Spring 2011
Glenmore Lodge TIMES Changing
Spring 2011
“Glenmore lodge, a world class national outdoor centre, inspiring adventure as a provider of innovative training and working in a supportive partnership with the outdoor community”
Glenmore Lodge school report is in showing promise but could do better The technical year end in the public sector is the end of March. This is a time to formally measure what we have achieved and plan for the future. Inevitably it means it’s a busy time for all of us as we carry out stock checks, produce reports,undergo appraisal of last year and set plans for next year. A bit like a school report time, for those of us that can remember that long ago! I believe the more of this information that we can share with everyone in the organisation, the more relevant it is, but of course it is impossible to make the time or opportunity to share and discuss everything with everyone and that’s why we have a management structure and have created systematic ways of doing things. It’s also why we have training days and an open door policy for those who want to know more. As part of our all staff training day on the 15th April we re-launched our “Little blue book of what we do and why we do things” and I gave a summary of our achievements this year and our challenges next year. Our new strategic plan sets out the success measures (listed in the blue book) that we will be working towards over the
foreseeable future. This gives us a clear focus and direction for what we should be doing and what we should not be doing. So if we were to give ourselves a school report it might read like this... “Making good progress, with some real positive achievements this year, particularly in developing a more commercial culture and achieving good financial results. Underpinning strengths are the pride, passion and commitment to quality that are shared by all in what the centre does. Recorded a slight drop off in course numbers over the year (although strong in winter), may reflect market conditions, but an area that needs to be worked on as well as new and different opportunities. Developing a stronger and more tolerant understanding of what other departments contribute to the overall team effort and in so doing
the team has become more mutually supportive and respectful. Developing a can do culture, and innovative ways of working. The importance of consistent quality in everything that happens at the centre is well understood, unwilling to compromise this but aware that budgets remain very tight and public sector investment will be scrutinised in future. Must work on ensuring the centre is in the strongest possible position to succeed in future and remain focused on continuing to develop in every way. Can not afford to be complacent, although still at the top of the class , there are others who are showing promise to challenge this position. Two important considerations will be making best use of the reduced level of public sector support and making a demonstrable difference to outdoor sport in Scotland. Finally have no doubt, with the commitment and shared passion will succeed.”
Sport - Page 4...Sunshine brings an early start to the volleyball season
CURRENT TIMES
BCA avalanche transceiver training park is world first For years we have known that transceivers can save lives, helping us locate others wearing similar beacons buried in avalanche debris. One of the problems has been that it is not easy to train for this as you need to prepare a mock avalanche area & bury beacons. The solution is the creation of beacon training parks; these have a number of permanently buried beacons that can be switched on and off in different combinations. A searcher homes in with their transceiver, finally identifying the exact location with a probe, the combination of beacons is then easily changed for the next searcher.
the UK, enhancing their trips to the Cairngorms with guaranteed valley training. On completion the park will have an interpretive board giving detailed instructions of the use of transceivers and be supported with further information on our website. We are planning to have a high profile media launch of the park in the next couple of months. Thanks again to all those involved with the concept and creation of this project.
Our park, sponsored by BCA via their UK distributor Anatom and created by Frosty, is the first beacon park in the world to use an artificial covering and therefore work all year round. Our park is covered in woodchip and is therefore not reliant upon snow. The facility is available for anyone to use and is free to use. It has already caught the eye of rescue teams throughout
Upward Reaches Landmark Year Congratualtion to Stuart Upward on his 60th birthday. Changing Times was intrigued by the fact that nobody could remember Stuart ever starting at the lodge. With Glenmore Lodge being 63 this year is it really possible that Stuart was born and raised in the lodge. Well we at Changing times have dug deep in the archives and can exclusively reveal this picture, taken at Stuart’s job interview...it appears that the lodge’s
recruitment policy before sportscotland didnt exclude child labour. In the next edition dont miss the exclusive photos of Frosty...was he born driving a JCB...
