Go Wild Roundup from Groups.

• Gordon Voller, SHBC - Had an introduction / walk around the site in the morning and a heathland clearance task in the afternoon. Generally only run tasks in the winter, regularly on a Thursday. 5 came out on the day, 1 was a regular from the past, 4 were new of whom 3 are now regular - Hit.
• Mike Hatch, Friends of Brickfields Country Park - Hold tasks on a Sunday afternoon. Held two tasks, 1 regular volunteer came to the first, Mike was on his own for the second. 3 new volunteers did come to the October event - Miss, didn't help at all.
• Kevin Briggs, Rushmoor Urban Wildlife - Did see publicity during the month. Felt that volunteering wasn't particularly popular at the moment, not seen as 'sexy' enough.
• Christa Rohde, Friends of Frimley Fuel Allotments - One new volunteer came on the day, but only a small group so a significant contribution, and he did come back on next 2-3 tasks. Felt was a good opportunity to join in with other groups - Hit.
• Tony Anderson, Tongham Community Woodland - One new volunteer on the day, and another on the next task - Hit.
• Elliot Fairs, Hart District Council - Task on a new site clearing scrub from heathland. Five volunteers on the day, 4 new but all one family. Has organised tasks in Jan / Feb and hopes to establish a Friends of Group - Hit.
• Peter Scott, Moor Green Lakes - 15 people at task, 3 new volunteers, 1 of whom has come back. Good response considering did very little publicity - Hit.
• Noel Moss, Bourne Conservation Group - 4 new people, largely in response to articles in Farnham Herald, 2 are now regular. Helpful as gave impetus to do publicity etc - Hit.
• Margaret Wales, Friends of Oakley Park - General clear up and work around park. Don't keep a register on the day but generally around 10 rather than usual 4 or 5 so feel Go Wild probably did have a benefit - Hit.
• Sue Dent, Blackwater Valley Countryside Volunteers - 4 new volunteers in September and a further 4 in October, 4 of whom have come back regularly. Comparing this year with the same time last year definitely more new volunteers - Hit.
• Friends of Zebon Copse - Coppicing to open up woodland glade. Good turnout of 16 with 2 new volunteers. Had a BBQ at lunchtime which is always popular.
• Cove Brook Greenway Group - Held a meadow cutting task and a art event with a Willow Weaver. No extra volunteers on the task but 20 people came along to try the willow weaving. Good profile raising but no increase in numbers.
• Fleet Pond Society - Had a large turn out on Sunday task largely because had a group of RSPB Young Explorers out but were also some other new volunteers. Colin held a weekday task on the Wednesday but no one came to that.
• Rowhill Conservation Volunteers - Meadow cutting. 9 volunteers with one new comer.
• Lakeside Conservation Volunteers - Two new volunteers came along on the day, helpful for a new, small group. New people came in response to fliers posted through doors locally.

The reports above show that the responses obtained varied greatly from group to group. It is not clear if there is a real pattern but the 'big' groups such as Fleet Pond and Moor Green seemed to do well where smaller ones such as Frimley Fuel Allotments, Farnham Park and Brickfields struggled. Then of course Yateley and Rowhill (big groups) had no newcomers (but good numbers) while The Bourne and Lakeside Park (small, new groups) did well.

• Measures of Success
  How did Go Wild do against the Measures of Success suggested at the last meeting? See attached. (Summary file)
• Overall
  • 18 conservation groups took part
  • 22 events were held
  • 250 volunteer 'days' in total
• Number of new volunteers taking part on the day
  • 35 new volunteers during September with a further 8 in October
  • 13 of the 18 groups taking part had 1 or more new volunteers
• Number of new regular volunteers
  • This is more difficult to get information on but 7 groups have reported that new volunteers from Go Wild have come back again.
• Extent of coverage in press / local area
  • 12 articles in newspapers / magazines
  • 3 radio interviews
  • 9,000 leaflets distributed
• Numbers of visitors on the day
  • Relatively few people came specifically to visit sites and chat to the groups

