Carlisle and District Rambling and Fellwalking Club

Complaint & Response

An email I received from a member

and my reply

John McKay

Hi John

I enclose an attachment (self explanatory) and trust that a solution can be found.

There are quite a few older members who don't have a computer, ( or a car to recce walks ),so rely on the printed programme. We feel that C leaders should have been found before the programme went to print.

Attachment

My Reply

Thank you for your email and letter but I regard both as totally unnecessary. I am well aware we have a shortage of C walk leaders but as you can clearly see on the programme the C walks on coach trips are still scheduled to take place and always will take place as long as I am chairman of the club. There are some that say a leader is still required but that is quite deliberate. It would have been very easy for me to put myself down to lead those walks but had I done so no one would have come forward to lead those walks, by putting them down as “ leader required” it forces people to come forward. Two of those walks now have leaders as a result and I fully expect the rest to have leaders in due course. Had I waited on all walks to have leaders before printing the programme then you would still be waiting for your programme. I didn’t just appeal on the website for leaders, I also asked people and passed a list round the coach for leaders but not enough came forward. I find it quite amusing that you suggest committee members lead walks, as if they don’t do enough for the club, they already give up their own time on behalf of the club and if you took the trouble to look at the programme you will find that there are a total of 118 walks scheduled. Of those 118 walks 41 of them are being led by committee members, over a third, is that not enough for you. With committee members and walk leaders we have 35 members who are doing their bit for the club. We have around 185 members, it’s not committee members you should asking to lead walks but the 150 members who do nothing for the club apart from paying their £10 to have everything done for them. I appreciate that some members are not in a position to lead walks and I wouldn’t expect it of them but there are still a lot who could, they are the ones you should be having a go at. I did say it’s a chairman’s job to get things done and I do, I’ve got things done for the past three years and will continue to get things done, along with the committee, in the future. You can be assured and you can assure the signatories of your letter that a C walk will always take place and while some members may not have access to the internet I’m quite sure if they really want to know what’s going on, they will take the trouble to find out. Who needs the internet, the jungle drums seem to spread news very efficiently in all other matters, I’m quite sure they will be just as efficient when it comes to walks.

Regards

John