Hi Everyone
Well, we’ve gone from the hottest summer on record to a VERY wet autumn. According to the Environment Agency, this month to the 22nd, the south-east of the UK has had 193% of the long term average rainfall & that’s before the last wet week is taken into account. I strongly suspect that we will have had more than 200% of the long term average by the time the month ends. All this of course means that paths are going to be muddy & slippery in places, but I hope you are still able to get out & enjoy walking with ESW. When the sun’s been out, it’s been lovely! Please support your leaders by attending ESW walks… More on that below

So, what’s been happening in ESW?
We’ve had our AGM. Around 45 people attended, which was good, but it would have been better to have seen more of you there… The AGM is your chance to have your say about your organisation!

I ran through the data from the walkers' survey that we carried out. I was very pleased to have 93 people complete the survey – more than I had thought, so that was great! However, the results were interesting, but frustratingly inconclusive.
Our aim was to keep it very short & simple so that people would take part. Long surveys are just boring…. So we had 4 questions only
Q1 What length of walk do you prefer?
Q2 What day(s) of the week do you/would you walk with ESW?
Q3 If you’re not walking, why?
Q4 asked for comments/suggestions.

Walkers survey results summary:
Q1 5-7 mile walks are the most popular (65%), with 3-4 mile (ambles) coming 2nd at 47.5%. Only 5 respondents wanted walks over 10 miles. Note that the % adds up to more than 100 as people could tick more than one box
Q2 Wednesday, not surprisingly was the most popular day, with Thursday & Saturday joint 2nd, then Sunday 4th, Tuesday 5th, Friday 6th with Monday coming in last.
Q3 The majority of people that aren’t currently walking are doing so due to other commitments/health issues
Q4 A few people suggested bringing back a booking system. Suggestion that walks need to be better publicised (FaceBook etc). Clearer descriptions of walks. Do walks starting at different times….. e.g. summer evening walks. Several people commented that they had got out of the habit of walking with ESW & must get back to it, so hopefully our survey will have had some effect!

One of the main reasons for doing the survey was to try to understand why some walks were very poorly supported, or in some cases, not supported at all. We didn’t get an answer. I also looked at Nigel’s walk data, looking at where the walk was, how many people attended, how long the walk was… again, no obvious reason for walks being poorly supported. There were 2 days when I know it was very hot & the walks still went ahead (several were (sensibly) cancelled by the leaders when we had 33+C forecast & those 2 days were poorly supported, which was to be expected, but otherwise, difficult to know.
There was quite a discussion at the AGM about publicity etc. Several people were frustrated that the ESW Facebook page has not been updated recently & suggested we find someone to do that…. Your committee have been putting out requests in NBs etc for quite some time for a new publicity officer & have had no response – until now! We may have someone willing to take on the role of updating FB, but we’re still at the discussion stage & things may change. We can hope though.

Walk leaders survey
As you will have seen, Last week we put out another survey for leaders/potential leaders/ex leaders… Again, we tried to keep it short, with just 5 questions.
Q1 How often do you lead a walk?
Q2 If you're not currently leading, please explain why
Q3 If you'd like to become a leader, what could we do to help? (Tick all that apply)
Q4 Would you like to have the option of requiring people to book rather than just turn up?
Q5 Comments/suggestions

This time we had 58 responses. Reasonable, but slightly disappointing.

Q1 46.55% of respondents aren’t currently leading. 22.41% once a quarter & 24.14% other with many leading 2-3 times/quarter. Thank you to all leaders!
Q2 Other commitments, health issues, not confident to lead, don’t want to commit so far in advance… were some of the reasons given for not leading
Q3 – 31.58% Said they’d like a buddy system, which we already have, but perhaps need to promote more & 36.84% said they’d like a leader training course – we are planning to run one or more soon. Probably in the spring. Let’s get Christmas out of the way…. Of the “other” responses that we had, several were wanting help with knowing what to do (so leader course & buddy system) & others don’t currently have the time but might be able to lead soon(ish)
Q4 68.97% don’t want a booking system brought back
Q5 Several people suggested better publicising ESW/The Ramblers/what we do/our walks. That brings me back to our (potential) person to do the ESW FB page.

Walks Festival – ESW 40th anniversary
As you are probably aware, 2023 sees ESW reaching the ripe old age of 40. We have produced a calendar (still available for sale, £6 each, great Christmas presents) & are planning a walks festival for late April 2023, with at least one walk each day & a lunch one day. We are hoping to include some special interest walks & an afternoon or early evening walk. Please talk to Helen, Nigel, or any of your committee to discuss if you would like to do something for this.

So, Christmas is coming… Perhaps new waterproofs are on your Christmas wish list!?
Our next social event is our New Year’s Lunch in January. Watch out for booking details in an NB soon. Maybe I’ll see some of you there?

Happy walking & Merry Christmas!
Kind regards

Deb Skinner

Chairman East Surrey Walkers