Many of you will be aware of the organisational discussions that have been taking place over the last six months. These discussions began as we saw members move freely between the 20’s-40’s and 40/50’s groups. Effectively these groups, with their similar walking styles, Sunday pub lunches and regular walkers, have already merged. We wanted to reflect this reality by changing the name – something particularly important for matching expectations of those on their early walks with the group

We have struggled to attract and retain new members in their 20’s and early 30’s with the wide age range on the 20-40’s walks over the past couple of years. We recognise that there is still a demand for this type of walking group but believe that it is best run as a separate group (Brighton and Hove is unique nationally in Ramblers in attempting to run it as a combined group). We are looking at options to form a new group for this age range probably using the popular “meetup” site. If anyone is interested in helping or has any ideas please contact Nick on 20s40s@bahr.org.uk

A strong consensus from the discussions is the enthusiasm to join the groups. Both groups are popular attracting ten to thirty people on each walk so there was a concern that there would be too many people on a walk if we just ran one Sunday walk. So we are keen to run two walks each Sunday for this new group with differing themes (eg. Area walked, length or grade of walk, half day or full day walk). If we can achieve two walks each Sunday then numbers should be reasonable but we need more active walk leaders to achieve this

Thanks to Neil Pennington who has agreed to co-ordinate the combined 30-50’s walk programme for July 2014 onwards. Thanks also to Elaine Toohig for her past work bringing together the 20-40’s walks. Please help Neil by sending us walks asap to 30s50s-walks@bahr.org.uk. If you haven’t led a walk before and would like some help we can suggest experienced walk leaders who are happy to buddy.

Any comments welcome on the change. Please contribute to the discussion on the website and/or contact Chris and Nick directly on 30s50s@bahr.org.uk

We will be updating the website to reflect the name changes over the next couple of weeks and our next programme from 1st July will offer 30-50’s walks on Sundays as well as the all ages walks through the rest of the week as usual

Nick Malyon and Chris Goodyear (“Younger” walkers reps)