Leader Training hints and tips in a report from the Leaders’ Training Day

leader training Report

The editor went along to the WRG Leaders’ and Cooks’ Training Day, and brought back some handy hints for anyone involved in leadership

WRG Leaders’ and cooks’ training day

We’ve held a training day every spring for quite a few years now, aimed at giving help and guidance to our leadership teams for the summer’s canal camps, but also at anyone who’s involved in running or organising volunteer work parties on canal restoration, whether they’re the mobile groups, local canal societies or whatever.

Well, when I say every spring, of course that’s with the exception of the last two years when Covid put the kybosh on so many of our activities – and many of us are a bit rusty not only when it comes to practical skills but also organisation and leadership.

So I found it particularly useful to attend this year’s event, even though I’m not down to lead any camps. So much so that I thought it would be worth condensing a really useful and interesting day down into a brief precis of the day’s activities for the benefit of those who weren’t there.

Hopefully you’ll pick up a few useful tips from what I’ve included; if you’re interested in learning more about any aspect, Dave ‘Evvo’ Evans and the head office team will I’m sure put you in touch with the right person; and in due course look out for details of next spring’s event. Start with a haiku The day was led by Dave ‘Evvo’ Evans who kicked off with a haiku (Japanese three-line poem):

Leaders training will Tell us so much useful stuff And our stomachs fill

…as well as a slogan “Let’s dig again” which not only summed up the feeling as we looked forward to the first time we’ve had anything like a full summer Canal Camps programme since 2019, but also set off an earworm for those of a certain age.

He also explained the idea of a ‘top tip’ which all the speakers would include in their presentations. His was “volunteer to lead the middle camp of a run of three on the same site – then you won’t have to do either the setup or the take-down.”

Disaster planning? WRG Chairman Mike Palmer then introduced the idea of “disaster scenarios” to learn from, before reassuring us “don’t worry, they won’t all happen on your camp – probably none will” and that in the interest of avoiding the blame game, any covered would be ‘anonymised’ – there would be no mention of who had snapped the van keys off by sticking them in the ignition of the wrong van…

IWA update: Moving on to changes in our parent body the Inland Waterways Association’s organisation, he welcomed Jonathan Green, the ‘new Alex’ doing a lot of the WRG stuff at Head Office, broke the news that Jenny Morris (who has been the main WRG person at head office for 15 years or more) is departing (but not before the start of the camps programme), told us about the new canal camps duty director rota for head office staff, and regarding the recent and rather unexpected changes of IWA Chairman and Chief Exec his words were “Don’t Panic”, which reminded a few of us older folk of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy…

Ice breaker: Then it was time for the ‘ice breaker’ exercise (and we aren’t talking about those funny little boats they used to use to smash the ice on the canals here, we’re being figurative). The exercise was for each table to come up with an idea for a 2022 Canal Camps T-shirt – and we’d vote for which one would be the basis of the actual design used. You can see the entries across the bottom of this page – the lock gates “Opening up” design celebrating the return of Canal Camps was the clear winner.

Essential updates: On to more serious stuff, and the ‘essential updates’ news section covered an assortment of important points, reminders and news items

.Jonathan Green introduced himself . All but three camps had leaders confirmed – and those three gaps looked to have been filled as we went to press . The ‘Safeguarding Adults at Risk’ guidance has been updated – see the IWA

‘virtual hub’ website . A reminder of the importance of reporting any van accidents . The Covid-19 camps precautions had been updated but still included: volunteers to take a LFT before camps; increased personal space and ventilation in the accommodation; enhanced daily cleaning . The ‘float’ available to leadership teams for catering etc expenses has been increased in view of recent price rises . The implications for PPE provision etc of volunteers now being classed as

‘workers’ for the purposes of H&S . The new WRG H&S guide is published . The first volume of the IWA/WRG Practical Restoration Handbook major rewrite was due to be published in June . We appeared to have only had three

‘near miss’ incidents in 2021 – was this a good safety record or people forgetting to report things as a result of a couple of years off? . …and following on from that, a need to take a view that to a certain extent “It’s not just the first timers” but “we’re all newcomers” and “you don’t know everyone’s back-story”. . And don’t forget that red diesel is no longer permitted in site plant!

First time leader: Next it was Evvo’s turn to report on “My first camp as leader”, six years ago. This had been an eventful week, with “battlefield promotion” from assistant to leader, no cook to begin with, and once a cook had been found, a phone call from said cook from A&E, after they’d “cut the end of their finger off” (some slight exaggeration I think), and

WINNER!

rather seriously a volunteer in early stages of dementia who hadn’t mentioned this.

But excellent support from Head Office (including staff staying on for the first few days of the camp) helped save the day, and the volunteer mentioned above was found a suitable task, did a good job and had a great time. And Evvo’s top tip was “You don’t have to be last to bed, or first up!”

Mental health: This report of a ‘baptism of fire’ was followed by a very interesting and thought-provoking piece by mental health professional Beth Gardiner on issues related to your own mental health and that of your volunteers. So engrossing, in fact, that I didn’t take any notes, and couldn’t possibly do it justice from memory. I’m sure Head Office can help you.

