Volunteering On The Allotment, Security on Allotment Sites

Missed a fine day

We had to go out this afternoon, family business, so despite the weather being quite nice, I didn’t get down to the plot. Actual sunshine and no rain and me stuck in the car.

On my return home, I was thinking about the problem of security on allotment sites. In the modern world, where resources must be utilised efficiently to maximise cost benefit, expecting the police to send a forensic team and a task force of detectives to arrest the culprits of theft and damage on an allotment site is a little unrealistic.

Far more cost effective to operate some speed cameras but, in fairness, allotment theft is nothing compared to coping with town centres full of drunks on a Friday night.

Anyway, one of my rambling epistles came on  so a new article is online.

Security on Allotments.

Volunteering

I had an interesting email from the secretary of an allotment association regarding getting people to volunteer.

“How do you get people to volunteer? Do you: 

Get sufficient amount of people volunteering to cover the allotment needs? 

1. Offer incentives i.e. discounts on seeds, cheaper rent rates etc. If you offer incentives please specify what they are.


2. Incorporate volunteering into their allotment contract e.g. they must volunteer a certain number of hours per year (If so please specify how many hours)


3. Use paid labour rather then volunteers and charge allotment users a high rate for the allotment??

 I’m afraid I was little help. On our site it seems to come down to the usual suspects who undertake the communal tasks. The site rep does a lot more for people on the site than most realise. I think they think the rubbish skip loads itself and fences get mended by magic.

Our attitude on the site is that there will always be those who do not ‘pull their weight? but that is no reason not to do things which benefit the site as a whole as well as those willing to volunteer.

Our area allotment association seems to be stuck in a rut and not exactly pro-active. It  is such a shame as it could offer so many benefits to both its own members and the community in general. I am firmly convinced that without radical change in both the management and operation of the society from its present position no benefits will come to anyone and the society will just die, not with a bang but with a whimper.

We, the site rep and myself, are attempting to instigate some change but it is an uphill struggle.