Edinburgh Young Walkers is a Ramblers club and we are committed to upholding the Ramblers’ values of being inclusive, inspiring, empowering and responsible. In upholding these principles it means we expect everyone in EYW to treat each other with respect, avoid unwelcome language or behaviour, communicate requests and decisions clearly with courtesy, listen to each other, especially where we disagree, and strive to make EYW an enjoyable environment for everyone who joins the club. As such, we have a Code of Conduct that applies to all our members and events.
Instances of volunteers or members not fulfilling the Code of Conduct are rare. Nonetheless, if you have experienced inappropriate or unwelcome behaviour from a volunteer or member, or have felt that a volunteer or member has not lived up to the Ramblers values you can discuss your experience with the Wellbeing Officer or any other member of the Concerns & Conduct subcommittee.
We expect most concerns or complaints raised would be those which can be informally handled within the club. In the first instance this means having an informal discussion with a member of the Concerns & Conduct subcommittee (contacts are named below) to discuss your options for progressing any concern or complaint. This conversation is confidential and we will listen to any concern discreetly and sensitively, and provide our advice on how to best address the concern.
Any initial conversation with the Wellbeing Officer or other members of Concerns & Conduct subcommittee does not obligate you to take “action” against another member of the club – we recognise club members may just want someone to discuss their experience with in the first instance.
We also recognise that there are two sides to every story – if we do provide support to progress any concern or complaint we also promise to listen to all sides of the story to work towards a positive and appropriate outcome.
Exceptional circumstances or more serious concerns might require the Ramblers Volunteering team or other appropriate authorities to be involved. These situations are very rare – we encourage members to approach the Club Chair in the first instance who can best advise on next steps.
If you wish to have an initial discussion about a concern, we encourage you to either send a message or speak in-person to one of the following committee members who sit on our Concerns and Conduct subcommittee: Charlotte (our Wellbeing Officer), Georgia, Will or Jonathan.
If you wish to report a safeguarding concern or are concerned that something might be a safeguarding issue, please message our Wellbeing Officer director or contact the Ramblers straightaway via their Safeguarding information page.