Thank You Event Ellesmere Port. Word Cloud Activity. Who s Who in North Wales & Borders. North Wales & Borders Annual Showcase.

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1 Many thanks to all of you that attended the Thank You Event on Friday 23 rd September at Ellesmere Port Boat Museum, we hope you enjoyed the afternoon and the tours of the Museum. It was really good to see such a good turn out with some of our newer volunteers amongst some of our regular and familiar faces. Congratulations to those of you that received your mugs and pin badges as recognition of the hours you have volunteered with us and thank you all for participating in the Volunteering Experience Word Cloud exercise that we carried out, we will look at the feedback from this later in this issue. Thank You Event Ellesmere Port Word Cloud Activity Who s Who in North Wales & Borders North Wales & Borders Annual Showcase Towpath Taskforce Upcoming Events We now have the following number of volunteers that have either received or are eligible for Recognition Awards;

2 We decided to try and gauge your volunteers experience whilst volunteering for North Wales & Borders waterways, so in groups or individuals you wrote down as many single words/short phrases as possible that described your experience when volunteering. This could include your feelings, frustrations, what works well and what doesn t. You then placed them on a score line rating then from 5 as being an excellent experience to 1 being a very poor experience. We have now produced a word cloud of all the words. Excellent (5) Average (3) Very Poor (1) Below is a summary of the activity. As can be seen from the word cloud below the most popular themes of conversation seemed to be meeting new people, friendship and communication. There was a lot of positive feelings towards the experience, enjoyable, satisfaction, rewarding appearing a lot and most of you have a good working relationship with your direct CRT contacts. You seem to like the fact that you are receiving appreciation from the boaters and public. Overall it seems that the main reason a lot of people volunteer is the chance to meet new people, create new friendships and relationships and be involved in a social environment. Coupled with having an enjoyable and satisfying experience most of the volunteers that attending seemed to have a really positive take on the experience of volunteering for Canal & River Trust in the North Wales & Borders area. Feedback rated a 5 (Excellent) or 4 (Good)

3 The common theme at the lower end of the volunteers experience appears to be communication or should we say lack of communication, poor delivery of materials and equipment, facilities available to volunteers and the difficulty of getting feedback when concerns/issues are raised. Whilst a lot of the issues where common amongst the group, it was more frustration than anger that was coming across. You felt that if the communication and materials/equipment issues where dealt with, it would be an even more pleasurable experience when volunteering then it already is. Feedback rated a 2 (Poor) or 1 (Very Poor) Generally, Communication was the key topic that came out of the session, some of you found that you have a good experience with communicating with your direct CRT contacts whilst it appears that a lot have issues with lack of communication and feedback. There appears to be a very good relationship between volunteers and their direct CRT contacts though and this is creating a good working environment for volunteers and Trust staff alike. You seem to find it a satisfying and rewarding experience and enjoy the social element and the chance to meet new people both from within the volunteer/trust network and general public alike. We need to work on building on this foundation and work on our communication, although a few of you said that this is improving, and planning needs improve to enable the you the volunteers to truly enjoy your experience whilst volunteering with us. Feedback from all ratings

4 Waterway Manager Volunteer Development Co-ordinator Customer Operations Manager Customer Operations Supervisor North Wales & Borders, Ellesmere Llangollen & Montgomery Canals Customer Operations Supervisor North Wales & Borders, Norbury Junction Shropshire Union Canal South Customer Operations Supervisor North Wales and Borders, Northwich Weaver Navigation, Middlewich Branch & SUC North Volunteer Team Leader North Wales & Borders, On Bankside Volunteer Support Team Leader Development & Engagement Manager (Away on secondment) North Wales & Borders Development & Engagement Manager (In on Secondment) North Wales & Borders Destination Supervisor Museums & Attractions, Trevor Basin Duty Manager North Wales & Borders, Anderton

