AT 29 Jan 14

Here we go, back to writing the Avon Tyrrell Blog and I have spent time mulling over how to make this an interesting blog that people wish to read.  I have concluded that an honest chat about life managing Avon Tyrrell might be of interest to start. Highlighting the ups and downs as well as the achievements, the challenges and also the frustrations we encounter as a charity who are trying to do the upmost for young people.

Therefore, to begin…

Last year we struggled at times to fulfil our aspirations of delivering a quality outdoor experience to all our visitors.  We introduced a new management booking system that created more headaches than we anticipated (or could cope with), and there was a prolonged period of crisis management with staff having to react with short notice to changes and incorrect information on booking details.  But we hung in there, and the staffs ‘can do attitude’ really saved the day on occasions.  By October, we got to a point of stability and now the IT system is delivering above expectations. The Cinolla system is a fantastic step forward for information management, bookings and financial diligence of outdoor centres and we are glad that we have worked out the kinks.

It was hard finding seasonal instructors last year and so the activities instructors did a great job covering all of our commitments.  Followed were some unfortunate problems as we saw campers getting upset when it rained and asking for their money back and hot water not always being available in the campsite. Sadly we also had groups not paying their invoice, which is not what a charity needs when we operate on very low margins, to ensure we can offer our facilities at affordable prices.

Not to worry though, we have had many highs too….

We have introduced a brand new sewage plant ensuring we meet our environmental legal requirements, we have achieved the renewal of our Learning Outside the Classroom quality badge, we have worked with 19,000 young people, developed our vocational centre for our students at our Youth Achievement Foundation, and gave them a new school building. We also continued to do some rewarding work with young people with disabilities and their families, as well as delivering 9470 activity sessions that gave many young people the opportunity to experience, learn and develop.

This brings me to now….

We have reflected on the past year here at Avon Tyrrell and want to let you know what we have done to make the Avon Tyrrell experience better than ever. We have worked with our staff to ensure that customer service sits at the heart of anyone’s visit and the staffs are currently busy doing as much as they can to prepare the site and accommodation for future visitors. We are cleaning, painting and renovating our toilets, increasing the size of our hot water tank for the campsite toilet and shower block and continuing to work on making the Grade II listed grounds landscape as presentable as we can.

 

Excitingly, we have also raised the funds to build a boathouse of which work has begun to include showers, toilets and boat storage that will sit by our large lake.  Staff numbers have increased, as has our apprenticeship programme, departments have had some changes and we are all very motivated for the coming year. 

 

Wait, there is more….

Reception is almost ready having had some changes, and a coffee machine has almost arrived to support a chill area with Wi-Fi for visitors in Reception.  Our Tyrrell’s Kitchen has adopted a new packaged meal service with fresh home cooked ingredients, and we now operate a bike shop (no name as of yet) which comes with a professional bike mechanic. You can hire or buy bikes, equipment and clothing and we are developing our disability bike facilities as well.

 

So there we are …

An honest assessment of where we were, and where we are now. I want to extend a big thank you to all of our guests and visitors for supporting the work that we do. I think it is an exciting time here at the UK Youth Outdoor Activity Centre at Avon Tyrrell with many excellent additions to help make our visitors truly experience, learn and develop.

Chat Soon

                                                                        dw

 

dw Weekly Blog

60 Years since Mount Everest was summited by Sir Edmund Hilary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, what an outstanding achievement this was 60 years ago, and if you consider how equipment has changed over the years then in theory it should be easier today to summit the top of this great mountain.  However if you have ever climbed at high altitude you would know equipment is important, but mental toughness and physical ability are as important otherwise you will never make the top.   

And who has mental toughness, we all do and at all ages, therefore it was also particularly interesting to see in the last week or so that an 80-year old Japanese mountaineer has reached the summit of Mount Everest, making him the oldest man to scale the world's highest peak.  Yuichiro Miura, who climbed Everest when he was 70 and then again at 75 and now 80, definite mental toughness.

