By default, event adverts must contain core details to meet the requirements of the GOC website (e.g. date, time, grid reference etc).
Summary:
consistency of logistical content is the best way to eliminate ambiguity and loads of telephone calls to you on the morning of your event. Use the suggested standard texts below where applicable.
sketch out what members need to plan and prepare in the public description. It will re-assure and attract them.
summarise what members will gain from your joining event. What will they see, hear, smell, taste? What will they experience/feel? For those living outside the region, what differences might they expect to see?
If you don't yet have a feature image for your event, then use the "coming soon" image in the image gallery. In the search box, type "coming soon", wait five seconds, then one image should appear.
The filename is "P1110967-as-GOC-temp-banner_sml.jpg" and the url is https://www.goc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/P1110967-as-GOC-temp-banner_sml.jpg.
You must:
if a walk, then select the right walking category (see definitions of easy, moderate and hard) above;
select "Annual Outdoor Gathering" (for events of the AOG only, not pilot events);
if starting at a railway station or bus station, then select "Public transport accessible".
You may select additional categories relevant to your event, e.g. cycling, history & heritage, city, social etc.
You must select:
Annual Outdoor Gathering (AOG) (for events of the AOG only, not pilot events).
You may select additional groups relevant to your event (e.g. cycling, gardens, history & culture, Beds, Cambs, Essex, Herts, London, Milts&NBucks, etc). But do not add it to every group in the world: members in, say, Scotland, who are not attending the AOG will not appreciate the spam on their list of "events in your groups".
You should select the womens' group only if you:
are running an event intended primarily at women only; and
you have permission from the Women's Group Co-ordinator to select the group for your event.
The general public description is your shop window. This is where you make your sales pitch.
Example of a first paragraph: "This is a circular/point-to-point walk/cycle-ride of X miles."
Use no more than four paragraphs to describe:
what the members will see, hear, smell, taste, feel, experience. Go big on this.
if you think, "Well, it's.... normal... dunno what to say", then think of a member who walks only in the Pennines visiting Hatfield Herts. His idea of "normal" will be radically different to yours! Think hard: what differences about your event might he enjoy?
Typical standard texts. Copy & paste-without-formatting as applicable:
Route is mainly exposed. Wear sun protection and/or windproofs.
Wear walking boots. {Use this where the route is mainly off-road and on churned, dried clay.]
Wear sturdy trainers. [Use this where the route is mainly pavement, and the off-road bits are hard, dry ground.]
Expect mud. [Unlikely in July, but if it has been raining and you are using a bridleway, warning members about mud meets many members' hygiene factors.]
Bring packed lunch, plenty of water and something to sit on.
There are no opportunities to buy food or drink en route.
Takeaway food and drink is available to buy at the start point.
Takeaway food and drink is available to buy during the walk.
The start point is not reasonably accessible by public transport.
The start point is at a railway station/bus station.
The start point is at the UH campus.
Optional pub stop at the end of the walk.
There is a cafe at the start point.
As for all GOC events, ordinarily you must not describe the precise start point in the public description.
This is a circular walk of 6 miles.
The walk mooches around the nooks and crannies of Hatfield, absorbing the old town, the new town and the new-new-town. The route showcases the various architectural styles of various historic epoques, from the early modern period (C16th) to the New Town Style (1950s-1970s) and modern tributes to older styles (neo-Georgian), with some limited narrative about the sources of those styles (most notably, Letchworth Garden City). To those who grew up in the south-east of England, the variety of styles and "experiments" will be normal; to those who grew up in the south-west and north of England - where local materials dominated housing appearance - the clustered confusion of styles might appear to be unsettlingly chaotic, in desparate need of tidying up.
Bring packed lunch, plenty of water and something to sit on. Takeaway food and drink is available to buy during the walk.
Route is mainly exposed. Wear sun protection and/or windproofs.
Wear sturdy trainers.
The start point is not reasonably accessible by public transport. The start point is 30 mins walk, or a bus ride, from the nearest railway station.
Meet at <time> at <precise location>. [If you fail to mention the time here, you will receive loads of telephone calls from those members who can't/won't read the website carefully enough.]
