non-members feast on taster days
A big success story for us this season has been our taster days for non-members.
After piloting the idea at The Nursery during February, we have supported hosts in York, Sussex (east and west), and Somerset to offer four more; with a fifth due in the Peak District in October.
Every one of them has sold out, with participants saying they like the idea of ‘trying before buying’.
Not only are the events generating new volunteers – they also make sure these people are immersed in our ethos and mission before their first official WWOOF exchange. Each taster has included input on our top tips for WWOOFing.
Of course, not everyone who comes along signs up afterwards, typically because they want to WWOOF in another country. We don’t consider this a failure, rather we’ve made sure someone doesn’t buy a WWOOF UK membership in error. And, who knows what seeds will have been sown for the future?
We’d like to build on these foundations, with a regular programme of taster days in 2019.
If you are a host, and especially if you are in Wales or Scotland, and think you’d be up for holding an event like this do get in touch. You’ll need to have space for 10-15 people and some tasks they can accomplish in an hour or two. Hopefully you’ll feel OK about doing a mini-presentation about WWOOF UK. We have one you can personalise.
Bryony Huntley, the host who delivered our Somerset taster day, said:
‘If you’re someone who thinks it’s worth investing a bit of time and energy in getting the next generation of WWOOFers started off on the right foot, hosting a taster day is for you!
‘We had great fun with a varied group of people dispelling WWOOFing myths and preparing them for what was to come. It was a really inspiring day but in a different way. ’
The WWOOF UK admin team do all the promotion for these events and, unlike regular WWOOFing, we’ll manage all the bookings too. You just need to focus on welcoming your guests.
Having recently reviewed the pricing structure we can pass £5 of every participant’s fee on to the host to help with catering costs.
Please get in touch with us using tasters@wwoof.org.uk if you can help.
We’d love to hear from you if you’re a taster day ‘graduate’ too. Do write and tell us what happened next.
