Why not become a CRT'er

[novascotianboy]

Tony 'three chairs' Hales did commit to make a statement on directors remuneration well before the trust came into being. At the time that he said it, BW were giving April 1st as CART's go live date.

 

The 'go live' date was three months late on 2nd July although government made no announcement.

 

FOIA request

 

At the Boater's Manifesto meeting, we were also told a statement on remuneration would be made "in good time" before the launch. Um...

[MtB]

I feel minded not to 'join'. I feel the £3,000 or so a year I currently pay them is enough.

 

If loads of people join and CaRT finds itself awash with funds, I'm reasonably certain the standard of maintenance of the navigation will not rise but the boss's bonuses will.

 

In fact I don't think the bosses are entitled to ANY bonus, however good their 'performance'. That's what their salary is for. If we can establish the bonus culture died with the old BW and CaRT will not be paying out directors' bonuses, then I'll be far more inclined to join and stump up a few more quid a year for a badge.

 

(Members DO get a boat badge, don't they?!)

 

Mike

[sueb]

You won't be a member just a 'friend'. Members have a say friends get nothing

[novascotianboy]

You won't be a member just a 'friend'. Members have a say friends get nothing

 

...which is a real shame.

 

I hope that they decide in future to move to the model used by the National Trust, where members can vote and can introduce motions at the AGM (if enough members support them) etc.

[carlt]

You won't be a member just a 'friend'. Members have a say friends get nothing

Just like being an associate member of NABO then?

 

Presumably you approve of this apartheid policy, Sue?

[MtB]

You won't be a member just a 'friend'. Members have a say friends get nothing

 

Yes ok, call it what you like, but what do we get for joining them and stumping up a further £36 a year?

 

A boat sticker? A warm feeling inside? ANYTHING?

 

Sorry, I meant 'friending' them. You young things and yer facebook terminology....

 

Mike

 

 

P.S. I've just clicked on the link. We don't get a boat sticker but we DO get a CAR STICKER, FFS. It really is beginning to look as though boaters are persona non grata in CaRTworld

[Rebotco]

I don't really give a monkey's what it calls itself - so long as its first priority is improving the neglected navigation at a reasonable cost. Everything else is secondary.

[Laurence Hogg]

To remind of the op,

 

Why not become a CRT'er You can now join for just £3.00 a month which I think is reasonable: https://canalrivertr...lved/donate-now

It wont take long before we will be seeing if this new style of governing our waterways will work, by becoming a CRT'er it will help rally support for the new charity.

 

We could do with someone drawing up a unofficial "CRT'er" logo (cartoon) so we could be individual CRT'ers (Canal River Trust Enrolled supporter) - as the charity if anything it is a bit stark IMHO and needs a more cheerful look to it.

 

In Birmingham today posters are alongside main roads advertising CRT and chuggers seemed to collaring folks at the top of Farmers Bridge.

 

Go on, its only £3.00 a month to be a CRT'er!!

 

https://canalrivertr...lved/donate-now

[cotswoldsman]

...which is a real shame.

 

I hope that they decide in future to move to the model used by the National Trust, where members can vote and can introduce motions at the AGM (if enough members support them) etc.

 

The last thing you want is members being able to vote on policy it would be a disaster

Edited July 12, 2012 by cotswoldsman

[Arthur Marshall]

I think that would have been a better (more profitable) option, my job is all about stakeholder management and if I want to get people onside I form a working group or task force, membership gives them ownership, people like ownership it generates peer relationships that can quickly stamp on dissent

Hmm. Suffered this at work. Why do I go white and hide behind the sofa when I hear words like "working group", "task force", "stakeholder", "ownership", "peer relationshops"? Bsically it means you're being conned into thinking someone up the ladder gives a toss what you think - or rather, the people up the ladder think you are being conned. The connee knows its basically meaningless drivel, sighs heavily at the waste of time (and often money) and gets on with their life regardless..

There again, maybe I've misunderstood and it was irony...

[Laurence Hogg]

The corporate bully boys who run BW should be removed from office and prosecuted.

 

CaRT is better named as the BW/IWA/SUCS Alliance.

