Region Chairman 2013 was a challenging year for the IWA. The National Festival at Watford, whilst being a successful event for those who attended, was not a success financially. This caused much heart searching and a final decision was made not to have similar events in the future as it was felt that type of gathering has less relevance in the current time. I personally have attended festivals by boat, car and train since 1970s and can remember the time when excursion trains ran from London to the Festival. Times move on and in 2014 there will be the very successful Canalway Cavalcade in London, the Trailboat Festival (in this region on the Grand Western Canal) at the end of May and a campaign festival in Chester. There will also be a boaters gathering on August Bank holiday (to be advised). Retaining membership in the current climate continues to cause concern, and so there will be no increase in subscriptions and various schemes to encourage new members are being trialed. There is still the problem of continuous moorers particularly in the lower Kennet and Avon. The navigation committee and the region committee support the effort (by CRT) to remedy this problem which has grown up over many years. If you have any thoughts on this please let me know. This is the season of AGM's. The details of your branch meeting are elsewhere in this issue, I hope to attend as many as I am able and look forward to seeing you there. Most branches have something following the AGM which I am sure you will find interesting. The regional AGM takes place on the Saturday of the Trailboat Festival and full details are elsewhere including an informal dinner in the evening, at which Les Etheridge the national chairman will be speaking. Enjoy the waterways this summer in any way you can. Roger Holmes SW Region Chairman
roger.holmes@waterways.org.uk 2