WWOOF UK and the LWA: We have been in partnership with the Land Workers Alliance (LWA) for two years, and have decided to carry our partnership on to its third year. During the last two years we had over 80 hosts join the LWA, and an impressive 60 LWA members applying to become a host. Nic Green, from Incredible Farm, Todmordon was the first LWA member to take advantage of our partnership offer and sign up as a host. Here’s what he said about his membership with WWOOF UK so far…
‘Well, it’s like this… The WWOOFer thing has transformed the farm, and our expectations, totally. I just wish I’d had the nerve to invite WWOOFers seven years ago when we were first building the farm; it seemed cheeky, we had so little to offer them. But now we’re moving to a different piece of land and we are totally counting on those energetic, talented people. In 2016, we had 28 volunteers including WWOOFers, who stayed on average a month.
‘It continues, we’ve just said good bye to one young lad who stayed for ten weeks over the worst bit of winter, he loved it, cooked over a campfire, taught little ones, taught us how to make a bed out of string, and worked like a man on a mission. We now think that WWOOFers are an important way that we change the world; they come, get inspired and leave changed, as are we. Big Stuff!’
From Mike, social media: I would like to remind hosts to update your listing photos with all your 2017 activities as you go through the season. Our updated system means your new photos are bigger and better giving potential WWOOFers a great introduction to you. And for WWOOFers to let us know of the special things you’ve done, seen and learned so that we can share.
From Scarlett, our Chief Exec and Co-ordinator: At our February Council Meeting the directors and staff team collaborated to decide on our main focus and aims for the next three years in a novel workshop session led by two directors, Nim Kibbler and Katie Hastings, with the help of some remarkable chocolate ladybirds to indicate our preferences. The main aim that emerged for this year is to recruit more UK-based WWOOFers, in line with our commitment to limiting the environmental impact of long distance travel and to perhaps counter the possible effects of Brexit.
IT update: as spammers and bloggers get cleverer and more determined, email providers are constantly improving their security to protect their users. We have recently updated the way messages from WWOOFers are sent to hosts from our website to ensure as many as possible get through. Just occasionally those messages will be sent to spam or junk folders so hosts please check those folders regularly, just in case. If you think you are missing messages please get in touch.
10 years with us: remarkably two members of our staff team have been working with us for 10 years this year – Scarlett, our Chief Exec and Co-ordinator, joined in May 2007 and Christiane, our Finance Administrator, joined in August that year. Thank you both for everything you’ve done for us so far!
To contact us please use: info@wwoof.org.uk
photos: Incredible Farm
