Phil Pickin poses a question that many groups associated with the waterways grapple with… what to do to overcome an ageing membership.
DURING the IWA’s recent AGM in Leicester, the issue of membership came up. This was not unexpected, and the subject wasn’t discussed simply out of a desire to increase the number of IWA memberships. It was to talk about the average age of the association’s membership.
Now, for anyone who has attended a meeting of just about any voluntary organisation recently, this will not be an unusual topic of discussion. I’ve been involved with a number of such organisations recently, some of which I’m a member of, and they are not just ones involved in the waterways. But almost every one of them has raised the issue of the lack of ‘young’ members.
The term ‘young’ is somewhat subjective as it can mean different things to different people. As someone who is hurtling towards his state pension despite the best efforts of successive governments who have moved the goalpost further into the future, even I have been described as a ‘younger member’ in the not-so-distant past. If that’s the case, I wouldn’t like to speculate on the average age of my fellow members (I won’t mention the name of the organisation).
The problem of the ageing membership of a club or society is one thing, but in the case of the waterways it also seems to be an issue with those taking part in the activity. Yes, as we all know, families do hire boats for holidays on the canals, but with our climate becoming ever more unsettled, young families are finding it increasingly difficult to choose the one decent week of weather we seem to get every summer. The chances of finding it are getting slimmer and slimmer, so it’s hardly surprising that many families opt to holiday abroad.
But in an effort to bring some balance to this issue, we should also acknowledge that the number of young people opting to live on the waterways does seem to be holding up. The view across the canals is not an unbroken sea of grey hair. I’ve no idea as to accurate and up-to-date figures, but from the number of vloggers, bloggers and social media accounts detailing their moves onto the waterways, there would still seem to be quite a bit of interest from this group of boat owners.
A lot of these young people have had to move onto the water out of necessity. With house prices rocketing, no matter if you are renting or buying, there is little wonder that the lure of a boat they can own and live on is so strong.
We all know what the problem is… the question is, how do we solve it? It seems that it isn’t just a case of tempting younger people onto the waterways; it is how to get them to become part of organisations and groups such as the IWA and other waterways-focused organisations.
As we know, the excellent Waterways Recovery Groups do attract young participants, but this interest doesn’t always last. So, how do we hang on to them?
A couple of my local wildlife societies and groups have youth member groups. These have reduced membership fees (or, in some cases, brought in free membership). As a result, the groups seem to be attracting interest. To help this further, some of these groups have recruited the skills of the younger members to run them and make full use of social media skills. The thinking is that new members are more likely to take notice of someone their own age rather than someone who looks like one of their grandparents.
Of course wildlife does have some major advantages over the waterways in that it has a far higher profile in the mainstream media.
In addition there are a number of younger people who have gained a high profile and regularly post content on the state of the natural world. Could it also be that some sections of the public see the protection of the natural world as more important than the protection of the waterways? This is despite the canals and rivers playing a major role in the natural world. It is probably heresy to say that in a waterways publication, but could that be the wider public’s perception, including the young people we so desperately need to attract?
I don’t have an answer to this problem. But the point of this column is to open up the discussion in the hope that the situation can be addressed, as attracting younger people is both important and not something that will happen overnight.
The waterways do have an image of being for older people; it is slow, it does rain, and it can be expensive. But it is part of that natural world many younger people show a keen interest in protecting.
There is new technology being utilised on the system in electric propulsion, power storage and management, and there is increasing use of online services to support users and keep them connected.
It is moving forward, but it has to do this with more than a passing glance to the past as it is the most traditional of lifestyles. It is a difficult conundrum that I, as a fully paid-up member of the grey hair group, hope can be tackled.
If you would like to comment on the issue of attracting younger people onto the waterways, drop us a line at [email protected]
