SayYesMore Team Summit September 2021

Wins and lessons…

Group Chat

We asked you to share what you’ve learned as a leader over the past eighteen months. What you’ve succeeded and struggled with, enjoyed and not. Here are the results - in order of conversation and not categorised…

Having multiple tribe leaders means you can take a break, support each other and not feel the pressure within each region. The more people you meet, the faster the team will grow. The more leaders there are to spread geographically and cover more areas. More leaders = more engagement = more events.

Note: If the number of leaders doesn’t cover the whole region there is no pressure on you to travel outside your area to host events - it needs to suit you! Eventually those from further corners of your region will come along and when you meet them you can assess whether they might be a viable team leader.

If you’re struggling with anything or have a question - please use the team page - you are not alone! We all support each other so please use the team Facebook group as your first point of help. If you have an admin-related question ask Dave or Emms, but for a general question it will help everyone by you voicing it. If you’re asking the question it’s likely that others will too.

A really easy let’s-get-going-event….

Little Cup of Adventure - designed for small groups and keeping things informal and simple. Maybe theme them on ‘back to travelling after covid’, hope-building for positive future trips, adventures and projects. Inspiring hope is great for mental health, as is a good chit chat.

Regular virtual adventure film nights - ask the East Mids team & Jeni to write a guide

Encourage each other to share events across regions,  especially the ones sharing borders with you - online events can be shared all over, if you’d like other leaders to share your event post it on the Team Group and ask :)

Encourage outspoken tribe members who want events in their area….to join the team!!! 

Make people aware of other tribes and how welcome they are to join events if they’re passing through. They don’t have to live in Kent to be welcome at a Kent event.

Use the YesWoods and YesBus - ask us for availability and let’s work together. These are community resources and they have been created to enable further connection throughout our community.

Team Guides
Several of these guides will need updating and we’d love your input on this. Facebook especially is an ever-changing platform and we’ll never quite keep on top of this, but the guides are there to help you feel the culture. The essentials will never change.

Find the SayYesMore team guides here: https://sayyesmore.com/yestribeleadertrainingmenu

Ideas:

  • Content is key for improving group engagement and event attendance. Take photos/ make film of events and share them afterwards, it shows people what they should expect and what they missed.

  • Mental health conversations facilitation notes - Louise offered to write these with the other Joypots

  • We created this amazing resource to keep people active and engaged during Covid, and it’s as valid as ever even after the pandemic. From great movies to watch and books to read, to quiz questions and podcasts to listen to: https://sayyesmore.com/yestriberadio

  • Share VIDEOS - general info and storytelling ones about the YesTribe, campouts, woods etc: https://www.youtube.com/c/SayYesMoreFilms

For HQ to create and update

  • Update the Meet the Team page on www.sayyesmore.com

  • Team Leader guides

  • Intro into the YesWoods - what happens there, where is it, how do people get involved. Separate calendar

  • We’re creating a network of private land, woodland and campsites where YesTribers are welcome for free or a small fee. Watch this space.

To increase engagement...

  • Share photos and videos from your events to show that real people come along

  • Encourage people to ask if they need to borrow gear or kit

  • Think about people’s barriers to joining in and mention them from the beginning

  • Remember and acknowledge that we’ve had a weird and challenging 2 years - we understand how hesitant people might be and the reservations people might have

New Ideas...

  • Shared Calendar - dates for the diary for the next 12 months

  • Regional ‘days’ where each region does the same thing on the same day

    • Regular (quarterly) different activities

    • 23rd October Autumn Amble!

    • Lets think of 3 more seasonal ‘days’ - maybe cycling, swimming, paddling…?

Wake up wild / Wild camping

Equipment:

When wild camping, we encourage tarps and bivvy bags as it’s easier to conceal in the wild. If you can get away with, if you have permission of the land owners or it’s a small tent, ensure they’re discrete and only use them if necessary. 


Finding a location:

  • Make sure it has public access, you don’t want to be walking on private land

  • Nice starting locations of land could be those owned by the national trust, forestry commission or the wildlife trust

  • Think about nice locations for sunsets and sunrises, hill, forests and coastline

  • Easily accessible for the start. Meet at a carpark, close by to public transport links 

Knowing the area

  • Local knowledge helps when finding a nice safe and discrete location

  • If you don’t know the area make sure you visit first as it’s not always clear on the map.

  • Have a secondary location for back up if you’re caught and asked to move on, or the location is unsuitable


Facebook event

  • The FB event brand is Wake Up Wild

  • Create it in your regional tribe 

  • Then post in the WUW page or speak with Andy Lean who can post it on WUW

The lead up and the day of the event

  • Ask if anyone needs anything before the event. If you have equipment available offer it out. 

  • Mention in the event description the type of locations such as, is it suitable for hammocks 

  • Make everyone feel welcome offer help to the newbies 

  • Use the YesWoods to practice yourself or to host your first event to help build confidence 

  • So far there has been no need to limit numbers but think about how many the space can hold and how discrete you will be in big groups 

  • Only post the location of the meeting point – do not post the location you are staying on facebook, if individuals ask for the location because they are running late that’s fine

  • No fires is possible because of the scorching of the ground if you need to make a fire dig out turf and then replace

  • Dogs can come – It might be worth mentioning on the event that there is a dog coming to the event so others are aware

  • Toilets: have a look at “How to shit in the woods” you can dig a hole around 6 inches deep or use poo bags and store that in another bag and pin in dog poo bins.