2nd & 3rd March - Community Rail Conference, Bristol

[whole diary]

[grahame]

From ACoRP^▸ (Association of Community Rail Partnerships)

The annual Community Rail Conference brings together Community Rail Partnerships in this joint conference with the Department for Transport. In a series of sessions and workshops, key topics include sustainability, youth engagement, assessing the impact of community rail and tackling loneliness.

Due to funding requirements from the DfT^» (Department for Transport - about), this is an invite-only event with two places per CRP^▸ (Community Rail Partnership) in England and Wales. It is not open to station adoption/friends groups.

Program ((here))

Community Rail Conference Connecting Communities with the Railways
Monday 2 March & Tuesday 3 March 2020
DoubleTree by Hilton Bristol City Centre, Redcliffe Way, Bristol, BS1 6NJ

A lot of very important subjects to be covered of particular relevance to stations friends groups which exist for around half the stations on the UK^▸ (United Kingdom) network.  I appreciate the meeting cannot be open to all (7 CRPs = only 14 people from the GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) area?). If you are one of the 14, feedback afterwards would be very much appreciated so that our other members, too, can help forward shared aims.  I wonder if there are "roving reporter" invites available; should I ask?

[grahame]

P.S. One of the things that we'll here from the March conference ... or perhaps the following month ... is the rebranding of ACoRP^▸ (Association of Community Rail Partnerships) (see ((here))

The Association of Community Rail Partnerships has existed in its current form for twenty years. In this time, we have grown substantially in terms and membership and activity, and in staff numbers. With this in mind, it was decided that a new name and brand identity would better reflect our membership, provide a less cumbersome title and present an identity that better explains what the community rail movement is all about.

Branding agency, David Carroll & Co has conducted a review to inform the exercise, including member visits and meetings and workshops with partners, funders, board and team members. Following this review, they set out a strong case to proceed with the rebrand, which our board voted for unanimously. David Carroll & Co are currently working on a number of naming and brand identity options to reflecting the research that has been undertaken. We’ll be previewing the final results at the Community Rail Conference in March, with our new brand going live in April.

[ChrisB]

Are TWSW^» (TravelWatch SouthWest - website) still holding their General Meeting on March 2 in light of this?0

[grahame]

Are TWSW^» (TravelWatch SouthWest - website) still holding their General Meeting on March 2 in light of this?0

The ACoRP^▸ (Association of Community Rail Partnerships) meeting only just came to my attention today ... so there has been no discussion.

My personal thoughts:

1. TWSW has set the autumn date to AVOID the ACoRP awards, which is an event that's grown to the best part of 500 people attending from across the UK^▸ (United Kingdom).  The event in this thread is much smaller - around just 10 potential delegates following the "2 per CRP^▸ (Community Rail Partnership)" of whom (guessing for individuals) less than half would normally attend TWSW, and those are from CRPs who have a broad team, so both meetings could be managed.

2. The ACoRP meeting doesn't really kick off until 2 p.m. (runs through to 9 p.m.) on the Monday, and anyone really concerned to be at both could attend the morning at TWSW and then catch the train up to Bristol (one stop, every 30 minutes).

3. Changing the date would upset plans already in people's diaries.

So - good question, but in my view no reason to change it.  I will forward a link to this thread to the TWSW secretary though / and we have a TWSW board meeting this week so will ensure it gets raised; please do not except the date to change.


I do actually regret not meeting the criteria to attend the DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) / ACoRP meeting ... in particular I look at the Integrated Transport workshop with Stephen Joseph, in the knowledge that I expect an opportunity to be rearing its head in my area very soon ...