The year got off to a start with our Group AGM, which was held in Eastleigh. There was a good attendance by members, helped by the fact that the meeting was held ‘virtually’ via Zoom as well as ‘face to face’. Officers and Committee were duly elected to run the group.
Events we have supported:
Getting prepped in Control for the Dorset Trail Run in April
The Dorset Trail Run, which was again held on the St Giles Estate in Dorset at the end of April. This year’s event was made even more ‘interesting’ by the fact that more than one vehicle got bogged down in mud! luckily though, several of our members turn up at events in 4×4 vehicles which comes in handy. As usual it was a very successful day for runners, organisers and supporters. For details of next year’s run, check out their website. https://uktrailrunningfestival.co.uk/
Two happy Raynet members operating from the minibus.
Lymington Lifeboat 10k took place on a sunny Sunday in May. This year we experimented running Control from a minibus as it is one of our smaller events. https://rnli.org/news-and-media/2024/may/21/lymington-rnli-20th-annual-10k-run-and-kids-fun-run
The end of another successful event at New Park
The biggest event of our year was held at the beginning of September, the New Forest Marathon, based at New Park in Brockenhurst. 17 members of our group took part in providing communications along with 4 volunteers from other groups providing 141 man hours at the actual event plus several days beforehand that are given by a number of our group in order to set up the equipment to ensure smooth running of the comms.
The end of October saw us once again at New Park to provide support for the New Forest Runners 10 Mile Run, you may remember this event was cancelled last year due to the adverse weather conditions so we were pleased to see it go ahead this year. 15 members of our group took part, along with 4 from neighbouring groups.
Once again SWHR were asked if we could assist with operators to run the show ground control point at the Romsey Show. This event is quite different from the walks and runs that seem to be a staple in our calendar. We worked alongside a long time show volunteer and member of the organising team which was a great benefit to us. An informal rota evolved during the day making sure everyone had time away from the operating cabin and had a time to see any parts of the show of interest.
During the year our members have also responded to requests for help from other RAYNET groups, for which we thank them.
Our training programme for the year started with an extremely well received presentation on Logging and Message Handling. This was offered to us by Tim Pettis who has history and experience in Emergency Planning.
The material was quite comprehensive and included:
- Organisational Resilience
Some of Hampshire Raynet members at our 2nd training session on the role of the loggist and message handling
- Civil Contingencies Act (Raynet’s link into the LRF, etc)
- Risks and how those shape contingency arrangements, including specifics about events as well as covering the types
- Events & Safety Advisory Groups
- Types of Incidents -and what Raynet could become involved with
- Command and control structures – emergency response arrangements for Hampshire and Isle of Wight Local Resilience Forum (how Raynet will interact)
- The role of a Loggist including message handling
- Best Practice in Log Keeping (conforming to the civil and criminal procedures)
Last Updated on 7th January 2025 by Viv