Stan �inds a potential new member
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Add the OWPG logo to your email signature ( a ‘ friendly ’ downloadable version of the logo is being prepared as a I write )
Add the Guild ’ s social media handles to your own work social media
Facebook www . facebook . com / OutdoorWritersandPhotographersGuild
Twitter @ owpg
Instagram add the OWPG hashtag to your posts : # owpg
Things that I am now doing to try and extend our reach include thinking hard about all the people I know who write about , photograph , blog about or provide information on the great outdoors . Are they OWPG members ? If not , can I persuade them to join ?
One potential route into the Guild for would-be members could be via informal local networks and I ’ m setting about organising a day ’ s walking for members across the ‘ wider North of England ’. This is an idea we can formalise by grouping our members into regions ; where there are ‘ clusters ’, there may opportunities lie .
I ’ m very much hoping that a year of near captivity will translate into bumper demand to attend this Autumn ’ s Big Weekend , details of which you ’ ll �ind in the panel on this page , and on the website , where you can download your booking form .
Our venue from 8-11October , is the Field Studies Council ’ s centre at Malham Tarn , in the Yorkshire Dales . Planned activities include a limestone discovery walk , narrative non-�iction tutorial , caving visit , and my own guided walk from the celebrated Settle & Carlisle Railway .
COVID regulations last Autumn meant I had to come up with a Plan B , which was also ultimately cancelled . This was to stage the Big Weekend at the larger FSC centre ,
I ’ m very much hoping that a year of near captivity will translate into bumper demand to attend this Autumn ’ s Big Weekend
near Grange-over-Sands , and so we ’ ll now be enjoying this venue for Big Weekend 2022 , with activities including the Morecambe Bay cycle route , Windermere cruise and Bronze Age discovery ( me again !).
To conclude my perhaps slightly esoteric ramblings , I must invoke a description of the Guild ’ s place in the world that has been levelled by some members : that we now face an existential crisis . Yes , that word again . Put bluntly , our committee of tireless volunteers is in need of new blood , not least in the key positions of Secretary , Meetings Secretary and an apprentice to the Big Weekend Organiser . Peter and Leni Gillman have eased the Guild through tricky waters by successfully juggling the secretarial
demands between them and are exploring how best to divide the various tasks and responsibilities so as to make life as easy as possible for successors . My personal view is that , by drawing more members onto a broader committee of volunteers , we can create a collective from which new candidates for such roles may emerge . But I am also a realist and know that ultimately time may not be on our side .
So this is a direct appeal to you all – if you value your Guild , then :
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Please do �ind the time to become more involved in its running ; and
Do encourage fellow professionals you come across who work in your �ield to join up and share the bene�its of membership of our mutually supportive band .
Jean-Paul Sartre , who knew a thing or two about Existentialism , said that – in a world in which humans were without prede�ined purpose – the onus for de�ining ourselves must fall squarely upon our individual shoulders .
So , let us strengthen our de�inition of ourselves by drawing from the strength of our group – while also giving back to it .
outdoor focus / summer 2021 5