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Work parties

Mark Swaby

Mark Swaby

Senior Member
The club i run a fishery for does not have compulsory work parties. We rely on members turning up and helping .That usually results in 2 or 3 regular members turning up with the rest of the work party made up of bailiffs and other fishery managers/officials,never enough to do the work required.We have around 450 members and are trying to find out ways other clubs encourage members to turn up,or other ways they get the work done The club committee is fifty/fifty in bringing compulsory work parties,they are worried about losing members. How do your clubs go about solving this problem?.We usually give around a month notice but its getting a bit of a joke with so many few turning out.
 
Many clubs I have belonged to either offer a reduction in membership for those that attend or impose a small surcharge on membership costs for those that don't.

The surcharge can be explained as the need to employ people to undertake needed work.

If it's just £10 extra it will enable good funds at that membership level to utilise external resources
 
Mark, I'm in one club that stipulates 2 work parties per year if you want to retain membership. Another club has one compulsory work party with an option to pay £10 if you don't want to attend. Even with those approaches there are those that attend to help and those that are simply present and do the minimum before sloping off as early as possible. The first club has a number of specified roles for attendees which it publicises in advance such as checking otter fences and light trimming work to avoid the accusation from members that work parties are too strenuous for them to be able to participate. Interesting that those same anglers seem to be able to struggle to swims with a load of tackle...

Hope something here helps and good luck!
 
You could introduce a work party levy Mark which could be ring fenced for fishery management. Problem with that is it may cause resentment from some and would also lead to members turning up when they’d rather be elsewhere which is just a waste of time.
We have weekly work parties and have a core of 6 or 8 regulars. We make sure it’s enjoyable with a good atmosphere and not clicky,.. all tools supplied. It’s also important that those who make the effort to attend go home feeling that they’ve achieved something worthwhile.
W.P.’s are advertised each week on the forum and Facebook and regular blogs are included to help gain interest .
 
Hello Mark
Long time no speak hope you are well

The clubs im in ask members to do 2 work parties a year both to be done in the closed season.

The dates of which are issued on the renewal form which needs to be signed at the work parties by a committee member to ensure you attended.

Only one work party is compulsory you can opt out of the other one for £25

If you do not do your compulsory and don't attend the second one or pay the opt out you cant join.......simple as that no exceptions
apart form Elder members and OAPs or if you have health issues then you are not required to do any of the work parties.
you do need to clear that with the committee first but they are very helpful in this concern

Work parties start promptly at 8.30 am until 12 middya if your form isn't handed in by 8.30am it may not get signed this also encourages people not to be late.

This ensures everyone helps towards the up keep of the club and also the opt out fees help pay for tree surgery or more heavy duty work where machinery may be warranted.

These clubs are carp fisheries (not syndicates) with memberships costing £220 a year approx. (200 odd members)

You could adjust the opt out fee accordingly depending on how much the clubs annual membership is.

It may sound a bit draconian at first but this has worked well..................I have been a member of both clubs for 30 years there has not been any issues in that time and the lakes are well kept and everyone is happy.

Give me a call if you want to know more
 
I know you know this Mark but Verulam charges you £40 on your annual subs if you don’t attend a working party.

I suffer from a condition that means sometimes I’m ok to do the physical work involved, often I’m not, but as I’m not registered disabled I’m not exempt. I don’t mind really, but £40 isn’t nothing.
 
I run working parties for PAAS on the Severn; the club shuts various popular waters (both still waters and rivers) for a month at a time, throughout the season. You can then only fish closed waters, if you have a working party ticket in your card.

Also if the club takes on a new water, you can only fish it in the first 12 months, if you have a working party ticket.
 
I am 81 live 300 miles from one of my club venues, where its not easy to get to a work party, so when I do visit the fishery I take a roll of chicken wire, all the tools for the job, so I can make the stiles safe. Everyone can do something on work party days, when I was confined to a wheelchair for some time, I would turn up at a working party armed with rolls, sausages, tea and coffee as my part of the day.
 
I attend for my one remaining club when i can but prefer a levy (reduction in renewal which am happy to waive) as its a fair way away for me.

I think compulsory would lose you members. I think placing a plus levy on membership price would need to be significant but that would lose you members. My view is that tje best way is to have a reduction in membership price for attendees, the larger the reduction the more might be tempted as long as it's not seen as a social jolly.

One club i used to belong to was 75 miles away, we had river (which I fished) and lakes (which I never even saw). Turning up for a river working party it was diverted to the lakes. Stinking hot day spent lugging filthy ex- railway sleepers to build carp swims I knew I'd never see again. At 11.00 the attendees declared it was too hot so would go to the pub. Yeah right. Drove home. Peed off to put it mildly.

But my experience had always been that given a membership of several hundred only a regular handfull get involved in work parties, even fewer if club official posts are vacant.
 
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One of my clubs has a close season, those attending one work party in close season get to fish one month earlier than those that do not. they also tried compulsory but recently ceased, not sure why.
 