Escape tunnel completed
CONGRATULATIONS
to the mountain guide and medic behind the mustache...Eric Pirie, who after 15 years of digging has finally escaped lodge world, ready to face reality...! It is with mixed emotions that we say goodbye to Eric. He has resigned from his post as instructor, to pursue other opportunties, we will miss him and sincerely wish him well, safe in the knowledge that total escape is impossible and come 16:30 he’ll be back for cake...!
NEWS IN BRIEF Climbing wall update
Unfortunately a reduction in capital spending means the initial proposals for a new climbing wall are unfeasible. We are however confident that our current building can be adapted to allow for the construction of a new climbing area. Jon Jones is leading the project and the latest thinking would see the lecture theatre move to the gym, allowing that space to be combined with the existing wall space to create a much larger area including a 10m+ lead wall. Any suggestions? Please speak to JJ or the management team.
Is Hospitality Assured?? May 10th & 11th sees the Lodge assessed by the Hospitality Assured scheme. The scheme created by the Institute of Hospitality for customer facing businesses encourages businesses to look at their own operation from the customer’s perspective and to see where improvements should be made to benefit the business. Our intention is to use the scheme and the feedback we receive to ensure we continually improve our level of customer focus and customer service. Bob secretly want another certificate for his wall too!!!
Williams helps shape future With 2011 as the year of ‘active’, the Scottish Government and sportscotland are looking to support and develop adventureous sport ensuring it continues to strengthen. As part of this the Outdoor & Adventure Sport Working Group (OASWG!) has been established. Nigel has been asked to represent Glenmore Lodge and more importantly the industry as a whole. His 200 years of experience in the industry will add significant value to the work and direction of the group.
10:10 Update We still have two months left to meet our 10% reduction in carbon impact. To date we have reduced our: • electricity consumption by 11% • diesel for vehicles by 10% • no. of km’s by transit by 3% Our consumption of gas has increased by 8% but the recent warm weather should see this balance out in April & May
TIME for BUSINESS Peak in ski mountaineering keeps winter sales ‘on-piste’ % increase in no. & income by winter activity 53
52 50% 40%
34
31
30%
22
20% 10%
11
15
1
Despite the challenging economic times, we are pleased to report that winter sales have continued to increase year on year. The price increases brought into the ski mountaineering programme have had little impact with total places increasing by 32%, this combined with the price increase saw skiing income increase by 53% and for it to become 25% of total winter income. We saw a strong growth in the volume of winter qualifications too. This year we delivered 40% of all Winter Mountain Leader Training courses & 59% of all assessments. Whilst the skills side of the business saw an 11% growth in the volume of customers, the current trend towards shorter courses meant this growth had little impact on our overall income. Overall it was a very strong performance over winter and we should all take pride in the number of customers that continue to choose Glenmore Lodge as their preferred place of learning and importantly keep returning themselves or recommending us.
0%
Big Hanna has Tailormade activity continues to grow (MCofS), to mention just a few. far 2011 has been a busy year with an huge appetite Soincrease in tailormade bookings compared
Big Hanna has moved into the recycle shed; her role is to compost our non-meat food waste. She came here through the Compost Doctors Scheme, set up to encourage people and businesses to compost food waste. We have her for a year on a free trial. At present we are only allowed to compost non-meat food material, as long as there is never more than 100 tons on site per year. Great news is the rules are changing and later this year we should be able to compost meat too. Until then Big Hanna is vegetarian! Hanna’s diet has to be weighed and recorded to comply with SEPA regulations. It is also good for us to know just how much waste we are producing and whether we are reducing this. Depending on the moisture content of the food she sometimes requires additional wood pellets. The biological process in Big Hanna is natural and has little impact on the environment. By composting on-site we are creating a resource from our food waste - getting about 10% back as compost in only 8 to 10 weeks.
to the same period in 2010. Many groups are returning to the lodge on an annual basis. The Fire Service, the Association of Mountaineering Instructors (AMI) and the Mountaineering Council of Scotland
This year we have also seen a number of new groups coming through our door. Arqiva Ltd (a communications infrastructure and media services company) had a series of Outdoor Awareness Courses in January and are hoping to return in 2012.
