NWR Area Organisers' Workshop Burton Manor, Chester, September 2007 Seven AOs (Sarah Akhtar, Lyn Dennis, Margaret Lavelle, Carolyn Hempenstall, Yvette Llewellyn, Janet Tuffs and Pat Wallace) met with Mary and Eilis, the two Co-ordinators, at Burton Manor near Chester on 21st-22nd September 2007. Although the Co-ordinators were disappointed that so many of the AOs were unable to attend, the weekend turned out to be a very productive one. The small numbers and the experience of the AOs who attended meant that we were able easily to share ideas, and everyone could make a valuable contribution to the workshops and discussions. On Friday afternoon, seven of us celebrated NWR's Gardening Year by visiting the beautiful Ness Gardens nearby. The topic for the first Saturday morning Workshop was 'NWR Events'. The AOs discussed a revision of the AO Handbook, how to design an attractive flyer to advertise an event and how to solve the problem of late payments and waiting lists. The second Workshop on Saturday morning was 'The New NWR Website'. Mary gave everyone a guided tour of the website then the AOs discussed what they would like to see on a secure part of the site for members and on a section of the site for AOs. In order to encourage members to look at the NWR website, it was decided that there would be a compulsory extra question for this year's TTT which could only be found from the site. The AOs also decided to have an 'NWR Winter Website Week' during September/October 2008 when groups would be encouraged to have a group meeting to have a look at the website during one night that week. The Saturday afternoon workshop was entitled 'Area Review'. Eilis gave everyone a detailed review of the state of NWR's Areas, mentioning any recent activities which had taken place in each one. She said that generally the most active Areas were those which were looked after by lively AOs. She said that there had been a number of AO resignations in the last two years and some AOs had not been replaced. She re-emphasised the problem of retaining current AOs and recruiting new ones. The AOs said that the best way to recruit new AOs was by personal invitation: keen members should be flattered and targeted! The AOs also made other suggestions for extending NWR activities into quieter Areas and suggested groups and Areas which Eilis could target to organise events in 2008. At the end of the Workshop, Mary and Eilis thanked the AOs for attending, for giving up their time at a weekend, for travelling such long distances to the venue and for the contribution of a wealth of ideas and suggestions to help NWR. Click here to view the gallery