Experiences as a leader: After the allimportant lunch break, Stephen ‘Ricey’ Rice then told us his experiences as a leader, summed up with four points:

.Confidence, not complacency . Planning and preparation . Be reactive AND proactive . Learn from experiences

My notes also include the cryptic “broken foot bones” and “Stilton”. I think the latter relates to the volunteers spending all week eating cheese from a nearby factory shop, which Ricey would also have liked to take advantage of, but didn’t get around to getting there until the final Saturday – after the shop had shut. The lesson: delegate somebody else to do it for you!

This led on to an interactive session where Ricey gave each table various scenarios and questions, to get discussions going about how to react to these circumstances – see illustrations (right and opposite).

Start the week: Colin Hobbs then brought us “First Day of Camp”, with some handy hints on how to run your first 24 hours…

.Photograph everything in the accommodation before you start – then you’l know where to put it back at the end of the week . Make sure everything works in the accom – check all the cooker rings, heaters, fridge etc . If possible do a site visit on the Saturday evening, then the intro talk will make more sense

Cooks’ turn: The next section was titled Cooks’ Utopia, with an explanation that Utopia meant “An imagined place or state in which everything is perfect”. Among the more memorable points made by the team of cooks, either as advice to fellow cooks or to the rest of the camp were:

.Make sure Paul (big on breakfast cooking, small in stature) can reach the pans . The cook can be quite isolated – find time to talk to the camp . Talk to the cooks! . If you have an accident with the excavator on site, the chances are it will affect one person. If we have an accident in the kitchen, it could affect the entire camp . A volunteer complaining about the sandwiches is a little bit out of order when it’s a camp where you make your own sandwiches. (Or as Helen put it more succinctly “Don’t be a twat”)

This led on to the cooks’ ‘pet peeves’, which included:

.Cross contamination: sugar in the coffee, toast crumbs in the spread, diesel in the milk. We have enough cutlery. Don’t do it. . Washing up the brew-kit when the volunteers return to the accommodation after work: clean the box, clean yourselves. Don’t just walk into the kitchen in your dirty site kit and dump a muddy box full of dirty cups etc on top

of the worktops . Empty the bins when they’re full! Don’t just supplement them with a bin bag next to them. . Recycle late night beer cans and bottles, don’t leave them on the tables or worktops till breakfast time . Fridge-raiding! And the difference between stuff that’s for available for anyone who’s feeling peckish (toast!) and stuff that’s part of the cook’s meal planning (*)

(*) at this point, mention was made of one Steven Davis of KESCRG nicking some salami from the fridge on a camp in the early 1990s, blaming the D-of-E volunteers for it, and finally owning up to the camp leader… 15 years later!

Site and environmental points: Next we heard from Jess Leighton on some key points on site supervision. This ranged from dealing with Weil’s disease, both proactively (avoid risks) and reactively (report any symptoms) to special hazards (scaffolding and other ‘heights’ issues). And Marion Carter followed this with some environmental awareness points – protected plants and animals, invasive species, and “the tree that isn’t dangerous now might be in six months’ time!”

End the week: Colin then returned with his ‘Last day of camp’ piece, His points included:

.Aim to leave the work finished to a standard where the local society can carry on . Talk to the local society about a

‘handover’ finish . Start cleaning kit around lunchtime on

Friday, do several walks around site looking for tools that have been left –

and particularly any brick-lines still up . Pack away all catering kit on Friday other than what’s needed for Friday night and Saturday morning . Thank everyone! . Aim to get away by 10am so that kit can arrive at the next camp in good time

Tell the story: The day’s final slot went to yours truly the Navvies editor with some words on Canal Camp reports for the magazine. See the Editorial page for more, but basically it might be worth thinking about:

.Why do we have them? To inform, to entertain, to encourage more volunteers . How should we write them? The choice is yours – diary style, ‘picture story’ style, or all sorts of novelty styles: we’ve had everything from a cartoon strip to one in the style of an extract from the Old Testament . When? Do it sooner and you’ll remember more stuff more easily . Who writes it and for whom? It doesn’t have to be written by the leader; it isn’t just read by WRG volunteers, it goes to canal society people, IWA folks and even the odd CRT bod . What to put in it and what not. Best if you don’t land the editor in court or get him the sack. But other than that, anything goes. And the most important thing is that you JUST GET ON AND

WRITE IT!!!

And finally... Evvo summed up the day with four words of advice for leaders:

Listen (to people’s answers, comments, chat and ‘the vibe’) Ask (for advice, whether volunteers understand, about their hopes and ambitions) Remember (the ultimate goal – don’t get too immersed and lose sight of it) Believe (in yourself and your team). A last word by Mike – “Don’t feel massively under pressure to finish the job” and the day was rounded off, as it started, with one of Evvo’s haikus:

Time to wend our way Intelligent questions asked The pub is this way…