Ian White, Mentor for South London
In September 2001 at our AGM a new and expanded committee took over from a single person who had been gallantly performing the duties of chairman, secretary and membership secretary on One Tree Hill, a large inner city site of 70 plots.
I was elected for the job of membership secretary: I was given a hand drawn map of the site and 2 excel spreadsheets of a membership and a waiting list.
Looking back on it two and a half years later, was it worthwhile? The long evenings spent on a computer, doing all the paperwork, weekends disrupted by showing potential plot holders around, evening meals interrupted by people who wanted to know about allotments and go on the waiting list. The answer: yes, it was. Myself and other members of the committee have achieved:
- All plots let and all are being worked.
- A good range of plot holders; at the last count we had more female plot holders than male and many in the 30 to 45 age group and with children.
- Events like a Summer BBQ & Bonfire night.
- Public guided walks: since the site is getting to a good standard we notice more members of the public looking over the fence! We?re opening the site as part of the HDRA open gardens scheme.
- 3 skip loads of rubbish removed from the site.
- A start on the creation of a wildflower meadow.
- Seeing plots which were waist high in weeds and brambles back in production.
- Application for funding to improve the site further.
Inspired by that experience I started considering a career change from computing to something to do with Allotments and Regeneration, which led to me becoming an ARI Mentor.
First published in ARI Newsletter Winter 2005
This article is an excerpt from an article written for HDRA's The Organic Way published in Summer 2005. For a copy of the original article, contact ARI .