MEMBERS INFORMATION

Guidance Notes for Walk Leaders

All walks need planning and coordination and these notes are designed to assist in the process. New walk leaders should liaise with the Secretary if they require any advice from an experienced walk leader.

There are 3 programmes per year, January to April, May to August and September to December, each published a couple of weeks before the end of the preceding programme.

These details should contain the following information.

• Name of walk leaders

• Mobile telephone number

• Date of walk

• Area

• Start point/parking

  
  

Planning a walk

Where?

Most walks are within an hour’s drive of Bath; they can be further away eg. in the summer.

How long?

This varies according to which group you are leading and each group has its own guidelines about length.

The actual route can be taken from a book of recommended walks or planned using a map. The OS (Explorer) 1:25000 maps , which show all the rights of way, are ideal, but note that some paths on the map may not be visible on the ground.

It is good practice although not compulsory to do a recent pre-walk of your route; this will give you an idea of the time required, where to stop for coffee and lunch and to assess any exceptional hazards.

On the day

What equipment is needed?

• a map covering the whole walk

• a compass- useful if you know how to use it!

• a mobile phone

• a torch

• a whistle – emergency signal is 6 blasts in rapid succession and repeated every minute or until your energy runs out!

Leaders will normally be at Laura Place on Sunday walks and car drivers will need clear instructions on how to get to the start.

If you will not be at Laura Place please organise a deputy to give instructions and arrange car sharing.

There will need to be adequate parking at the start of the walk.

At the start of the walk

Before setting off find out if there are any new walkers, give a brief description of the route and outline any exceptional or unusual hazards.

Do a head count and if the group is sufficiently large (say 12+) ask someone to be a ‘back marker’ to walk at the rear of the group to check that gates are closed where appropriate and alert the leader if there is a problem. Ensure that contact is not lost with the rear of the group.

Regularly check that no-one is missing and stop from time to time to allow walkers at the back to catch up. Ensure as far as possible that everyone adheres to the Country Code.

At the end of the walk ensure that everyone is accounted for and in the event of an incident/accident occurring take some notes and advise a committee member

Bath Rambling Club is always keen to recruit new walk leaders at all levels. If you would like to become a walk leader but don’t have any experience one of the best ways is to talk to an existing leader and perhaps organise one or two walks as joint leaders. Many of the routes of the medium/shorter walks around Bath are well known and require little planning.