It’s early days, and we are still in the start up phase, getting Hanna to the right temperature and learning her little nuances. We have already produced 100kg of compost from 1400kg of waste. SEPA regulations state we cannot remove the compost from site but we are able to use it around the grounds.
The Mountain Leader Training Association (MLTA) are holding a Summer Skills Weekend with us on the 3rd – 5th June which will include workshops covering a wide variety of topics including bushcraft, teaching navigation, weather, accountancy and many more. These are open to both MLTA members and non members alike. In September the Ramblers Association have also decided to host their AGM with us. Every week we are fielding new enquiries with the diary increasingly full. It is thanks to all of your hard work that customers keep returning and that we receive such positive comments from them all. Thank you all and keep up the good work.
SPORTING TIMES
Fidoe seeks divine intervention, and not just from the auditors... Chadwick takes on the infamous White Spider in Alpine peak spree Not happy with an entire winter season of climbing as one of Glenmore Lodge’s winter mountaineering instructors, Mark Chadwick made good use of some April time off. While most of us might seek out a holiday in the Tropics, Mark set his sights a little higher, 3,970m to be exact. Congratulations to Mark on his successful ascent of the
Eiger’s legendary North Face. The Eiger’s ‘Nordwand’ has captivated climbers for years and is brilliantly cornicled in Heinrich Harrer book ‘The White Spider’. Mark was pleased with the two day assent although was reportly a little miffed as someone raced past him on an attempt to reach the summit in only three hours! Oh well, maybe next year Mark!.
This seasons volleyball action has really started to hot up, the biggest clash to date saw Williams take out his greatest rival in the now legendary battle of the giants. Rumours are rife that the new nightwatch actually know how to play, which could see them banned for the entire season for unsportsman like condut
HAVE YOU SEEN THIS MAN Witnessed wandering the corridors of the lodge looking totally clueless, contact John Armstrong if you witness him doing anything useful.
11th & 12th June 2011
Its still not too late to enter There are places on all courses
Next edition - Summer sales - John & his telescope - Meet the new nightwatch
SPORTING TIMES
Spring 2011
Glenmore Lodge TIMES Changing
Spring 2011
“Glenmore lodge, a world class national outdoor centre, inspiring adventure as a provider of innovative training and working in a supportive partnership with the outdoor community”
Glenmore Lodge school report is in showing promise but could do better
Fidoe seeks divine intervention, and not just from the auditors... Chadwick takes on the infamous White Spider in Alpine peak spree Not happy with an entire winter season of climbing as one of Glenmore Lodge’s winter mountaineering instructors, Mark Chadwick made good use of some April time off. While most of us might seek out a holiday in the Tropics, Mark set his sights a little higher, 3,970m to be exact. Congratulations to Mark on his successful ascent of the
Eiger’s legendary North Face. The Eiger’s ‘Nordwand’ has captivated climbers for years and is brilliantly cornicled in Heinrich Harrer book ‘The White Spider’. Mark was pleased with the two day assent although was reportly a little miffed as someone raced past him on an attempt to reach the summit in only three hours! Oh well, maybe next year Mark!.
This seasons volleyball action has really started to hot up, the biggest clash to date saw Williams take out his greatest rival in the now legendary battle of the giants. Rumours are rife that the new nightwatch actually know how to play, which could see them banned for the entire season for unsportsman like condut
HAVE YOU SEEN THIS MAN Witnessed wandering the corridors of the lodge looking totally clueless, contact John Armstrong if you witness him doing anything useful.
