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Wednesday, November 07, 2007

Group activity and our future plans

Recently the Somerset Wildlife Trust carried out a thorough review of its aims and objectives and has just published a summary titled "Strategy 2008-20012". By coincidence our group has just had its own mini review.
Last nights committee meeting of the Heart of the Levels Group was probably one of the most productive we had had in our 2 year progress. For some time I have been concerned about how we could recruit more members to become more actively involved so as to share out some of the work we have to cope with in organising meetings etc. For the first time I had invited a member of the Wildlife Trust staff to come along to sit in whilst we discussed ways to deal with my concerns which were shared by others. Her contribution was a great help to us all by telling us about the Trusts plans and how other volunteer groups have been dealing with similar problems.
I feel very pleased with the outcome and our agreed plan for action which is basically :
  • Arrange a follow up committee meeting to give our plan detail in the next week or so. A possible date was agreed.
  • First priority to revisit our 100 or so members who replied to our initial letter 2 years ago to draw up a short list of those who might be able to contribute to our activities. I have kept these in a file.
  • Also to check through lists of members who have attended our events to add to the list.
  • We must also decide more clearly what specific help we need and break down and identify what we do.
  • We must also agree on key information about our activities that might be of interest to members and consider what events are most popular.
  • We must then split our list of members up and each take a share of names to be contacted personally by telephone or in person.
  • We will seek to find activities which can be clearly defined and not involving heavy demands for time or knowledge of wildlife.
  • We must agree a programme which takes account of Christmas holidays etc.
All of this will take time but at least we are thinking about finding a solution to our concerns and I am very confident that we will succeed.