the countryside and outdoor activities into membership of the Group, the YHA and hooked on hostelling.
Local Groups within the YHA
Most members who join the Local Groups do so to enjoy the company of others with similar interests. Group membership gives that added incentive to get out and go hostelling but it also provides the opportunity for socialising. Most Local Group members also have a real interest in the Association of which they are members and in the maintenance of the youth hostels which the YHA exists to provide. YHA is a democratic membership organisation and all members have the opportunity to play a part in influencing its policies and development. For the purpose of membership participation in the affairs of the Association the YHA is divided into Regions and within the Regions there are area panels of a less formal nature. Each Region and Area Panel has its own Annual General Meeting at which any member living in the area can attend and vote; the dates of these meetings are published in the YHA News, Triangle, Group Post and hostel notice boards.Each of the Regions has its own Regional Council on which there is provision for representation from Local Groups which gives the Group member a privileged route for getting his or her own views aired.
Moreover, the Association has its annual National Hostelling and Local Groups Conference at which every registered affiliated Group is invited to send delegates and from this Conference motions can be passed direct to National Council, which is the annual governing conference of the Association. This provides another express route for Local Group opinions.
But while helping people to enjoy the countryside by providing youth hostels is the object of the YHA, and enjoying the countryside through staying in hostels is the object of most members, there are many who get satisfaction through a variety of supplementary activities which include helping to maintain hostels, perhaps through Working Parties, or helping with publicity and promotion locally.
The present structure of YHA means that each Region is able to give help and advice to Local Groups on how they can in turn give help to the Association.
And, in addition, the National Hostelling and Local Groups Committee, which consists of YHA members with a particular interest in Local Groups, can give help and advice on all matters relating to the running of Groups. The NHLGC is, additionally, responsible for the production of promotional material to assist Groups in publicising themselves.