11th & 12th June 2011
Its still not too late to enter There are places on all courses
Next edition - Summer sales - John & his telescope - Meet the new nightwatch
The technical year end in the public sector is the end of March. This is a time to formally measure what we have achieved and plan for the future. Inevitably it means it’s a busy time for all of us as we carry out stock checks, produce reports,undergo appraisal of last year and set plans for next year. A bit like a school report time, for those of us that can remember that long ago! I believe the more of this information that we can share with everyone in the organisation, the more relevant it is, but of course it is impossible to make the time or opportunity to share and discuss everything with everyone and that’s why we have a management structure and have created systematic ways of doing things. It’s also why we have training days and an open door policy for those who want to know more. As part of our all staff training day on the 15th April we re-launched our “Little blue book of what we do and why we do things” and I gave a summary of our achievements this year and our challenges next year. Our new strategic plan sets out the success measures (listed in the blue book) that we will be working towards over the
foreseeable future. This gives us a clear focus and direction for what we should be doing and what we should not be doing. So if we were to give ourselves a school report it might read like this... “Making good progress, with some real positive achievements this year, particularly in developing a more commercial culture and achieving good financial results. Underpinning strengths are the pride, passion and commitment to quality that are shared by all in what the centre does. Recorded a slight drop off in course numbers over the year (although strong in winter), may reflect market conditions, but an area that needs to be worked on as well as new and different opportunities. Developing a stronger and more tolerant understanding of what other departments contribute to the overall team effort and in so doing
the team has become more mutually supportive and respectful. Developing a can do culture, and innovative ways of working. The importance of consistent quality in everything that happens at the centre is well understood, unwilling to compromise this but aware that budgets remain very tight and public sector investment will be scrutinised in future. Must work on ensuring the centre is in the strongest possible position to succeed in future and remain focused on continuing to develop in every way. Can not afford to be complacent, although still at the top of the class , there are others who are showing promise to challenge this position. Two important considerations will be making best use of the reduced level of public sector support and making a demonstrable difference to outdoor sport in Scotland. Finally have no doubt, with the commitment and shared passion will succeed.”
Sport - Page 4...Sunshine brings an early start to the volleyball season
TIME for BUSINESS Peak in ski mountaineering keeps winter sales ‘on-piste’ % increase in no. & income by winter activity 53
52 50% 40%
34
31
30%
22
20% 10%
11
15
1
Despite the challenging economic times, we are pleased to report that winter sales have continued to increase year on year. The price increases brought into the ski mountaineering programme have had little impact with total places increasing by 32%, this combined with the price increase saw skiing income increase by 53% and for it to become 25% of total winter income. We saw a strong growth in the volume of winter qualifications too. This year we delivered 40% of all Winter Mountain Leader Training courses & 59% of all assessments. Whilst the skills side of the business saw an 11% growth in the volume of customers, the current trend towards shorter courses meant this growth had little impact on our overall income. Overall it was a very strong performance over winter and we should all take pride in the number of customers that continue to choose Glenmore Lodge as their preferred place of learning and importantly keep returning themselves or recommending us.
0%
Big Hanna has Tailormade activity continues to grow far 2011 has been a busy year with an (MCofS), to mention just a few. huge appetite Soincrease in tailormade bookings compared
Big Hanna has moved into the recycle shed; her role is to compost our non-meat food waste. She came here through the Compost Doctors Scheme, set up to encourage people and businesses to compost food waste. We have her for a year on a free trial. At present we are only allowed to compost non-meat food material, as long as there is never more than 100 tons on site per year. Great news is the rules are changing and later this year we should be able to compost meat too. Until then Big Hanna is vegetarian! Hanna’s diet has to be weighed and recorded to comply with SEPA regulations. It is also good for us to know just how much waste we are producing and whether we are reducing this. Depending on the moisture content of the food she sometimes requires additional wood pellets. The biological process in Big Hanna is natural and has little impact on the environment. By composting on-site we are creating a resource from our food waste - getting about 10% back as compost in only 8 to 10 weeks.
to the same period in 2010. Many groups are returning to the lodge on an annual basis. The Fire Service, the Association of Mountaineering Instructors (AMI) and the Mountaineering Council of Scotland
This year we have also seen a number of new groups coming through our door. Arqiva Ltd (a communications infrastructure and media services company) had a series of Outdoor Awareness Courses in January and are hoping to return in 2012.
It’s early days, and we are still in the start up phase, getting Hanna to the right temperature and learning her little nuances. We have already produced 100kg of compost from 1400kg of waste. SEPA regulations state we cannot remove the compost from site but we are able to use it around the grounds.