Just as impressive and inspiring for Young People a Saudi woman has made history by reaching the summit of the world's highest mountain.  Raha Moharrak, 25, not only became the first Saudi woman to attempt the climb but also the youngest Arab to make it to the top of Everest.  Coming from Saudi Arabia - a conservative Muslim country where women's rights are very restricted - she had to break a lot of barriers to achieve her goal, her climb team said.  A biography on the expedition website said convincing Ms Moharrak's family to agree to her climb "was as great a challenge as the mountain itself", though they fully support her now.  Raha was quoted saying, "I really don't care about being the first, so long as it inspires someone else to be second." and she of course has shown mental toughness to achieve

So what does this all mean, I am sure you can infer much, but I would suggest overcoming challenges whatever your age, ethnicity, equipment, if you want something then if you are motivated and hungry for it you can achieve.  Maybe this should be a message for our young people and maybe we should do more to develop the mental toughness in Young People as to my mind this is an essential skill in the outdoor world and in the general world we live in if you want to succeed and

 
Remember… experience – learn – develop   dw

Avon Tyrrell Week 20

Well what a week, Monday/Tuesday in the Lake District at our UK Youth national conference with a theme around youth unemployment and the challenges and initiatives to support young people in seeking employment.  And at any event of this nature there is also the networking that can be done, and for me also the enjoyable ICT clinic for staff, which did run a little late into the evening….

And then on the Tuesday after the conference three of us managed a spin on our mountain bikes into the Lake District Mountains and what fun we had.  I tweeted on the route with my tweeting skills @AvonTyrrell the journey into the great outdoors can begin and it can lead to adventure in magnificent places such as the Lake District Mountains.  And then I was homeward bound to Avon Tyrrell driving through 6 hours of rain, but it was so worth it, because I do so enjoy being in the Mountains.

Being away always brings the inevitable catch-up so I have spent the last two days and evenings catching up on the continual plethitude of paperwork involved in managing our centre day to day.  But do I mind, no, because we do have the ability to impact on so many young people each week and make a difference.  We work in a wonderful environment and can be proud of Avon Tyrrell as it is a place for all to enjoy the outdoors, experience, learn and develop.

Across the site great things continue to happen at Avon Tyrrell with our new sewage plant now being installed as our old one finally fell over in late April.  Fortunately for us our UK Youth Trustees had approved a replacement and all was in place to start work, so we have managed to keep operating while the work is done.

 

And more exciting news, to continue to develop and support the work that the charity does with cycling, and don’t forget our president Nigel Mansell, sponsors a professional bike team that display our charity colours, we are going to work in partnership with a local bike shop, ‘Gone Biking Mad’.  We will on site be able to provide more professional bike services, bike hire and a bike shop for the users of Avon Tyrrell, and the local community.  Very exciting.

 

There is much more happening here at Avon Tyrrell so if you can why not come and see, it is such a cool place.  Our charity, UK Youth, has made such an effort to make an accessible outdoor venue for all and because we care so passionately about making a difference for young people we absolutely keep our costs affordable because we want everyone to have the opportunity to experience, learn and develop at Avon Tyrrell, enhance life skills and support employability and personal development in the future.

Hopefully see you soon, and please come and say Hi

Best Wishes dw
Remember… experience – learn – develop

Avon Tyrrell Blog - Week 16

dw Weekly Blog

My oh my! – the UK Youth Outdoor Activity Centre, Avon Tyrrell,  is a 'majestic' place to work and the week has gone so quickly. What have we been up to?  Well; we continue to worry we have not picked up all the House roof drainage to stop it going to the sewage plant, which is about to be updated.  The maintenance staff have done a fantastic job working through a 120 year old drainage system to get it resolved once and for all.  And if that was not enough, we have had to put in a new power supply for the pool heating system, so our pool will soon be up and running; we want to see the sun please as the pool is outdoors.

Marketing – we have worked hard to find the right format to ensure we get our message across, with a core theme that ‘Avon Tyrrell’ is the venue which hosts the UK Youth Charity, Outdoor Activity Centre.  We think we are winning.  So look out for some new branding and marketing material, and we would like to know what you think.

L We have written letters to a big organisation who wants to be very unfair with their charges to our charity.  They are stating that we cannot leave them without a large penalty even with 3 months notice. When you get charged £220 for the removal of two small bags of waste you know the costs are ridiculously extortionate for a charity that wants its money to be used for young people, and not making big companies rich, so we have made a stand, wish us luck…

The Avon Tyrrell Team delivered a successful Inspiring You weekend for families who have a family member with special needs.  Here is a flavour of the feedback and I hope you understand how proud this makes us feel that we can say ‘we did that!’ And the 'Bench' this was something they made for Avon Tyrrell:

"Avon Tyrrell, well what can I say!!! Wicked, fantastical, epic awesome are only some of the words used by the kids to describe it here.  This weekend was especially special because......."

