A request from Rick Gould for volunteers to help with the annual Walk-and-Talk event on Wednesday 29 January 2025.
When, what and why
We need about ten volunteers from 09:00 to 12:30 on Wednesday 29 January 2025, to help with the annual Walk-and-Talk event round the Fairfield Association nature reserves for a group of about 20-25 postgraduate students from the Department of Linguistics at University of Lancaster.
The students are mostly taking the Master of Arts (MA) course in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL).
We have two volunteers so far, with two more in reserve, and we need ideally at least ten more to run the event.
The roles we need
- Guides to take small groups of students (typically three or four) around the Flora and Fauna reserves, describing key features – we will provide a briefing note.
- Baking cakes
- Serving cakes and drinks on the day
The location
- The Friends’ Meeting House, Lancaster
- Flora and Fauna nature reserves
Who is organising the Walk-and-Talk?
We are in the process of handing over the organisation of future Walk-and-Talks from Mick Short to Rick Gould. For the next event, they will host it together. Rick will organise most the event and give the initial presentation in the Friends Meeting House. Mick will organise the refreshments.
Feedback we have had about previous events
Professor Diane Potts, our contact at the university, has told us that in previous years, the Fairfield Association Walk-and-Talk has consistently been rated by the students as one of the best things about their MA course, both in terms of what they learn about their own language learning and teaching, and also in social terms: they comment on how kind and helpful we all are and they really enjoy the whole Fairfield experience – including the cattle, which they photograph enthusiastically.
The schedule and tasks
- The students will come to the Friends Meeting House at 09:00 on 29 January 2025, and Rick will give the presentation. Then, from 10.00, the tutors will take small groups around the nature reserves, and, after that, everyone will return to the Friends Meeting House for refreshments, including cakes baked by the Fairfield Association bakers.
- With 20-25 students, we ideally need 7 or 8 guides, some volunteers to bake cakes, volunteers to put out the refreshments while the Walk-and-Talk is proceeding, and to serve the refreshments.
- The whole event should be over by around 12.30pm.
Contact us
We would be extremely grateful if you could let us know as soon as possible if you are able to take part this year.
If you have any questions, please email and we will forward your message to Rick and Mick.