 

They don't like people who live on boats and, rightly, refuse to take an unsuitable, unsafe, unnecessary and unlawful 'mooring'.

 

Their persecution of these 'individuals' and attempts to proscribe their movements and 'denounce' them for, supposedly, mooring beyond some pointless time limit, or some other reasonable behaviour that they disapprove, of is alarmingly similar to the behaviour of the Nazis in 30s Germany. They are a disgrace. Do you really want to accept the 'authority' of such people?

 

And there are people here who want to give them money?

 

What does it take? Jackboots on the towpath? We've got the spies - unidentifiable 'volunteers' checking the movements of boats - (SUCS have been doing this for years). What sort of 'volunteering' is that? ''I'd like to volunteer to cause trouble for licence paying boatowners by spying on their movements'.

 

Two of them were round here yesterday. They urinated outside someone's boat and peered in the windows while, supposedly, checking licence details.

 

They have been reported to the police and a complaint has been made to the BW/IWA/SUCS Alliance.

 

My, pending, court case has been adjourned again (at BW's request). I have now sat here for two and a half years not allowed to move as I have been evicted and my licence has been revoked, other than for water etc., and many tens of thousands have been spent, with more to go as the initial injunction hearing has now become a 4 day trial with BW having a QC, and me being on legal aid. Your money will be paying for this and for the compensation I get when I, subsequently, sue them.

 

For your information their 'case' is malicious and vexatious and results from my complaints, through the complaints procedure, meetings and correspondence , the Ombudsman and an MP, regarding their harassment and intimidation of older people and people with health problems who they, specifically, target as they can be rehoused in sheltered accommodation.

 

Wake up. It's already too late.

What a whinge, if you work with them you can influence them, we have proved it in the Black Country and now our waterways are in a better state than in years, BW had its faults and CRT is BW Mk4 but it now has a chance of improving unlike the old mk3. Become a CRTer and find out. Age doesnt matter.

[Laurence Hogg]

The event in Birmingham,

The cutting of the ribbon:

 

 

The chuggers not chugging (asked which canal they were next to the answer was The "Birmingham Union" - - - - - !!!

 

All working together:

 

 

By 1.00PM all was over, curiously they took down all the banners so it was like it never happened, so off back to base.

[TUGBOAT]

Today in Gloucester to celebrate the launch of the new CRT they had a party at the Canal Museum for about 30 or so people, mostly in suits. All very nice and apparently a free Bar open for just the 4 Hours! Sorry, Boaters not welcome. Perhaps this is what the £3.00 a month is for?

 

 

John

 

Well tomorrows sees the launch of CRT. You can now join for just £3.00 a month which I think is reasonable: https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/get-involved/donate-now

It wont take long before we will be seeing if this new style of governing our waterways will work, by becoming a CRT'er it will help rally support for the new charity.

 

We could do with someone drawing up a unofficial "CRT'er" logo (cartoon) so we could be individual CRT'ers (Canal River Trust Enrolled supporter) - as the charity if anything it is a bit stark IMHO and needs a more cheerful look to it.

 

In Birmingham today posters are alongside main roads advertising CRT and chuggers seemed to collaring folks at the top of Farmers Bridge.

 

Go on, its only £3.00 a month to be a CRT'er!!

 

https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/get-involved/donate-now

[Laurence Hogg]

Today in Gloucester to celebrate the launch of the new CRT they had a party at the Canal Museum for about 30 or so people, mostly in suits. All very nice and apparently a free Bar open for just the 4 Hours! Sorry, Boaters not welcome. Perhaps this is what the £3.00 a month is for?

 

 

John

Ours in Birmingham was invite only for around 60 ish, there were plenty of boaters involved and canal societies exactly like the one in Gloucester and elswhere.

[novascotianboy]

I had thought I might mosey to an event near me but couldn't find a listing of launch events anywhere. hey ho.

[sueb]

Today in Gloucester to celebrate the launch of the new CRT they had a party at the Canal Museum for about 30 or so people, mostly in suits. All very nice and apparently a free Bar open for just the 4 Hours! Sorry, Boaters not welcome. Perhaps this is what the £3.00 a month is for?