"Im just giving feedback about how Fab this weekend was for my family of 6. It was the best weekend away may family has ever had, family life in my family is challenging to say the least, but this weekend was a godsend the children were in their element.  I have never met such nice and friendly staff who are simply the best, they were so encouraging and friendly it was like one big family......"

 

  Other highlights of the week…

·         The Customer Services Team continue to work hard to implement Cinolla booking system with some great positive  changes that provide good reporting functions and a better booking experience for those that use Avon Tyrrell.
·         The Café has had a revamp and look out for some new menu’s
·         The staff have received their new polo shirts and fleeces and are looking very smart.

And finally we hope you have a grand weekend.

Best Wishes dw
Remember… experience – learn – develop

Week 15 at Avon Tyrrell

dw Weekly Blog

My week – hectic, busy, exciting, rewarding, I could list many superlatives, the fact of the matter is, as any Centre Manger would tell you, it is one of the most rewarding jobs anyone can have.  It is worthwhile as you are a part of a team that touches and influences many lives, and in particular our focus as a charity, UK Youth, is supporting young people to gain life-skills and accredited awards that build confidence, resilience and help broaden their opportunities in life.  Avon Tyrrell is such an outstanding outdoor centre to support this.

We now will Blog to you every week with the highs and lows of Avon Tyrrell life.  UK Youth does very much want to make the Centre continually develop and so we would very much welcome dialogue and comments from you in what would make Avon Tyrrell better for you.  We cannot promise to do everything but we will do what we can within the Charity’s resources.
And as for the rest of my week:       

-          More work on Cinolla; our new bookings system

-          Working on how we use NetSuite our new Charity finance system and the integration with Cinolla

-          Looking at how we internally operate and market ourselves

-          Preparing for our bi-annual LOtC Inspection next week

-          Telling staff about fantastic feedback from Special needs Family and a letter to our chefs.

-          Contracts to sign for services

-          Dealing with a support services company who are not nice and would rather take our money than have ethics.

-          Discussing with Maintenance Staff how to improve outside toilets and showers and the plan to improve the roof drainage.

 

You get the gist!  You may ask what keeps me enthusiastic, motivated and driven to make Avon Tyrrell better and better for visitors and staff, why, of course, the people. Have a good week and please get in touch if you have something to say about the Centre.

Best Wishes dw
Remember… experience – learn – develop

And from our History Photos:

 

Avon Tyrrell August 2012

Summer rolls on, the Olympics are finally here and people are taking Holidays and enjoying the ‘Great Outdoors’. We are hugely busy with a great mixture of groups enjoying and benefitting from what we offer at Avon Tyrrell.  The staff continue to work their socks off to try and do their utmost to ensure everyone has a rewarding experience when visiting and or staying.  We ardently believe that our charity UK Youth offers this fantastic unique venue for the good and benefit of young people and that it is extremely rewarding to be able to offer many varying experience to help people with new life skills, which can have a positive affect for them.

Only this week we had one group compliment the staff on how well they worked with the group, they also said that after a number of residential trips this trip was the first time the group had fully engaged in activities, enjoyed them and felt the benefits. How heartening and rewarding for the whole team to hear compliments like that, its these moments when you know you are in the right job, without a shadow of a doubt.

And to make Avon Tyrrell a little better every year and try and maximise what we offer it is absolutely fantastic that we continue to receive corporate volunteer groups to support site improvements.  B&Q HR Shared Services have recently spent a day with us working on clearing vegetation to return an area back to the original heathland which will support our Field Studies and Environmental sessions.  It was a very hot day but the team worked impressively hard finishing off clearance of the area, which will now allow us to get a digger in to clear the root balls and allow the heathland to once again flourish.  A very big thank you to the team for all the hard work and we hope you enjoyed our chef’s food and the outdoor activities you participated in as a thank you.

We also recently attended the New Forest Show and we had a small team in the Discovery Zone, which was a shady area (the main arena was like a furnace) where young people could engage in some field study activities including our most popular one which was mini beast hunting.  It was fantastic for them to discover that not far from where they were walking they could find toads, newts, violet ground beetles, millipedes, snails and lots of slugs (to name a few!) 

