Interesting Questions from Andrew

The past couple of weeks Val and Clive have been on holiday, so Roy and I, and Paul and Liz, have been organising Westel's sessions.

They have had a theme:
# a group of competent adults take themselves off, paddling between the weirs or up to Walton Bridge, for example. Most of these are much the same people each time.
# one or two lone adults go off and individually do their own thing
# a few individuals show up for coaching (adults or juniors). But they rarely re-appear - sometimes they've been before, but maybe weeks or months ago.

All of this is fine and pleasant, and brings in boat money. But two questions come to my mind:

# why do adults with club keys like to come paddling at the time of club sessions? They clearly don't need the coaches. Is it the chance to bump into other paddlers and form a spontaneous group that is the attraction? If so, maybe we should announce a couple of other times - a summer evening, and a time on Sundays - when people could come down and see if there's someone to accompany them paddling?

# Some kids, and some novices, are using Westel much as they might use, for example, a coffee shop, a leisure centre or a cinema - i.e. a place to drop into from time to time to undertake a specific activity. Is this what Westel is for? We do achieve a high level of 'customer satisfaction', which has its own rewards. But are coaches going to stay happy to give their time, freely and without charge, to support this endlessly?

Andrew Wallace