Evening Meets Survey for AGM

[vanda boyd]

Following last nights committee meeting discussion prior to the AGM and a further talk with the President, it seems a good time to try and ask people about summer evening meets so that hopefully the forthcoming AGM doesn’t ramble on for hours.

Some of you may remember that at the last AGM concern was raised at the falling number of climbers attending evening meets. To try to address this I instigated a policy of sending reminders out by Website and Facebook a couple of days before evening meets so that, along with the meets list and website page, everybody would know exactly where and when each meet was taking place. Unfortunately this doesn’t seem to have attracted much of an increase.
To assist the committee understand why so few people attend, below are a few questions which may help if members, especially the climbers amongst you, could answer any which are relevant to you. Other comments not covered would also be welcome.
1. Is the choice of venues too predictable? Anybody fed up of 30 years of Stanage? [hope not!!]
2. Does the lack of a regular climbing partner inhibit you from attending, possibly for fear of having nobody to climb with?
3. When considering attending an evening meet, have you ever contacted other members [phone/text/Facebook] to see if they are going. Or arranged on a Sunday meet to climb together at the following evening meet?
4. If we could get enough volunteers, would having a designated meet leader encourage you to attend?
5. For the retired/non-working members, would an earlier start encourage you to attend? Possibly early afternoon and carrying on into the evening when the workers arrive.
6. Would those members who regularly visit the climbing wall on winter Fridays prefer a Friday meet occasionally? This was tried previously and was relatively successful for a while.

If you’d prefer to talk, please give me a ring [2665767] or email paul.vanda@tiscali.co.uk

I look forward to hopefully getting some replies to assist us in keeping the club active en route to the next 50 years!!
Cheers
Paul Gibson

[Bill boley]

Re your email on midweek climbing:- I have had three evenings this year where only one other person has turned up, but that is sufficient and Millstone when no one else arrived, usually people at the crags take sympathy and let you climb with them!
!. The choice is fine and as I have not been climbing for 30 years not remotely fed up with Stanage, I could still have a fortnights full time holiday there.
2. I have not had a regular climbing partner for some time, seem to manage though, yes the fear of having to climb solo stops me!
3. I don’t usually contact anyone but easily could do, I think if I was leading the meet I would try to contact people in the future as last year did a Sunday meet at Froggatt where no one turned up having said that John arrived later by which time I had left unfortunately. Another club I occasionally climb with go for a drink afterwards and decide the venue for the next week and then email like mad the day before climbing checking weather , location is OK and who else is going.
4. Hopefully not necessary for the evening meets.
5. Not yet applicable but may be the reason why lacking climbing people as have already climbed during the midge free day!
6. If people want partners to climb with it is simple enough to put an email out, we all have Castle Club addresses and phone nos so can contact people if we want.
Unfortunately stating the obvious the crux of the problem is that we do not have any teen, twenties, thirties and not so many forties members of which I’m sure in the past there were plenty of.
I do quite like the alternative Tues and Wed meets.
Bill

[gordon riley]

Hi All

Just a few thoughts regarding evening meets.

attendances have been disappointing and on a few occasions I have turned up to find no one there when the conditions were perfectly climbable. Whether the meet is on a Tuesday or Wednesday or any other day for that matter seems academic if no one is going to turn up.

Regarding the points Vanda & Bill have made

!. I do not think the choice of venues is too predictable. There are a finite number of possible venues suitable for an evening meet due to length of walk in etc but there is lots of brilliant rock in the Peak so that repeating routes is not a problem for me in any way.

2.The lack of a regular climbing partner is very much a problem but has n,t stopped me turning up and being prepared to climb with whoever turns up. If attendances were better on evening meets this would no longer be an issue.

3.After a few meets when I was the only person there I have begun to put something on the messageboard asking if anyone was going. I sometimes actually got a reply. Maybe we could make more use of the messageboard for this and perhaps with people putting a mobile number for contact.

4 I think this might help even if merely a designated person as a contact point?????

5 I think an earlier start is an excellent idea. meeting the needs of both retired and working members.

6. I do think this idea may have merit it does seen a shame to be on an indoor wall when it is climbable outside but this will clearly depend on individual preferences and needs to be decided upon on an individual and day to day basis.

Hope these thoughts are helpful. What do other people think?