The president of the New Forest Show, Alan Titchmarsh came and said hello on Wednesday and he was very pleased to learn that we were so passionate about outdoor learning.  He was nearly persuaded to make one of our popular leaf crowns, but was worried about what the Queen might think later when she met him.  When the Queen arrived by helicopter on the same day there was a buzz of excitement throughout the day: they both took time to see as much people as possible which made the Show a very special one in the Queens Jubilee year.

Finally do not forget if you are mad about bikes and want to have some fun outdoors then come to Avon Tyrrell Outdoor Activity Centre to the Big Bike Bash on 18-19^th August.  This family event is held every year and comprises of live music, DJ’s, and activities to keep the kids entertained.  Facilities include on site camping, showers, bike wash, bike doctors, picnic area, climbing, boating activities, and a cross country racecourse of 3.5 miles of single track that includes river crossings, a boardwalk and a unique lake jump.  If you don’t want to miss out on this fantastic weekend, then book your tickets through the Big Bike Bash at http://www.bigbikebash.co.uk/ticketss

You are most welcome to visit and see what we are up to or to find out more about Avon Tyrrell Outdoor Activity Centre and the many varied opportunities we offer please contact us on Tel; 01425 672347 or email info@ukyouth.org  or view our website www.avontyrrell.org.uk 

Remember… experience – learn – develop

PS:  Guess who these are?

Avon Tyrrell June 2012

We have had an interesting few weeks and despite the variable weather this has not deterred the Centre being utilised by many varieties of groups and individuals.  We continue to try and improve our service support to our visitors at Avon Tyrrell and appreciate the feedback we get.  We have little doubt about the strength of outdoor learning and increasing appreciation of the value it brings.  We would encourage all those of you who have an opportunity to come to Avon Tyrrell whether as a part of a group or individually that you make the most of the enormous amount of opportunities and experiences that can be had at the Centre to help develop life experiences.

We must tell you that only last week our very own Mariann, who works in our Customer Services Team and is the main architect of the majority of outdoor programmes, returned to Hungary to Marry Andre’.  They are two very lovely people and we are all so very pleased for them and we all wish them a very happy future life together.  And didn't she look beautiful?

Finally our strawbale classroom is now connected to mains electric and we also have electricity available for campers using the Lake East Camping area.

The Possibility Magazine has awarded Avon Tyrrell its seal of approval and we are proud to receive this and are pleased with the article written in the magazine praising Avon Tyrrell and its accessibility for all.

We are very very happy to tell you that we have now received planning permission for our Boathouse to be built down by our main Lake.  This will make such a significant difference to the Lake area and the campers using that area as the boathouse will have showers and toilets as well as storage for canoes and kayaks and will be fully accessible.  We have now begun the process of fundraising to allow us to build the boathouse.  All donations are welcome, please!

In support of preparing the ground for where the Boathouse will be built, the very kind people from B&Q supply team came along and cleared more of the vegetation to make the area accessible.  The weather was its usual, warm, windy wet and the sun did show itself once.  The team worked very hard and achieved a huge amount, and we are truly grateful to them for all their excellent work.  The day was ended with a thank you by us and a go at their chosen activity of archery before heading home to a well earned rest. 

And if you are mad about bikes and want to have some fun outdoors then come to Avon Tyrrell Outdoor Activity Centre to the Big Bike Bash on 18-19^th August.  This family event is held every year and comprises of live music, DJ’s, a festival and activities to keep the kids entertained.  Facilities include on site camping, showers, bike wash, bike doctors, picnic area, climbing, boating activities, and a cross country racecourse of 3.5 miles of single track that includes river crossings, a boardwalk and a unique lake jump.  If you don’t want to miss out on this fantastic weekend, then book your tickets through the Big Bike Bash at http://www.bigbikebash.co.uk/ticketss

And finally, we hope you enjoy this picture as much as we do from a pupil from Bransgore Primary School who recently stayed with us.  It was at the bottom of a very kind thank you letter and we thought it was such a good drawing of Avon Tyrrell House from someone so young we would share it with you:

You are most welcome to visit and see what we are up to or to find out more about Avon Tyrrell Outdoor Activity Centre and the many varied opportunities we offer please contact us on Tel; 01425 672347 or email info@ukyouth.org  or view our website www.avontyrrell.org.uk  
Remember… experience – learn – develop