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Is the IWA growing teeth?


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IWA ? Who are they ? 

I struggle to see what relevance they have (to me) and I doubt I'm on my own..

Which is probably a shame but I haven't really seen anything that makes me think I should join.  Don't get me wrong I wish them all the best,  but maybe they need to make themselves more relevant to today's boaters ? 

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1 minute ago, jonathanA said:

....................but maybe they need to make themselves more relevant to today's boaters ? 

 

If the IWA want to be more representative of many of 'todays boaters' (how little movement can I get away with) maybe they should merge with the "No Boats Travel Anywhere" group (otherwise known as the Baton Twirlers)

 

Home | National Baton Twirling Association

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1 hour ago, ditchcrawler said:

I must admit I was hoping that the last Chairman would do a lot more to sell the IWA than has happened. Its no good just telling IWA members what you are doing you need to tell every boater.

Apart from putting up banners what are they doing?

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Its all change at the top of the IWA with the resignation of the CEO and National Chair - I have met Paul Rodgers and he seemed to have good ideas. So what caused him to resign? Anyone know? Below is the email i received earlier today.

Following the recent departure of Phil Hornsey as CEO and the resignation of Paul Rodgers as Trustee and National Chair, Trustees met on 2nd May 2022 to agree an interim leadership team.

Trustees are pleased to announce that Les Etheridge has been co-opted as a Trustee and appointed as National Chair on an interim basis. Members will be asked to confirm Les’s appointment as a Trustee at the AGM in September 2022.

Further, Trustees have agreed the appointment of Jonathan Smith as CEO, again on an interim basis. A full recruitment process will be undertaken for a permanent successor.

Both Les and Jonathan have had long involvement with IWA and also bring extensive experience from the private sector.

Trustees are looking forward to working with the new leadership team, staff and volunteers to make sure IWA continues to deliver while putting in place a plan for a strong and sustainable future.
 

Sue O'Hare & Nick Dybeck
IWA Deputy Chairs

John Butler
IWA National Treasurer

on behalf of the Trustees: Sir Robert Atkins, John Butler, Dave Chapman, Nick Dybeck, Rebecca Hughes, Sue O’Hare, Hannah Sterritt

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20 minutes ago, Richard T said:

Trustees are looking forward to working with the new leadership team, staff and volunteers to make sure IWA continues to deliver while putting in place a plan for a strong and sustainable future.

 

But deliver what? What have the IWA actually delivered in the past 20 years?

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33 minutes ago, LadyG said:

I thought it made a good point for ordinary boaters, but don't think it helped the IWA ,in fact probably antagonised the Parry's of this world.

I don't think they are bothered about antagonising Mr Parry

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1 hour ago, ditchcrawler said:

I don't think they are bothered about antagonising Mr Parry

 

I thought the opposite, given they acquiesced to his demand the banner be taken down, instead of telling him to shove it. (As I think they should have done.)

 

 

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They have "extensive experience of the private sector". What on earth does that mean? And what possible use is it?

There are a lot of directors of bust energy companies with such experience. Not sure I'd rely on them to do much for boaters,  though.

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I certainly hope they are growing a set of teeth. Considering that if it wasn't for the IWA we, probably, would not have the canals, bad as they are, in this day and age, the IWA certainly lost a lot of their influence and relativity. I was a member for a year or so but when I realised the the IWA wasn't going anywhere I dropped my membership. When I have tried to put this to people who are still members it tends to elicit a tirade of abuse, or at least it did on at least one occasion for me. The IWA have nothing tangible in the ten years or so that I was a boat owner for the canals as far as I could see. And if they have then they have kept very very quiet about it.

Edited by pete.i
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8 hours ago, Arthur Marshall said:

They have "extensive experience of the private sector". What on earth does that mean?

 

 

I'd say it means the newly drafted in 'leaders' are quite elderly.

 

 

 

 

 

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13 hours ago, jonathanA said:

IWA ? Who are they ? 

I struggle to see what relevance they have (to me) and I doubt I'm on my own..

 

 

Same here.

 

I think the whole 'canal community' owes a massive debt of gratitude to the IWA as it started life as a campaigning organisation, the embodiment of all the people who saved much of the canal system from being filled in and built over back in the 1960s. 

 

Once its job was broadly done though, it became purposeless, just drifted and became a club for the boys doing not much other than organising and holding a boating rally once a year in various parts of the system. 

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The IWA are an utter irrelevance.  I would think the average age of a member is about 85, so they either need to radically change their ethos to make themselves relevant to a wider range of today's boaters, or they can expect to fade into obscurity. 

 

It's obvious to me that the leadership of the IWA are only interested in a certain sort of boater, and that certain sort are those boaters who are the same as the leadership.  Pretty pathetic really.

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11 minutes ago, doratheexplorer said:

It's obvious to me that the leadership of the IWA are only interested in a certain sort of boater, and that certain sort are those boaters who are the same as the leadership.

 

 

"Proper boaters", presumably! 

 

But yes there is that. I've heard the IWA leadership has a fierce and irrational bias against both liveaboards and CCers. Is that right? 

 

 

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I must admit to losing a lot of faith in the IWA (although we are still members) when I was taking up the case for shared boats not being charged licence fees 147% higher than other private boaters. I contacted the IWA seeking their support and I'll never forget the conversation I had with Roger Squires. When I put the case to him his response was that he and the IWA would not support me as it would mean that other private boaters would have to pay more!!! 

Sort of supports the view that the IWA only supports a certain type of boater. I think. 

Edited by haggis
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13 minutes ago, Jen-in-Wellies said:

I'd make an exception for the Waterways Recovery Group, which are part of the IWA. They are still doing practical things, by helping other canal restoration organisations. Their volunteers are presumably mostly not IWA members and their age range skews considerably younger than the IWA average. They have three restoration camps on the Herefordshire and Gloucestershire this summer, each of seven days, for example. All three are now fully booked up.

Jen

Yes, good point.  The WRG are worth keeping.  Those miserable old white male snobs can sod right off though.

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