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Welcome to the Open Spaces Society! 1. We are delighted that you have joined us. We appreciate that you may have joined because you want help from us, or you want to help us, or you just want to support our work. Whatever the reason, your membership is invaluable to us. 2. Did you do want to be actively involved in our work? You may like to consider one or more of the following activities, ranging from setting up a group or being a local correspondent to merely passing a membership leaflet to the local library. There is of course no obligation, but your help - however little - would be very much appreciated Protecting local open spaces a) Form a local group 3. If your local common, green or open space is under threat, or even if it is not but has no local watchdog, why not form a group to protect it? 4. If you form such a group, it could itself become a member of the society. Not only could it demonstrate good practice in your area, but also it could spread the word about our society, encourage people to join and help us raise money (see below). 5. If you do not feel you have the time or desire to start a local group, you can still be of great help to us as an individual. b) Local action 6. Check the local newspapers and public notice-boards for planning applications and appropriation notices which affect the open spaces in your area. Make sure they are listed and protected from development by policies in the local development plan. Set up a survey of open spaces for your area and campaign to protect any threatened sites. Send for our booklet Spaces Between for further ideas. c) Beating the bounds 7. Organise a beating the bounds of your common, village green or other open space during Rogationtide. Send for our free information sheet A3. d) Commons and greens 8. Follow the recommendations of the Common Land Forum by setting up a management project for your local common or green. e) Registering town and village greens 9. We are encouraging our members to apply to register town and village greens which were missed off the register at the time of the Commons Registration Act 1965. If you know of space that has been used continually by custom for sport and recreation for the last 20 years, you may be able to have it registered as a village green, and thereby protected. Order a copy of our book Getting Greens Registered, a guide to the law and procedure for town and village greens. f) Local consultation 10. If we have any queries on land in your area it would help us to be able to ask you for advice. For example, we are consulted by the Department of the Environment and the Welsh Office on applications for works on commons, and by the commons registration authorities on all applications to remove land from the common land register. We might not know the area and it saves us much time and effort if we can turn to a local member to let us know the nature of the common, the use that is made of it, what the locals think of the application, and other information. 11. Let us know which area and common(s) you cover, so that we can add you to our list of members who can advise on these cases. Rights of way a) Local correspondents 12. The society receives copies of all applications to divert, close or create public paths, and we rely on voluntary representatives to act on our behalf in named local authority districts or boroughs. At present we have only a few representatives so the chances are there is no one for your area. The applications are sent to the correspondent who investigates them and responds in accordance with guidelines established by the executive committee which he or she has agreed before appointment. 13. As this is important policy work, we interview prospective correspondents beforehand and appointments are reviewed every three years. 14. We also value our local correspondents' advice when queries arise on commons, greens or open spaces in their area. 15. If you want to know more about becoming a local correspondent and what is involved, send for a copy of our Guidelines for Local Correspondents. b) Path watchdog 16. If you do not want to take up the full weight of being a local correspondent you can still help us as an individual by walking the paths in your area and reporting them to the highway authority. Strengthening the society and spreading the word 17. Despite our great age and intense activity, we are still little known in many areas. You can help to raise our profile and increase our membership in a number of ways. a) Making more members 18. Can you help to make us known by distributing membership and other leaflets for us in your local library, village hall, information or community centre, doctor's or dentist's surgery? b) Getting our magazine in the local library 19. Could you go into your local library and, if it does not have information about us, leave some leaflets and a sample copy of the magazine? 20. Let us know how many leaflets or back numbers of Open Space you would like, and where you will be distributing them. c) Mentioning you are a member 21. The local media may interview you about a local story to protect open space. Please mention that you are a member of our society and give the reporter information on what we do. If in doubt, put them in touch with our Henley office. d) Press contacts 22. Reporters from national papers, radio and television often contact us looking for local stories to illustrate their articles and programmes. And we need local examples when we publicise our efforts to improve policies and the law. 23. Let us know what you are doing, send a map and details of the open space and give us the name and telephone number of someone in your group who would be willing to speak to the press. e) Letting us know of successes 24. We often give help to members on protecting spaces, but only rarely get feedback on the outcome. Your success can help to inspire others and gain both us and you good publicity. Please let us know about your successes. f) Press cuttings 25. We cannot afford a press-cutting service, but we need to be able to monitor whether our publicity is successful. Please send us
Money We always need extra funds. Please help us by: a. Signing a deed of covenant for your subscription, or greater sum. This enables us to reclaim the tax you would have paid and thereby makes your subscription worth one-third as much again to us. b. Signing a direct debit form for your subscription. This significantly reduces our administration costs. c. Making a donation, however small, also helps our society. If you would like to donate ,250 or more under the gift-aid scheme, we can reclaim an extra one-third from the Inland Revenue. If you are a higher-rate tax payer you too benefit from making a donation, under this scheme. Send for the relevant forms from our society. d. We also rely on legacies to boost our income. Will you leave us a bequest in your will? And can you give our legacy leaflet to your solicitor and to other local solicitors, to encourage them to recommend us to those who are preparing their wills? e. Have you any contacts in trusts or companies whom you would be willing to approach on our behalf? It is always helpful to have additional support for our applications to trusts for a grant. Or if you work for a company which makes donations to charities, could you put in a good word for us?
f. Have you any other offers or ideas on how to raise money,
Thank you for helping us to protect our commons, greens, open spaces and public paths for all to enjoy. © Open Spaces Society, 1996
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