Excellent news, a big step in the right direction. Matt.

Looks as if the LDWA is about to move forward.

Congrats to the committee on taking a bold decision, which can only be of benefit to the LDWA.

The National Committee has agreed to open up the full events listing and the forum to all. Non-members will be required to register, so we can sell them the benefits of membership, and local groups will be asked to ensure there is a suitable pricing differential on events between members and non-members. Final details and timing of the changes need to be sorted and will be advised.

It seems strange to me to restrict the events list to members only. Event organisers try to tell as many people as they can about their events and put details on their own websites. They can't afford to restrict their websites and publicity to members only, so why restrict the information at national level?

The LDWA groups who put in the effort to create the list of events should decide how they are publicised on the national website.

I wasn't sure where to post this......

While doing the Regular Irregular on 9th December, we got talking to a couple in a pub who were doing a 10-ish mile walk. Reg-Irreg is a good event for newcomers - 3 loops, good food, lots of waymarking, not competitive. They thought they'd be interested in doing it next year and maybe look at other events in their area. They had no idea the event was happening and they'd never heard of the LDWA, so I gave them the url for the LDWA website.

Unfortunately, they're not going to be able to find details of the event from the website, 'cos it will have dropped off the list. They won't be able to see much of future events either. They won't be able to ask about it on the forum. I feel I've failed them. A few ideas come out of this....publicise events locally (reg irreg was in Huddersfield paper), have a facility to retrieve past events, open up future events, open up the forum, events with loops are a good introduction.

As we often stop at pubs during events and often get asked what we're doing, I think I could help by carrying a few of the event entry forms - with urls for LDWA and local group.

Well, though it's early days yet, the programme of events should be the heart of this website but it's woefully under used.

First - restricting it to members only is just plain crazy. Events are what attract members to the LDWA, if they can't see them they won't join. Are we really hoping attract anybody with "we organise some really good events in your area, but we're not going to tell you about them until you pay us £10".

Second - the just-one-long-list format is OK, but you should have other ways of displaying what's coming up: A calendar and/or a year planner for example. I've written a system for my local YHA group's site - www.leicesteryha.org.uk - that displays their programme in a choice of four different ways.

Third - Some more precise geographical information would be useful. There's no indication of the boundaries of northern/central/southern england, and even if there were it's not terribly helpful. Showing the county (the start of) the walk is in would be handy. In fact, I strongly advise you to store a full geocode (6-digit easting + 6-digit northing) for each event's start point, it'll be really useful...

Finally (for now) - Use resources around the internet. Once you've got that geocode, you can put a link in each event to a map of that point in multimap.com . If we're going to recommend maps for walks, make them link to somewhere visitors can buy them (and the LDWA gets a cut). Ordnance Survey have an affiliate scheme, though you have to sell 100 maps before you get anything, Amazon have a more generous one. Again you can see this in action on the Leicester YHA site.

I don't speak php, but I have been programming on the web for a while. If I can be of any technical assistance, get in touch.

I think event organiser should have the option to select the level of information available e.g.

Private = a members only event

Social/Limited = Overview without complete starting point details but with leader or other contact info. I.e. Non-members have to make contact. This provides a measure of security re parked cars and some filtering to limit newcomers 'biting off more than they can chew'. (The Dorset Group's web site Calender page is public but only shows limited details of socials).

Public = full info e.g. for challenge walks we want to get the public involved in.

This item came up at the East Lancs meeting on March 1st. All the members present (about 20) were in agreement that walk information should be made freely available. If the association wants to recruit new members, then hiding information is hardly the right way of going about it.

The 3 month limit is just a default initial value. If you want to see events further than 3 months ahead then just change the "To Date" (or remove it completely) and hit one of the list buttons to refresh the screen.

Ditto the comments about Events being private to logged on members only. Surely the aim must be to make it as easy as possible for Non-Members to find an event and hopefully enter as a non-member and having had a great experience, join up? Restricting access to event listings to Members really is preaching to the converted!

On a more technical point the restrictiopn of events listings to 90 days is much too short, why not allow a filter to be used by the visitor, this could be set at 90 days as a default if required (reduce server load?) and would be extendable to longer period if required. I like to plan much further ahead than 3 months.

I agree.

Far better to allow them open access to the events list but put a surcharge on the entry fee for non-members - that way they have an inducement to join.

Cutting down the time the list is open to non-members can only reduce the chances of them entering an event.

On a related note, wouldn't it be better to put the hyperlink around "SEF accepted" aswell as at the end of the event details?

I think it is a great shame that the full events list is not open to non members. As an event organiser for 9th April 05 I have had to wait until now to see it advertised but only to members. Until now the list was last updated on 7th August 04. I'm sure our event and others will miss out on entries because of this long delay and new arrangement. Not a way to encourage long distance walking!