Correct Streetmap, GoogleMap, OpenStreetMap, What3Words, postcode, grid reference. [Use at least one of these services. You need to do this, because the GOC website relies upon the grid reference, and it is never accurate enough to join an event. One of the Herts group co-cordinators will "top-and-tail" this bit for you if you don't know how to fetch the URLs.]
The moderators can add the correct map references if you need them to do so.
Tell the members:
free or paid?
if paid, who sells tickets to it? How does the vendor identify the car park? Is it payable on the web, at the car park? Does the car park machine accept cash? Must the car park ticket be purchased in advance?
if on-street, how many cars do you think might be safe to park there for one day? Will this limit the numbers of members who can join your event?
Eliminate the risk of confusion entirely.
Tell the members:
repeat the line in the general public description;
where there is viable public transport access:
name the station/bus stop; and
get a Google Map link or a link to the National Rail page of the station;
there is more than one Hatfield in the UK. Pick the right Hatfield. National Rail calls it "Hatfield (Herts"), station code "HAT".
Specify the latest bus/train arrival times to your event, in each direction, so members know what journey to plan. Some members will not be local: they won't have the familiarity about local transport that you do. Eliminate the risk of confusion entirely.
Specific the latest bus/train departure times from your event, so that members can guage the chance of getting back to their UH campus bedrooms by 5pm. This is key re-assurance for potential attendees.
Repeat the line(s) in the general public description;
If food/drink is available before the walk, or during it, outline the choices available to reduce members' decision time on the day.
Normally, you should leave this blank.
If your event has risks which are already described in either https://www.goc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Generic-Risk-Assessment-Walking.pdf or https://www.goc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Generic-Risk-Assessment-Cycling.pdf , then don't add anything more to it.
If you believe there is a risk that you really should mention in this box, seek guidance from a group co-ordinator as soon as possible before you submit your advert for moderation. And expect the group co-ordinators to tell you to design a different route if you have correctly identified risks outside the scope of GOC's standard risk assessments!
Leave this section set to "No" for the time being.
The moderators will change this on publication. We will be using this facility for every AOG event, but its parameters have not yet been defined.
The event report is a fundamental part of GOC's external marketing.
To add to GOC's existing guidelines for event photography:
speak to the walk leader before the walk starts to determine where the group shot should take place.
at least one image ought to be a group shot, with the events' attendees facing the camera as a group and, ideally, smiling;
you shall need to herd the masses. If you sound authoritative enough, the group will respond to you. In all groups, there will always be four people who are so engaged with eachother that they won't hear general announcements, even in emergencies. So be loud, to wake them up!
you must speak to the group and tell them that the photograph will go onto the open internet, so if anybody does not want to be the group shot, stand behind the photographer;
when considering a landscape views, close one eye, to simulate its appearance on a web page. Then assess whether the image really is worth taking;
action shots. The most successful action shots are a line of walkers walking into the distance, with the top two-thirds of the image being a striking view (whether forestry or big skies);
when uploading images to the GOC website, ensure that the meta-data in the images includes "AOG2027" and the name of the event as it appeared on the GOC website. Then then author has a chance of finding your images. If the author can't find them, then your effort will have been wasted. The moderators will not hunt images for you.
while you are adjusting the image's meta-data, if you can do so, we recommend that your name appears in the "copyright" field prior to uploading the image to GOC's website.
Event reports are always freeform descriptions, and should remain so.
Whether the writing style is either "technical" or "prosiac", all event reports should convey an accurate impression of what the event achieved and what most attendeees felt about the walk.
Humour is strongly encouraged, although please avoid sarcasm or anything that Lily Savage might once have said. Aim for nothing more risque that the BBC edition of Ru Paul.
Many of Herts GOC's reports (for example and also this one) are of the "technical" style. They follow a predictable order of data conveyed, with limited summaries of what the group saw, and often links for attendees (and non-attendees) to find out more.
Beds GOC posted a superb report which combines "technical" (historical, to be precise) and "prosaic". The walk - and therefore the report - covered a historically important area at Tempsford. The event report eloquently captures a moment in time... before a new town gets built on it in the next few years.
Cambs GOC posted a superb report which is almost entirely "prosaic" and captures both mood of the group on the event and the amusing silliness of what happened. The report is no exaggeration: the horse was genuinely confused.
All of these styles are encouraged.