Manager’s Travels
How are we all doing?
It continues to be a very busy season for AIM with many of you renewing at this time. I hope that all your businesses and activities are continuing very well, despite more inclement weather than we experienced last summer. Exams are over (as a mother of a GCSE student this year, I am breathing a sigh of relief!) and the summer stretches out ahead of us, with residential visits and summer camps. As Members you provide a tremendous array of activities! I have been lucky to try some of these for the first time recently, more below.
What’s been happening over the past few months?
We had a wonderful Member event held at Lord’s Cricket Ground in March, followed by the AIM AGM and it was great to see so many of you there. I hope that you found the day worthwhile. Thank you to everyone who has provided feedback. This really helps us to plan our AIM events. If you have any suggestions for future member events, please let us know we are always interested in your suggestions for locations and speakers.
What have I as Manager been up to?
I am very much enjoying my visits to see as many of you as possible, covering lots of different areas of the UK. My recent visits have included trying caving in the Mendip Hills at Mendip Outdoors which was great fun; visiting Scotland to see the Actual Reality Trust at Ardentinny, via a lovely ferry across to Dunoon, and then on to Ardmay at the top of Loch Long, both of which had stunning sites and beautiful scenery; and meeting up with Xplore and Klub Group in Stowmarket and seeing their beautiful woodland bush craft areas. I was sorely tempted to don a wetsuit and swim in the lake at Waterland Gear (next time!) and I had a super walk around the historic house and site at Sealyham in Haverfordwest in Pembrokeshire. I also had my first attempt at stand up paddle boarding with SUP Bristol, managing not only not to fall in, but successfully stand up paddling along the river in Bristol. Thank you all for making me feel so very welcome at these visits and for your time in showing me round.
James and I attended the Association of British Climbing Walls (ABC) two day conference in Sheffield at the end of June and met many of our current Members and hopefully some new ones too! So many of our enquiries come from recommendations- thank you for those. The conference was very well attended and a great event.
What’s to come over the next few months?
I’m off to the North West at the end of July then Wales and Scotland in October. We have a Member event in Okehampton on the 7th October – details to follow but please let Cathy know if you would like to attend on [email protected].
As always, the team is here to help you with queries and any issues. Please do get in touch if we can help you at all. I’d be delighted to come and say hello so do let me know if you would like me to come and see you as well.