5 On Friday 21 st October, The North Wales & Borders partnership for the Canal & River Trust will be hosting a fantastic showcase event at Chester Racecourse to promote our wonderful waterways to the general public. The showcase is a celebration of waterways in Cheshire, North Wales, Mid Wales, Shropshire & Staffordshire and will include over 40 exhibition stands from our partners promoting some of the great initiatives taking place on and around the waterways. In addition, there will be a programme of talks taking place throughout the day, ranging from the various activities you can take part in on the waterways to the history and heritage of our canal network. The event will be open from 9.30am-3.30pm and you are welcome to visit at any point during the day. The timings of the various talks will be available next week. You will be able to park for free at Chester Racecourse to enjoy the exhibition. If you would like to join us for this fantastic event please let us know! Just Showcase16@canalrivertrust.org.uk Please share this invitation with your colleagues and contacts and promote the event through any marketing channels you may have - we would like as many people as possible to find out what the North Wales & Borders area has to offer!

6 Anderton Boat Lift at 10am every first Wednesday in the month. Light physical work, some manual handling. Within Anderton Boat Lift Grounds - Weeding and edging of beds & borders, painting of fence work, litter picking, mowing/strimming, planting and shrub clearance. Along towpath adjacent to Lift Litter picking, towpath clearance, customer enhancements Outside the Shroppie Fly pub at 10am every second Saturday in the month.. Light physical work, some manual handling. Litter picking, towpath clearance, customer enhancements, painting of lock flight, access improvements, vegetation management, etc Northgate Locks at 10am every last Saturday in the month. Light physical work, some manual handling. Litter picking, towpath clearance, customer enhancements, painting, access improvements, vegetation management, etc We aim to add more Towpath Taskforce events in the future, if you think a Taskforce event would work in your area please get in touch with your initial suggestions and we will gladly look into it. For further information about any of the above or any suggestions please contact Or visit the Canal & River Trust website for details of all of our events.

7 Saturday 8 th Thursday 13 th Saturday 15 th Friday 21 st Saturday 29 th Towpath Taskforce Audlem Meet outside the Shroppie Fly pub at 10am every second Saturday in the month. General tidying and painting of locks and surrounding area. For further details please contact Neville Preece neville.preece@canalrivertrust.org.uk Vale Royal Conservation Society Volunteers Beginning works to clear vegetation from slipway at Northwich Yard, Weaver Navigation For further details contact Steve Maguire stephen.maguire@canalrivertrust.org.uk SUMBA Meet at 9.30am at Aqueduct Marina Carpark. Completion of washwall repairs and towpath & offside vegetation cutting back. If you are able to help and for further information - contact Graham Russell sumbacanal@gmail.com North Wales & Borders Annual Showcase - The showcase is a celebration of waterways in Cheshire, North Wales, Mid Wales, Shropshire & Staffordshire and will include over 40 exhibition stands from our partners promoting some of the great initiatives taking place on and around the waterways. Chester Racecourse, Chester CH1 2LY (Free to park) Towpath Taskforce Chester Meet at Northgate Lock Hut at 10am. Light physical work, litter picking, painting towpath clearance, vegetation management. Please contact Steve Maguire stephen.maguire@canalrivertrust.org.uk Montgomery and Llangollen Canal Volunteer Group - Friday group meeting each week to complete a variety of tasks along the Llangollen and Montgomery Canals. Contact Roger Birch roger.birch@canalrivertrust.org.uk for more details each week. Welshpool Adoption Group The Welshpool Adoption Group meets 9.30am every Thursday by the slipway at the bottom of the Church St Carpark in the centre of Welshpool. For further details contact Pat Ward - patward@intonet.co.uk If you wish to be added to the list to receive this newsletter and other volunteering information please contact Jason Watts Volunteer Support Team Leader jason.watts@canalrivertrust.org.uk Jason Watts - Volunteer Support Team Leader T E customer.services@canalrivertrust.org.uk Got any stories or suggestions for our next issue? Please contact us Charity number