[Kathy Burgess]

Hi all,
Another reply regarding evening meets:
1. I don’t think the choice is too predictable – in fact the opposite as we have chosen not to attend meets some meets at unusual crags (Higgar Tor , too difficult and Chatsworth Edge , too green)
2. n/a
3. As a new member I did not know who might be likely to attend so could not really contact individuals in advance (I know I could have used the website though)
4. I think this would help – a designated coordinator might be useful. It may be useful to know which area of the crag people were meeting
5. This sounds like a good idea
6 I’m happy with Tuesday and Wednesday meets. However if a day or two before, the weather forecast is bad, it would be good to have a second choice of evening that week

[David Pendlebury]

Greetings from the Peloponnese where we are climbing at Leonidio.
Thanks to Paul for opening up the debate.
It is up to the active climbers to sort this out, or decide if there is sufficient t interest to maintain a weekly programme.
I am not sure who goes out or tries to go out on a regular basis.
Todays working environment makes it difficult for some to attend and some of the regular climbers have never come out in the week. Those who do not work or have retired are sometimes away for extended periods of time, perhaps climbing elsewhere. To give Linda and myself as an example,, we will have climbed on about 100 days this year but on only about 20 club meets. Whilst this may have been exeptional due to family commitments, we can be away for big chunks of the Summer.
The poor weather this summer has not helped attendance.
Personally,I think the choice of venues should be reviewed to be both more specific and more wideranging as explained below.
Doctor Johnson said to be tired of Stanage is to be tired of life. However, the Meets List should state Stanage Flying Buttress or Stanage Paradise Wall rather than Stanage Popular End or. Stanage Plantation. Curbar or Gardoms either mean an evening searching for others or climbing in the same area each visit,
Plenty of gritstone crags never get a visit while Carls Walk, Tegness Pinnacle and Higgar Tor are probably due a rest.
There are only ever 3 or 4 limestone crags on the Meets List and one sports crag despite a dozen climbers visiting Kalymnos this Autumn.
The bouldering sessions have been popular and it would be easy to arrange joint bouldering and climbing evening meets.
Communication should be improved, pàrticularly from those seeking climbing partners!! We normally put out a message if we are going.
3vening meets have no start time and we will normally go earlier indicated in our message,
A meet coordinator, perhaps a volunteer for a particular month is definitely worth trying. It would not matter if they could not attend every meet.
Various people have over recent years suggested we have a fixed night like other clubs and on balance I would support this. It makes planning much easier when the Meets List is never to hand.
Communication also needs to enable flexibility so if it is wet on the designated night we can flag an alternative. No wind in midsummer may mean midges and the need to go elsewhere.
I hope tat the Friday wall crew will continue to meet up in the summer, but outside. This could be in addition to evening meets. I do not know how much overlap there is.
Thanks Paul
David

[Pat & Martin]

Hi everyone, here is my twopenn’orth on the Evening Meets Programme.

First of all, I must confess to having attended zero evening meets this year, despite having done plenty of climbing. This is mainly due to spending a lot of time away from Sheffield, and to preferring daytime climbing when we are around the Peak. As Dave P. indicated, a lot of us retirees have a different set of climbing criteria now that we are not working all day.

So perhaps it is time to re-name the EMP as the Midweek (Climbing) Meets Programme. The idea of a fixed day (Tuesday is the obvious choice?) has worked well for the Thursday walks programme, but climbing is rather more weather dependent, so there needs to be greater flexibility. This is where the message board can be very useful – Dave’s suggestion of a meet coordinator, perhaps a volunteer for a particular month, is definitely worth trying. A climbing venue could be designated by the Meets Programme, and once the forecast for the week ahead is known, the day could be adjusted, if necessary, by the co-ordinator.

I agree that there is a need to be more specific when choosing locations on the Edges, and that limestone needs greater representation, especially the new sport-climbing crags, and the easier traditional ones. But there is nothing wrong with Stanage (except on busy weekends!).

It is interesting that all the people that have responded to Paul’s email (so far) are free to go out during the day, and are probably less interested in evening climbing – we have done all that over the last 30 years or so! Also, the midges are a big disincentive (another plus for the limestone?)

I shall look forward to hearing more on this subject at the AGM., and hopefully we can arrive at a satisfactory solution.

Martin.

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