Many thanks for all of your replies so far ,please keep them coming.We are having a meeting next week to discuss options and some of your answers will give us new ideas/thoughts.Our club takes payment online so the membership officer is worried that it will be a lot of work for him.Do any of your clubs work this way and how does it run.Sorry admin i possibly should have put this thread elsewhere.
 
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Some of the key factors in successful work parties in one of the largest associations in the north (50 miles of river, 33 river venues + several still waters ) are:

1. Affiliated clubs 'adopting' some of their local venues. This only applies to a minority of venues, but in effect means that the main association can just let certain venues look after themselves. We are fortunate that livestock are involved in keeping many venues fishable.

2. The club forum being pro-active in identifying which venues need a work party, and a consensus emerging 1-2 months in advance about the best date. So it isn't a hierarchical thing, coming down from club officials, or not entirely. So then forum members put their names forward on a list that everyone can see 1-2 months in advance, together with who is bringing what. Other people make excuses - that's fine at least they looked and said they'd try to turn up next time - sometimes people have to withdraw for family reasons, illness, whatever, but at least they put their names forward in the first place! An active forum is better for this than facebook, and much better than just website announcements. It does tend to attract a dozen people from the same pool of two or three dozen people of course, it will be in any club, but the forum definitely increases participation.

3. It's amazing (to me as a non-driver anyway) how mention of what needs doing to improve the car parking seems to bring people out even more than what needs doing to the access to the fishing!

4. The forum is organised in such a way that the work party threads on the forum are alongside river threads that feature people' s catches and funny stories from the same rivers. The people involved enjoy each others' company online and off - on most cases they 'met' on the forum first. There's one particular charismatic individual who will then publish a report on the work party with a lot of photos and a certain amount of mickey-taking, praise/criticism of sausage sandwiches and ales, etc. Cos there's usually a free pint from the club and often a sarnie too, in a local pub. Participants say that they enyoy the work parties almost as much as the fishing. It is also clear to all members of the forum that a lot of learning about the swims and their inhabitants happens during the work parties, particularly when the river is low in the closed season.

5. The work parties' achievements are published with thanks in the minutes of club meetings and so in the monthly email bulletins. They sometimes make the angling column in the local city paper, with headline on how "local club opens up inaccessible stretches of the Nidd," etc.

6. We'll try to avoid work parties in the Middle of winter, run up to Xmas (eg November 25th springs to mind for some reason as the sort of date to avoid, Mark ;) ) but I guess if needed it could be called an "emergency work party: fallen tree blocks weir and is causing ongoing damage, heroic hands to the pump please" and those involved would be big-upped on the forum/ meetings / email bulletins.

7. Like any club, there are also heroes who just do it on their own anyway. A well known club member who is not active on our forum but makes Youtube videos (which of course are another way to big-up work parties) once said of a particular short stretch on one of his videos "I see they must've had a work party here," when in fact it was just one heroic individual working on his own over two days in May with his spade, bow saw, lump hammer and a few planks. ( and this is definitely what I'd be doing meself in the closed season if I was a car driver!)
 
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Mark,

A very difficult issue and one that I know many Club committees struggle with. I'm as guilty as any of not attending work parties, although I have done a few, including Himalayan Balsam removal. There are always a few generous souls who will turn out all year to do some work and their numbers are bolstered by bailiffs and club officials but they can't do everything.

Factors affecting work party attendance include distance from venues (my main excuse although some are within 30 mins drive from my home); finding the time/other commitments; age/fitness (another factor for me) and physical handicaps; and ,perhaps most significantly for many clubs, ageing memberships.

I don't think a levy is the way forward as this could lose members and be counter productive. There is also the issue of how you provide for any members who are disabled or old and infirm, who could be penalised by any such additional charge. A reduction or other 'bonus' for members attending work parties may well suit but could have a financial impact as well.

Health and safety issues must also be considered with tree work requiring certified operators for chainsaws, while heavy lifting and working on slippery banks adjacent to deep water pose their own problems.

All in all, not an easy problem to solve but I hope you can find a workable solution for your club.


Dave
 
In the short term, I think how compulsory work parties affect membership numbers depends very much on how good the fishing on offer is and whether you have a membership waiting list or not. If the fishing is excellent and you have a waiting list, compulsory work parties don’t affect numbers, anyone refusing is simply expelled and replaced by someone willing to contribute. Obviously some people will be exempt on medical grounds. Introducing the option of a small levy of say £25 to opt out is often a good idea if membership numbers are not so robust. In the long term though I think compulsory work parties/a levy option is the way forward for all clubs as it leads to improved fisheries and better quality members, which in turn leads to increased membership numbers. On a personal note, I have only attended work parties when they were compulsory, and I actually prefer clubs which impose them because i think it discourages undesirables from joining. One club I’m a member of offers loads of different dates, and loads of different tasks, so no one has any excuse not to attend.
 
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