December 2024 Newsletter
Suicide Awareness
Sadly, from time to time people take their own lives on Ilkley Moor. Jo James of Bradford Council’s Health Improvement Team has suggested that, as our volunteers and members are regularly on the Moor, we might have people who would like to be able to help. This training will include identifying people who seem to be in distress and how they can be helped. The police, and other agencies, have reported people in such a condition on the Moor, sufficiently often, for this to be a concern.
Hence, the Council is offering awareness training to anyone who might like to take it up. Two courses are available. For those who are interested in attending a facilitated training offer, there is a free 3.5 hour training session by Papyrus, Bradford’s commissioned Provider. To book, just use the booking link and choose the preferred session. Information at:
https://www.papyrus-uk.org/sp-eak/
Booking link: https://www.papyrus-uk.org/city-of-bradford-training-sessions/
For those who would prefer a shorter online session Zero suicide alliance provide a 20-minute training session. Go straight to the training via this link:
https://www.zerosuicidealliance.com/suicide-awareness-training
But, remember, the most important bit of advice – there is never any harm in approaching someone who seems to be in distress and saying “Are you alright? Can I help?’
Defra Sustainable Farming Incentive Scheme (SFI)
Bradford Council has entered the Moor into a 3-year SFI Moorland Introductory Standard. This Standard is to help land managers understand the potential of their moorland to provide public goods such as clean water, carbon capture and biodiversity. It also helps them to be more aware of the environmental benefits their moorland provides and to identify opportunities to maintain, enhance, or restore the moorland.
The Standard requires a survey over the Moor and involves:
• Identifying and recording the types and condition of soil and vegetation
• Recording the presence of historic and archaeological features
• Assessing the public goods the moorland already provides
• Identifying opportunities to maintain or enhance the public goods
The survey is conducted over three years, with one point surveyed every 10 hectares each year. For Ilkley Moor this involves visiting 70 points annually.
During December five pairs of our volunteers have been walking all over the Moor carrying out this survey. The reward is that Bradford Council will donate most of the £11,500 annual payment to FoIM to be used for environmental improvements on the Moor.
Membership Secretary
Jon Copland has been our Membership Secretary for 9 years. He has done us splendid service, not only in maintaining our membership records, but also in putting these Newsletters into an attractive format with photos (something that I have never managed). He feels the time has come for him to stand down, thus we are now actively looking for a new Membership Secretary.
Currently our membership records are stored and managed on a somewhat dated Access database, which certainly does the job, but we are now about to migrate all our membership records to a rather simpler (and widely used) bit of software ‘Membermojo’. So, although it will be advantageous to have a new Membership Secretary who is not afraid of computers, specialised IT skills will not be necessary. Skill in turning my text into an attractive format for a Newsletter would be very advantageous, but by no means essential as some other committee member could probably take on this task.
So, the appeal is simple. If you think you can spare a small amount of time to help with the work of FoIM as a Membership Secretary, please step forward. For an organisation that started 14 years ago, and has grown into what is probably the biggest, best funded and most active Friends group in the entire area, we cannot function without a Membership Secretary. We rely on the fact that amongst our membership we will have at least one person who can volunteer for this role. For more information please contact me or Jon.
Wishing you all the best for the Christmas season and the New Year.
Owen Wells
Chairman
FoIM
December 2024