 

 

John

In Droitwich the £3 per month is for bird boxes in a nature reserve according to the blurb.

[Laurence Hogg]

I had thought I might mosey to an event near me but couldn't find a listing of launch events anywhere. hey ho.

They were all by invitation only, CRT shouldnt really have advertised them, just the launch ceremony's

Edited July 12, 2012 by Laurence Hogg

[cotswoldsman]

Today in Gloucester to celebrate the launch of the new CRT they had a party at the Canal Museum for about 30 or so people, mostly in suits. All very nice and apparently a free Bar open for just the 4 Hours! Sorry, Boaters not welcome. Perhaps this is what the £3.00 a month is for?

 

 

John

 

 

 

I was in the Leeds office on Tuesday paying my licence and was invited to pop in for a drink on Thursday if I wished as it happens I did not as the River Aire opened so decided to move on.

[PaulD]

You won't be a member just a 'friend'. Members have a say friends get nothing

 

We will be more like brothers and sisters of CaRT. You can choose your friends.

 

Paul

[cotswoldsman]

You won't be a member just a 'friend'. Members have a say friends get nothing

 

Sorry Sue but do you really think having a say by becoming a member is a good thing? I guess it depends on what you mean by having "a say". It would be a disaster if members were able to influnce policy.

Yes I think the term member is far better than "being a friend" but just hope they never have a say on how things should be run.

Edited July 13, 2012 by cotswoldsman

[carlt]

In Droitwich the £3 per month is for bird boxes in a nature reserve according to the blurb.

If the "Friends" money is paying for initiatives such as this, freeing up the main budget for maintenance, then this is a good thing.

[pearlygeoff]

Laurence

 

Do you not learn from experience? I wish you were right but you're not. You should know better as one who has a genuine interest in the waterways. If you lived on a boat on the towpath you might have a different experience and a different perspective.

 

I have a deep drafted wooden boat - Pearl/ Thomas Clayton - and now consider, and will inform the court, that the canals are no longer safely navigable by boats such as mine.

 

Are you aware that I am being taken to court for not 'continuing my journey' in 8'' of ice?

 

They are a disgrace and I will do everything possible to have them removed from office and prosecuted.

 

The rest of you can 'dream on'.

[carlt]

I have a deep drafted wooden boat - Pearl/ Thomas Clayton - and now consider, and will inform the court, that the canals are no longer safely navigable by boats such as mine.

Well give us a shout when you attend court and I will stand up and dispute your claim, having lived on deep drafted wooden boats for a decade, both on online moorings and (genuinely) continuously cruising.

 

Any "safety" concerns were entirely down to the fragility of my boats, not the condition of the canal and even then it just made me more careful, rather than more litigious.

 

Are you aware that I am being taken to court for not 'continuing my journey' in 8'' of ice?

In the hard winter of 2001/2002 I was allowed to stay on the Coventry canal for nearly 6 weeks along with several other wooden and metal boats, after negotiations with one of the nastiest patrol officers on the system.

 

He allowed us to stay but assured us he would be along with his section 8 notices the day after the thaw, which we thought was fair.

 

Have you ever thought that it was your approach that led to this position you're in, rather than theirs?

[chieftiff]

 

 

Have you ever thought that it was your approach that led to this position you're in, rather than theirs?

 

I get the feeling we are only getting a part of the story, this thread seems to have a polarised set of contributors and I'm reminded of the story of two wolves:

[novascotianboy]

Sorry Sue but do you really think having a say by becoming a member is a good thing? I guess it depends on what you mean by having "a say". It would be a disaster if members were able to influnce policy.

Yes I think the term member is far better than "being a friend" but just hope they never have a say on how things should be run.

 

Why would it be such a "disaster" for "members" to be able to influence policy? I still think the National Trust Model would be a good one for the CaRT to adopt at some point. In a nutshell, if 50 people sign a motion it can be put to a vote at an AGM (subject to certain conditions). All members are also able to attend the NT's AGM (as opposed to requiring an invitation, which was the case with BW - at least when I went to their AGM.

 

The way the National Trust do it is here:

 

http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/about-us/agm/