The Mountain Leader Training Association (MLTA) are holding a Summer Skills Weekend with us on the 3rd – 5th June which will include workshops covering a wide variety of topics including bushcraft, teaching navigation, weather, accountancy and many more. These are open to both MLTA members and non members alike. In September the Ramblers Association have also decided to host their AGM with us. Every week we are fielding new enquiries with the diary increasingly full. It is thanks to all of your hard work that customers keep returning and that we receive such positive comments from them all. Thank you all and keep up the good work.
CURRENT TIMES
BCA avalanche transceiver training park is world first For years we have known that transceivers can save lives, helping us locate others wearing similar beacons buried in avalanche debris. One of the problems has been that it is not easy to train for this as you need to prepare a mock avalanche area & bury beacons. The solution is the creation of beacon training parks; these have a number of permanently buried beacons that can be switched on and off in different combinations. A searcher homes in with their transceiver, finally identifying the exact location with a probe, the combination of beacons is then easily changed for the next searcher.
the UK, enhancing their trips to the Cairngorms with guaranteed valley training. On completion the park will have an interpretive board giving detailed instructions of the use of transceivers and be supported with further information on our website. We are planning to have a high profile media launch of the park in the next couple of months. Thanks again to all those involved with the concept and creation of this project.
Our park, sponsored by BCA via their UK distributor Anatom and created by Frosty, is the first beacon park in the world to use an artificial covering and therefore work all year round. Our park is covered in woodchip and is therefore not reliant upon snow. The facility is available for anyone to use and is free to use. It has already caught the eye of rescue teams throughout
Upward Reaches Landmark Year Congratualtion to Stuart Upward on his 60th birthday. Changing Times was intrigued by the fact that nobody could remember Stuart ever starting at the lodge. With Glenmore Lodge being 63 this year is it really possible that Stuart was born and raised in the lodge. Well we at Changing times have dug deep in the archives and can exclusively reveal this picture, taken at Stuart’s job interview...it appears that the lodge’s
recruitment policy before sportscotland didnt exclude child labour. In the next edition dont miss the exclusive photos of Frosty...was he born driving a JCB...
Escape tunnel completed
CONGRATULATIONS
to the mountain guide and medic behind the moustache...Eric Pirie, who after 15 years of digging has finally escaped lodge world, ready to face reality...! It is with mixed emotions that we say goodbye to Eric. He has resigned from his post as instructor, to pursue other opportunties, we will miss him and sincerely wish him well, safe in the knowledge that total escape is impossible and come 16:30 he’ll be back for cake...!
NEWS IN BRIEF Climbing wall update
Unfortunately a reduction in capital spending means the initial proposals for a new climbing wall are unfeasible. We are however confident that our current building can be adapted to allow for the construction of a new climbing area. Jon Jones is leading the project and the latest thinking would see the lecture theatre move to the gym, allowing that space to be combined with the existing wall space to create a much larger area including a 10m+ lead wall. Any suggestions? Please speak to JJ or the management team.
Is Hospitality Assured?? May 10th & 11th sees the Lodge assessed by the Hospitality Assured scheme. The scheme created by the Institute of Hospitality for customer facing businesses encourages businesses to look at their own operation from the customer’s perspective and to see where improvements should be made to benefit the business. Our intention is to use the scheme and the feedback we receive to ensure we continually improve our level of customer focus and customer service. Bob secretly want another certificate for his wall too!!!
Williams helps shape future With 2011 as the year of ‘active’, the Scottish Government and sportscotland are looking to support and develop adventureous sport ensuring it continues to strengthen. As part of this the Outdoor & Adventure Sport Working Group (OASWG!) has been established. Nigel has been asked to represent Glenmore Lodge and more importantly the industry as a whole. His 200 years of experience in the industry will add significant value to the work and direction of the group.
10:10 Update We still have two months left to meet our 10% reduction in carbon impact. To date we have reduced our: • electricity consumption by 11% • diesel for vehicles by 10% • no. of km’s by transit by 3% Our consumption of gas has increased by 8% but the recent warm weather should see this balance out in April & May