The Canoe Wales 2024-28 Strategy Development

On the Thursday, Board members received presentations and talks from Jim Jones, CEO North Wales Tourism; Ashley Metcalfe, British Canoeing CEO and Phil Horton, RYA Sustainability Manager. 

On the Friday, they spent the morning interpreting the feedback and shaping the new 2024-28 Strategy.

Initial reflections from the consultation include a developing appreciation of the environment and sustainability and the growing requirement for increased safety messaging following the increasing number of incidents over the last 12-24 months.

The impact of COVID-19 is still clear to see with clubs reporting challenges with volunteer recruitment. There is also demand for Canoe Wales to run more taster sessions for young people and school children which perhaps reflects the gap in training and engagement over the COVID period. 

Perhaps unsurprisingly, members would like us to do more with respect to clarifying the qualifications and awards scheme and further work to develop club and volunteer coaches and leaders. Members would also like us to develop the range of benefits accessed through Canoe Wales membership.

The survey has again reminded us about the breadth of disciplines and types of participation within our membership but also the growing emphasis of paddling on the sea with 47.2% of respondents stating they mostly participate in sea kayaking.

We also asked you about your thoughts and feedback regarding the National White-Water Centre. You reminded us about the balance required with the commercial income received through rafting and canyoning being reinvested into the centre to further develop it as a hub for recreational paddling activity.

Kerry Chown, Chair of Canoe Wales said ‘the Away Day was another fantastic opportunity for the Canoe Wales Board to come together and hear from experts in the areas which Canoe Wales is looking to develop. We really valued the insights captured through the member consultation and look forward to launching the new strategy early next year. I would like to personally thank all members who participated in the survey’

During the next week, the staff team met at Llandysul Paddler Canoe Centre to conduct the same exercise. They also carried out some internal training including sessions on safeguarding, event management and sessions targeted at understanding the development in paddling disciplines and the coaching scheme.

The next step is to compile the work undertaken by both the Canoe Wales Board and staff team. 

We will then form our draft actions and KPI’s for the next strategy which we will test on groups of members over the coming six months.

If you would like to be involved in one of these sessions, then we would love to hear from you.  Please just email us at admin@canoewales.com and we will invite you once the sessions become available.

                                         Alistair Dickson, CEO, Canoe Wales