Dire 'Waterfront'
PROMINENT Canal & River Trust (CaRT) volunteer and ‘Friend', Laurence Hogg, has attacked a revamped supporters magazine, ‘Waterfront' as dire, saying it is the worst publication BWB, BW and now CaRT has ever produced, writes Allan Richards.
Laurence emailed the Trust's chief executive some three weeks ago on the matter but says he has yet to receive a reply.
Disbanded
As reported in November, a volunteer group, who have been operating a historic narrowboat, Barnet, decided to disband because CaRT had failed to it find sufficient work (Volunteer group disbands). The boat, owned and maintained by Laurence at his personal expense, is up for sale despite CaRT senior managers and directors being well aware of the group's successful volunteering history and willingness to continue.
As possibly the inland waterways longest serving volunteer, having first started in 1972 collecting artefact's for the museum at Stoke Bruerne, it is a sad reflection that the Trust seems unable to accommodate Mr Hogg's volunteering group and his wealth of personal experience.
Having lost a major volunteering asset, it now seems the Trust is in danger of losing a ‘Friend' as well.
Disillusioned beyond belief
Here is Laurence Hogg's unanswered email (published with his permission):
25th April
Dear Richard,
The new magazine was on the carpet this morning, a good to look at, nicely weighted quality printed booklet. That was the first impression.
After reading it I felt so disillusioned with the content it was beyond belief.
There is not a single article on boating between its covers.
The rest of it is 'lifted', 'copied' in some respects unrelated and badly researched.
Who on earth would describe Sister Mary Ward as a 'otherwise forgotten story, she is probably the most well known woman of recent times on the canal system!
Then there is the Croydon canal article, illustrated with weird objects that have in some cases no relation to Croydon's canal—like a Manchester Little packet tug, the main surviving section of canal in Betts park gets a passing note yet it is the best feature left?
Has the person who wrote this ever left his desk?
The 'coming up' section doesn't include any of the rallies or waterway events which are in May like the Crick Boat show....???
For God's sake Richard, this is very, very poor and you should take the team involved to task, you are running a waterway charity, advertise and HELP those who support you before they start not to.
Regards,
Laurence Hogg
Sister Mary or Pru?
As a canal historian, Laurence might be forgiven for suggesting that Sister Mary Ward is the most well known woman of recent times on the canal system. If you asked 100 members of the public, most would not be able to come up with any name at all. Of those that could give a name, Prunella Scales would be way ahead of Sister Mary or even Sonia Rolt such is the power of modern media.
However, this small criticism in no way detracts from the general observation of lack of boating content in the magazine. It seems that, whilst the Trust assures boaters that they are central to everything it does, this is not reflected in its communications with its ‘Friends' and volunteers.
More emotive and visually engaging
Addressing the need to retain donors, Lauren White, CaRT's Supporter Engagement Manager and one of CaRT's ten [yes—up from five to ten!] strong fundraising team, has defended the ‘new look' of the magazine. She says it aims to offer a more emotive and visually engaging read for the charity's ‘Friends' and volunteers.
Lauren goes on to say ‘The idea was to deliver a broad range of strong, emotive and beautiful stories relating directly and indirectly to our work. Prior to the email programme and blog, there was no defined ongoing communication strategy for supporters, and we know that a multi-channel approach is the best way to increase retention figures.'
Smoke
The ‘new look' magazine is the work of Smoke Creatives who say ‘We pitched the Trust a pared back publication which drew on the inspiration from the periodicals of the 40's and 50's such as the John Hannah illustrated County Fayre Magazines or the Men Only illustrated covers of the same period'.
Pared back so far it seems that boaters, rally's and waterway events are forgotten!
Poor ‘Friends' performance
CaRT's wants 100,000 recruited and retained ‘Friends' by year ten and charitable giving to contribute at least £7 millions per year. However, it is expected that its third annual report will show that it has just 9,750 Friends and suffered another substantial loss on ‘charitable giving'.
It remains to be seen if that loss is higher or lower than the £900,000 lost in 2013/14.
The Trust's ten strong fundraising team is as follows:
Head of fundraising—Ruth Ruderham
Trust fundraising manager—Martha Oddy
Corporate partnerships manager—Wendy Hawk
Corporate partnerships officer—Dominic Papineau
Head of individual giving—Nick Marsh
Senior individual giving officer—Andrew Sarson
Individual giving officer—Silvie Morelli
Individual giving assistant—Fleur Harman
Data analyst—Marytn Colebrook
Supporter engagement manager—Lauren White
None of the above is a boater or appears to have any inland waterways experience.