In January, Waterways Ireland (WI) opened its magnificent new headquarters building in Enniskillen and confirmed its mastery of the waterways, reports Brian J. Goggin
Also in January, the Inland Waterways Association of Ireland (IWAI) declared a mid-life crisis, shot itself in the foot and contemplated casting off its old allegiances and buying a speedboat, an open-necked shirt and a gold medallion.
Inventing the waterwaysDuring the 1950s and the 1960s, IWAI set the inland waterways agenda, successfully resisting closures and navigation restrictions while promoting new uses and working on restorations. Ruth Delany's books delineated the Irish waterways; IWAI guidebooks defined the waterways experience, including history and heritage and the natural environment as well as boating.
The waterways were saved from closure and given to a public body dedicated to maintaining them. But thereafter IWAI lost its public profile: 210 mentions in The Irish Times in the 1960s but only 39 in this decade.
IWAI neglected contemporary ways of influencing public policy through branding and lobbying. Successful branding would have meant that, when people thought of any waterway, they would think of IWAI. Lobbying means exerting influence with the authorities by building a reputation for making well-researched, cohesive, thoughtful submissions on important issues.
Strategic thinking
In November 2000, the then-President of IWAI began a participative review of the Association's strategic direction. The outcomes included a new vision: IWAI as the respected voice of the inland waterways enthusiast, representing all those who use, enjoy and value the waterways.
IWAI's scope was defined to include all the inland waterways, all leisure activities associated with them (including shore-based activities), the restoration and conservation of the built heritage, development of new facilities and amenities and the protection and conservation of the natural heritage. A mission statement reflecting that scope was adopted and a new management structure, with a larger Executive Committee, was introduced.
Drastic timesThe President's Message in IWAI's Inland Waterways News Winter 2008 told us that, in drastic times, the association had not secured external funding for its part-time project officer (its only employee), that its membership was declining and that it was unable to retain new members. He had made radical suggestions, some unpalatable, to the IWAI Council in November. And he said that the Association was 'member-driven'.
There was no report on the November Council meeting, but the report on the September meeting said that the part-time project officer had been put on protective notice. IWAI had imposed a temporary levy on its branches to pay for the post, but that reduced branches' income; any rise in membership fee was likely to be resisted.
The membership figures do not suggest a crisis. Numbers increased by 2.6% between 2006 and 2007 and declined by 3.2% in 2008: very small changes. The renewal rate rose from 83.5% in 2006 to 91% in 2008 (hats off to the membership officer), although increasing numbers of members do not pay their subs.
It was reported that a sub-committee had been considering the IWAI's legal structure, the uniform fee charged by all branches, funding and costs, membership levels, links with other bodies and IWAI's inability to get recognition as a national body. This sub-committee hoped to have a discussion paper ready by mid-October. The President said that the Association was facing some of the biggest issues it had ever confronted.
Crisis? What crisis?
The relationships between these topics were not clear. The President did not identify the 'biggest issues' and there was no information about the unpalatable and radical solutions, about the mid-October discussion paper or about what the proposed 20/20 Vision plan might contain. So the problems were ill-defined and the possible solutions were not discussed in the President's Message.
The vision and mission statements, and other outcomes of the 2000 process, were not mentioned. Were those outcomes considered and evaluated but then rejected? If so, why?
The Association's PRO declined to provide any more information. No briefing documents were sent to members, the report of the November 2008 Council meeting is not on the IWAI website, a pre-Christmas email to members contained no details and the coverage in Inland Waterways News was inadequate and out of date.
Participants in IWAI's electronic discussion group were more successful in extracting answers. Reading the discussion at http://www.iwai.ie/forum/list.php?1 (see IWNs IWAI funding ...), I learned that, while the President seemed to link the short-term financing problems to the issues raised by the sub-committee, another officer saw no link between the two and said that the sub-committee's work would take over 12 months.
