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They are staff, unpaid staff but staff nonetheless and deserve proper supervision, if the organisation is unable to properly supervise them they shouldn't have them

Better to wipe your bum on the bamboo bog roll. Pandas have to eat many pounds of bamboo to get one pound of panda. Same theory that says it is more eco to grow crops on land, rather than use it for pasture for cattle. Typically a ten to one ratio for each step up the food chain. Eating, or wipping your bum on lions and great white sharks is the most eco unfriendly of all! Especially important not to eat a panda, lion, or great white after wiping your bum on it.

Well done for the loving on your boat over the last 2 weeks 👍 Keep the love going and you’ll stay warm 😃

Oh bugger this is just CRT speak for "we are going to reduce facilities and up yours boaters". £4m ?? wonder how much they spend on blue signs, Facebook ads, dog poo bags holders two-tone van livery, director's bonuses, middle managers and full stack developers.

Oversight of any staff, whether paid or volunteer is a fundamental part of any organisation, how it's done depends on the organisation but as Jerra suggested, secret shopper type visits and direct oversight by the volunteer manager on routine visits should be a normal part of any volunteers week. Additional monitoring of the complaints system is often a useful way of flagging issues and if used correctly can often nip problems in the bud but as also suggested there will come a time where some volunteers are just not right for the organisation and they should be (kindly) shown the door. It comes down to supervision in the end, staff of any type need supervision, the problem in my opinion is good supervision is often lacking, it's a skill not everyone has and supervising volunteers has the added issue of balancing the quality of work by unpaid labour against the standards required by the organisation

I am increasingly coming to the view that I would prefer guidance on passing moored boats to change. On our last trip out over the August bank holiday weekend, (Venetian-Chester-Market Drayton) we noticed at lot of boats moored during the day at widely spaced intervals, often in ones or twos, but apart from Chester to Beeston there was barely a stretch with no boats moored boats in sight. Realistically, to make a difference to speed, we are slowing down a couple of hundred yards in advance, and then it takes another couple of hundred yards after passing before we are up to cruising speed. The impact on overall journey time was about 2hrs, which makes a difference. I would like to see a definition of the canals as a transport network. If you want to moor up anywhere you like, that's great, but expect that other boats will be moving. We don't all slow to a crawl when passing a parked car, and the same applies if that's a motorhome parked in a layby. Perhaps there could be some reasonable exceptions to that - say the hours of 8pm to 8am it is expected that you will slow down, and maybe even create explicit 'slow down' zones for visitor moorings. Anywhere else and you could reasonably expect boats to be passing during the day at up to 4mph and if you are choosing not to move that day, you need to moor appropriately. If you really don't want the movement, perhaps you should take an offline mooring in a marina? Contentious - definitely. Will it happen, no. However, it's a thought. Alec

Simply not true. Of course people learn how to work locks, unless you're going to have a lockie on every lock. What you have got is a stack more people involved in, and with an interest in, the continuation of the canals as a navigation. And we really need everyone on that side we can get, not alienating them by telling them they're a damn nuisance so they think we're a load if elitist egotists.

Or they could just call them what they have been called in every organisation I have volunteered with That is simply volunteers. Do they call people who cut back vegetation on a voluntary basis volunteer vegetation cutters or merely volunteers.

You really dont add anything to the forum with your constant aggressive opposite stance to anything CRT-wise discussed. Alan is referring to the ongoing CRT management failure of the Volockies, not the lockies themselves. I stick by my previous summing up of your character.

When people have travelled past my moored boat at speed I usually dont notice, occasionally a slight rocking or pulling on the lines, or a creak of the fenders as the boat gently presses into them. I have never been on another moored boat getting passed at speed, so perhaps my boat is unusual, but in most conditions the issue of passing at speed is wildly exaggerated. I think it is mainly just unpleasant people looking for something to grump about. I have noticed that the shouters often have their mooring lines perpendicular to the bank so perhaps the inexperience works both ways? In some canal conditions there is no harm at all in going a bit above tickover, in others a kayak will make your boat rock. The blanket tickover rule is just silly. I have considered getting a version of that popular, obnoxious fitoutpontoon sign with "pass at tick over" in a red circle, saying "pass at whatever speed you like" instead.

I know, a bath would be much better. 😃

If Dave contacted us that there was an emergency, we would tell him where the key is secreted and he could get access if required. Like you we live over 200 miles away !

That is why they make Toilet ducks

Because they know no better and don't understand what they are doing

A difficult sale. Potential buyers expect them to be black and white, not ...

Like Arthur, I can't think of an instance when I have asked a volunteer not to help and they have ignored me. Perhaps as ian suggested, a lot is about how you ask 🙂 I love canal boating and have been doing it for about 40 years and while I love doing locks, I am finding that with advancing years sometimes a bit of help is very welcome. I don't see the volunteers taking away any of my enjoyment of the canals but they add to it by making life that wee bit easier for a while. I wonder if all those fit young things who seem to resent the volunteers will still feel the same when they find that working locks is not as easy as it used to be ?

Bit easier when in flood 😁