Publicity / Money spent - what did and didn't work

• Photoshoot for launch - Hit
  This produced good quality photographs which got good coverage in the newspapers
• A4 Flier / Posters - Hit
  Groups found these useful, good all round publicity
• Banners / Boards - Miss
  In practice not feasible to move around to different sites during the month. Several sites didn't have good places to put banners and the boards probably didn't add much on the day. Would have been better to get good high profile sites and leave them there for all of August / September. Need to plan ahead and book sites for banners and arrange with libraries in particular to take boards, or possibly could print some larger posters to distribute around libraries etc.
• Press coverage - Hit
  Received good coverage in local papers, several articles with and without photos, lots of slots in 'What's On'. Good response to both general Go Wild publicity and press releases from individual groups.
• Adverts in 'The Star' - Miss
  Small and expensive, not particularly well laid out, probably didn't make best use of what there was but generally probably not good value for money.
• BBQ - Miss
  Mainly attended by the 2 groups who were out on the day, with volunteers from two other groups. Didn't really serve the intended purpose. Might have been better if more of individual groups had small lunchtime BBQs as these are popular with volunteers.
• Other publicity - Hit
  BVCP were able to get a good spread of coverage on local web sites, in Local Authority publications, on the radio etc.

• Gordon Voller, SHBC - Yes.
• Mike Hatch, Friends of Brickfields Country Park. Would give it another try - Yes.
• Kevin Briggs, Could try highlighting certain groups and focusing more effort on them. Should begin to build awareness if repeat regularly - Yes.
• Christa Rohde, Friends of Frimley Fuel Allotments. Generally worth doing again but may be better to focus on smaller, weaker groups which didn't do so well here - Yes.
• Tony Anderson, Tongham Community Woodland. Worthwhile but perhaps need to give extra help to smaller groups - Yes.
• Elliot Fairs, Hart District Council. Would do again - Yes.
• Peter Scott, Moor Green. Would take part again - Yes.
• Noel Moss, Bourne Conservation Group. Felt had got a good result. Helped to put the idea of conservation volunteering across to the public - Yes.
• Margaret Wales, Friends of Oakley Park. Would take part again. Generally find that activities aimed at families / children (e.g. Easter egg hunt, teddy bear's picnic) are more popular than their work tasks - Yes.

Overall the meeting felt that:

• Go Wild had been worthwhile
• Would like to repeat it. Felt that it was worth doing every year if possible as this way it would gradually become more familiar and would build profile with time.
• If are going to do again, need to stick with September, it worked well and fits in with groups which only work during the winter season.
• Need to include all the groups in order to get a critical mass.
• It would be good to be able to focus on a number of the groups for particular attention, perhaps as part of overall publicity.
• SD to consult at BVCP to see if is possible to hold as an annual event.

Local Groups Forum - future meetings, the meeting agreed that:

• Should have a basic pattern of meetings every 6 months. So next meeting to be May 2004
• If are going to hold Go Wild again next September will need to then have another meeting in August as this year to finalise plans / arrange publicity shots etc.
• Christa suggested that the next meeting might be more of a social event, SD to see if possible to include a BBQ.

• Numbers of visitors on the day
• Numbers of new volunteers taking part on the day

• Number of new regular volunteers, we dare to hope.
• Extent of coverage in press / local area.

1. Southwood Residents Association. Peter Bullus came along to the meeting on behalf of Southwood Residents Association, who are interested in being involved in the management of Southwood Ponds (off Southwood Lane) and possibly Southwood Woodlands in the future. Peter recently organised a task in collaboration with RBC to clear rubbish from one of the ponds which was very successful with around a dozen people out on the day.
2. Schools It is worthwhile making contact with local schools -
   • HDC Rangers have regular 'Trident' students out on a Friday. The Trident scheme encourages school pupils to do 'community service' during years 10/11 (roughly 14 to 16).
   • Other groups have regular youngsters doing Duke of Edinburgh Award.
3. Friends of Brickfields Country Park, Summer Fun Day will be on 27th June next year. Please pass the word.
4. Blackwater Valley Volunteer Newsletter. BVCP would like to encourage the use of the newsletter to promote groups throughout the valley and would be pleased to receive items for the next edition - the deadline is 13 February 2004. The current issue is a special colour edition for Go Wild, unfortunately costs will probably dictate a return to B&W in the future. Local groups are welcome to as many copies as they would like, please contact Sue for more.