Members' Challenges
Our birthday is a wonderful opportunity to bring our history to life and start moving towards our 100-year anniversary. Please join us and help ensure we make the most of it.
POSTED ON: By Abigail Huntington,
Members: Celebrating our 90th Anniversary with You
By Abigail Huntington,
Membership Officer
90 years ago, our founder, George Murray Levick, led our first expedition to Finland in 1932. Since then, there have been more than 100 British Exploring Society expeditions, across the world, with more than 10,000 Leaders and Young Explorers experiencing our unique approach to adventure and learning in wilderness areas and, in doing so, becoming Members of our community.
As one of our Members, you will understand how you’re all connected by the shared experiences you have had with us. You are central to everything we are and do. We cannot celebrate our 90th anniversary without you, and we would like to do this in three main ways: Connection, Celebration and Contribution. Please read on, to find out more and perhaps take-on one (or more) of our Members’ anniversary challenges.
CONNECTION
Together, we form a unique, supportive and continuing community with shared experiences, values and perspectives of the world. In our 90th year, we want to celebrate the connections within our community – strengthening and re-establishing them – so that as we progress towards our 100-year anniversary, your voices can contribute more to our mission and you can connect, support and learn from each other, in the ways that suit you best.
Challenges
- Do we have all your current contact details? Please update them here.
- Are you in contact with someone that may no longer be in touch with us? Please check in with them and encourage them to contact us at membership@britishexploring.org
- Could you help us by spending 90 minutes re-connecting with someone from your expedition? Write an email or a letter and we will happily forward it to them (if we have their current contact details).
- Alternatively, could you spend the time doing some ‘exploring’ by tracing Members of your expedition and encouraging them to get back in touch with us? Social media is a great place to start and perhaps it will lead to a reunion. Please tell us about your activities via email or using our hashtag #90YearsofBuildingStrongerFutures
CELEBRATION
British Exploring Society is built on your stories. Each quarter, we celebrate these in the pages of our digital Members’ magazine, The Campfire. We also have an extensive archive of reports, photos, and videos that catalogue and celebrate our history and continual development. Work is underway to ensure our archive helps us and future Young Explorers understand the unique value and magic of education through exploration.
Challenge
- Would you help us to celebrate and capture your expedition experience by sharing your memories and photos on our 90th anniversary online bulletin board here (Members can request a password here), where others from your expedition may have contributed. Don’t forget to include your name, expedition and year when you post.
CONTRIBUTION
Many of you have told us that you would like to be able to help and get more involved. Thank you. We know that the time you have and the ways in which you wish to help will differ. Many of you already volunteer as Leaders – without you, we could not run our expeditions – but this is not an option for everyone. You, our community, have a wide range of skills and we are actively looking at ways of creating more volunteering opportunities that could utilise these.
To provide fairer access to expedition opportunities for young people from diverse backgrounds, we would benefit from the support of those who share our belief in the transformative power of challenge and adventure – by raising awareness and funds. Might that be you?
Challenges
- Could you devise a fundraising challenge based around the theme of 90? How many (miles, peaks, sit-ups) or how far in 90 seconds (90 minutes, 90 hours, 90 days) could you and your friends walk (run, skip, cycle)?
- Could you raise or donate £90?
- Could you raise awareness of who we are and what we do with 90 people in your network?
Fundraising Cycle Ride
Ian Maginnis, Chair of Trustees, has challenged himself to a fundraising cycle ride; from the Royal Geographical Society in London, via Newcastle (birthplace of George Murray Levick), to the site of our basecamp in Scotland. He intends to cycle 90 miles per day and hopes to complete the challenge within 7 days. Planning is still in the early stages but we will be sharing news of the challenge and, of course, cheering him on.