Walk N Talk Colchester: £1 Contribution to Admin Charges

Starting from Monday, 20th January 2025, there will be a £1 admin charge for all activities. This contribution helps cover the running costs of the group. Here’s everything you need to know about payments:

How Do I Pay?

You have several options to make your payment:

  • Cash: You can pay in cash directly to me.

  • Contactless Payments: I can accept Apple Pay, Google Pay, or a contactless card via an app on my phone.

  • Standing Order: Set up a standing order for £10 per month. This allows you to come to as many walks or events as you want within that month.

  • Online Payment: You can use the secure link below to make a payment via card. Simply enter the amount you wish to pay:
    Make a Payment

When Do I Pay?

You can choose how you prefer to pay:

  • Pay As You Go: Pay for each walk or event individually at the time you attend.

  • Block Payments: If you prefer, you can pay in blocks (e.g., £5 or £10 at a time) and use it until the amount runs out. You’ll need to track when your block has been used up and make a new payment.

Please note: I will not be checking individual payments regularly, so if you choose to pay in blocks, it’s up to you to monitor your balance.

What Happens to the Money?

The money you contribute goes towards:

  • Operational Costs: This includes website hosting, walking apps, public liability insurance, and training for me and volunteers.

  • Admin Charges: A portion of the funds will go towards covering my time in managing the group.

In the future, if the group continues to grow, any surplus funds could be used for charitable purposes. I would love for everyone to be involved in deciding where any extra money should go, especially if we become a Community Interest Company (CIC), where we won’t be able to make a profit.

Thank You for Your Support

Your contributions are helping to keep WalkNTalk Colchester, Books N Banter and all our social events running smoothly and growing. I really appreciate your support and look forward to seeing you at our next event!

Rebecca

Below is the statement posted on January 14th on our Facebook group, advising of the changes.

IMPORTANT - ALL MEMBERS PLEASE READ

Good evening, everyone.

Back in September of last year I advertised on the local community group to see if anyone wanted to walk with me, I had started walking for physical and mental health reasons, but I had a problem…… Procrastination and excuses! “I’ll go for a walk later” turned into “I’ll go tomorrow” and then “well I’ll start next week” ….. you get the picture? I thought that a small group of women walking together might make me get out there, commit to something, and the response I got wasn’t what I expected.

I set up a Facebook group thinking it would be a good place to arrange walks, within hours I had a couple of hundred women in the group, and everyone was asking me what time we meet, when do we meet, how long is the walk, etc etc…… Realising the need, I got to work and spent a couple of days researching walks, parking, etc and set up the first couple of walks. I practiced the first walk on my own a few days before the actual walk, worried that I might get everyone lost or the walk might take too long.

On Monday 7th October, a week after my first Facebook post, I turned up at 1.30pm to a lady in the car park who looked like she was preparing to go for a walk. I breathed a little knowing I wasn’t going to be walking alone! Then as I walked further up the car park, 18 women were standing there waiting to walk with me. I’m not going to lie, I was overwhelmed, shocked but very happy to see all those wonderful women.

Just over 3 months later, we now have 6 walks a week, a weekly drop in coffee and chat, a book group launching next month and lots of planned social events coming for this year. We have a website with information about the group and walks etc, and nearly 900 women on our Facebook group. Most walks there are between 8-18 women joining us.

The journey so far has been amazing, and we can clearly see a need for this group in Colchester. We have women from 30-80 years old, all different abilities and backgrounds, making friends and walking for so many different reasons.

Over Christmas I have had some time to think about what I want to achieve in 2025. Running this group takes time and money, something I hadn’t anticipated in the beginning, and up til this point I have given my time and my own money to run the group and pay for the website and walking apps etc. However, going forward if I am to continue to run the group (which I love doing and want to continue to do) I must consider my time and money, and I can’t continue to do it long term for free.

Having said that, I’m not looking to make this into a profitable business, but I do need to raise a reasonable amount each month to pay for some of my time spent updating websites and events, planning new events, paying for website hosting and getting myself training in first aid as well as getting some insurance for the group (public liability insurance should really be in place for our walks).

Most groups charge a membership or fee, there are some groups which are free to members, those groups are usually funded by charities and therefore the group must abide by certain criteria, I would prefer to keep this group independent so that we can run it how we want to.

Therefore, after careful consideration I am going to be asking for a £1 per walk contribution to admin. This also includes coffee n chat, social events etc. This will cover some of my time, plus the actual costs I incur i.e. website hosting, insurance etc.

There will also be a cap on this at £10 per month per member maximum to keep the cost low. If you walk 3 times a week, it will work out at £12 for the month but the cap would mean you would only pay £10. I think this makes it fairer.

You can pay in advance or at the end of the month once you have walked. You can also pay as you go if you would prefer. Cash can be paid to me at the start of any of the walks, or you can pay by card when you see me, or via a link on the website. For transparency I do have set up a separate bank account and a card reader, all relevant taxes etc will be paid on any income received.

I hope that everyone will see the value in the group, and the commitment that it takes to organize and run the group and won’t mind paying this contribution. If you feel you are unable to contribute for financial reasons, please contact me! I don’t want anyone not to walk because they would find it hard to pay.

I appreciate you reading this far and understanding my reasons for this change. The contribution to admin will come into affect on Monday 20th January 2025.

Thank you – Rebecca.