IWAI's real problemOn the basis of the limited information provided, I suggest that IWAI does have a significant problem, but that it is one of performance, of implementation, rather than of strategy.
IWAI has failed to project its vision and its brand to waterways users and to the general public. I cannot recall ever receiving a press release from IWAI. According to its website, it has issued six since 2006: four welcoming announcements (by other people) about the Ulster Canal, one welcoming two new branches and one welcoming a new corporate member. No reports or critiques or surveys of its own; nothing to suggest that it is setting the agenda on the waterways or that it is the respected voice of the inland waterways enthusiast.
There seems to be no central appreciation of the strategic importance of getting IWAI's name before the public and keeping it there. WI uses its sponsorship programme strategically, funding events that attract new users and meet other corporate goals. In 2008 WI sponsored rowing, angling, sailing, swimming, wakeboarding, triathlons and arts, heritage, environmental, Royal Canal and local events. The organising bodies and the venues are now WI's allies. IWAI seems to have run no events that received sponsorship.
Since appointing its part-time project officer, the Association has improved its lobbying, making well-reasoned submissions on issues including Shannon water abstraction, vessel registration and green diesel. It therefore seems extraordinary that IWAI should now decide to reduce its capability by removing the project officer. Joined-up strategic thinking should be for the long term; by this action IWAI has shot itself in the foot.
Waterways Ireland's new headquarters building in Enniskillen has been officially opened. The three-storey-plus-belvedere building is on the Sligo Road, across the river from the Watergate. However, the Lakeland Canoe Centre on the island screens the WI building from the castle side, and it is only from around the Forum that the full splendour appears.The building includes offices, meeting rooms, an exhibition space and an archive and library, which will be very welcome to people like me, who are researching aspects of waterways history. The environmentally friendly building has achieved the highest Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment (BREAM) score of any building in Northern Ireland.
The official opening on Friday 16 January 2009 was performed by Gregory Campbell, MLA, Minister for Culture, Arts and Leisure and Éamon Ó Cuív, TD, Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs. The ceremony included the planting of an Irish Pitcher apple tree.
The need for a Waterways Association...There is no official forum for the voices of waterways users. Waterways Ireland has no board of external directors. There is no equivalent of Britain's Inland Waterways Advisory Council or of the advisory committee covering Lough Neagh and the Lower Bann. There is no equivalent of the UK's Parliamentary Waterways Group and the Oireachtas largely ignores waterways.
Yet the waterways are nowadays subject to more regulation, acted upon by more public bodies and affected more by economic and political events than they have ever been. I have the greatest of respect for Waterways Ireland's competence — and its ability to thrive in a very challenging political environment — but every public-sector organisation needs external oversight. In the absence of an official mechanism, we need a strong, sophisticated, well-run voluntary body, with professional staff, that can comment authoritatively on WI's strategy and operations and that can help to set the waterways agenda.
... not just a boat club
IWAI should be driven, not by its members, but by what is set down in its Memorandum of Association, where 'represent[ing] the interests of boat owners' is clearly subsidiary to the main objects, which are about promoting the 'use, maintenance and development' of the waterways themselves.
Some proponents of change suggest that IWAI's main problem is that it has too few members, and that it should sell itself to inland boat-owners as their representative body, without any distracting heritage or environmental considerations.
But members are not purely self-interested: many share a dedication to waterways, not just to boat-owning. If IWAI focuses solely on boat-owners, it excludes many inland waterways users and is likely have less influence on Waterways Ireland. Besides, the market for representing boat-owners is dominated by the Irish Sailing Association, with over 12 staff and an active Motorboat Development Officer. IWAI could survive in that market only by some form of market-sharing or by amalgamation with the ISA.
As a boat-owners' group, IWAI's continued existence would be pointless — and unlikely. Yes, IWAI does need to improve its branch structure; yes, it needs to become much better at delivery — but at delivery on waterways strategy, not just boating. And above all it needs to become far better at communicating with members, with the public and with other waterways interests.
Published in Afloat January//February 2009
