GLASS

[mcupis]

Out of interest, who here is a member of GLASS (Green Lane Association) or is aware of their activities?

[mkeating]

Hi
I have contacts.

Martin

[mcupis]

I'm a marketing consultant and GLASS has just become a client. Helping to promote them, up their membership and make sure their argument gets heard more clearly.

[mkeating]

Hi
As a Landie owner you are a member ?
Whats you'r own personal experiance of ROW issues? As a member where do you see GLASS in the future management of our countryside?

What publications have you written for?


Martin

[mkeating]

Hi Malcolm
EMAILED both Dale and Martin just to get the SP.

So GLASS have recruited you. You will not need the brains of an Archbishop to work out where their problems lay.
In the mean time have you got more recent Photos of Gloria?
Picked up on the gearbox problems you had,I had much the same, recon gearbox the cheaper solution.
Questions above still stand as GLASS will need to prove their worth to me
before I give them any of my money.
Malcolm I will help you all I can on LANE issues but I'm not going to bang the GLASS DRUM just yet.

Safe lanes
martin

[mcupis]

Thanks for this Martin. A couple of points. First of all, I have volunteered to represent GLASS free of charge for a period of time. I'm doing this because I care. I'm registered disabled. I can't walk far. In fact I'm about to have an op to permanently fuse my ankle that's going to leave me in plaster for six months. I grew up on a farm in the Mendips and have been travelling on byways in this area and North East Somerset since I was tiny. Many of these byways have now been made restricted. This includes one that leads to a hill on which my mother's ashes are scattered. I have no other way of getting there.

I'm a former journalist, editor and senior consultant with each of the world's two largest PR companies. I know what I'm doing and I'm very, very passionate indeed about rights of way issues and about military Land Rovers. I am happy to be completely transparent, I'm not a bullshit merchant, I'm doing this for exclusively positive reasons and, yes, my objective is to get GLASS heard more clearly and more often.

[mkeating]

HI MALCOLM
Thanks for the reply You might want to take a look at you'r web site as you descibe you'r self as enjoying long distance walks.
To anyone hard nosed (I'm talking TRF) that reads only one thing =
RAMBLER
Please take the time to read all my GREEN LANE posts, it would be most helpful if you could bring some GLASS concerns to this table, but I hear their forum is very quiet.
I have spoken to Martin (who I see as your Boss).
We are much closer than you think As I tried to run something past GLASS EXC regarding disabled servicemen, Fell on deaf ears, maybe you can raise their profile on Lane use and Their only means of countryside access.
My aim is for you to be doing it for free AFTER the trail period, as being a Landie owner you go that extra mile.

Malcolm we need the Pics Mate

regards
Martin

[mkeating]

Malcolm
I think in all Honesty your first Task on this Forum is to look into 13 AY 57 problems.
He has on a Lane near his Property (a land owner) which gets abused by the local mud club by the sound of it.
Also understand that you are not a GLASS member yet.
Being a member might just help when preaching the message

Could you.
1 PM 13AY57 find out the Lane of concern (not a million miles from you.)
2 Get the GLASS EXC & local rep on the case. Else we might lose this lane due to idiots.

thanks
Martin

Ps
Just been informed that you are getting membership, (after my prompt)
Have your ears have been burning?

[mcupis]

Good grief Martin, I have to say that if you are going to damn everybody who enjoys walking in the countryside as a potential militant rambling facist, until proven otherwise, you are going to do far more harm than good to the cause.

Yes, I enjoy walking in the countryside, or at least, I did until my leg fell apart. I enjoy being in the countryside full stop. I grew up on a dairy farm in the middle of nowhere. I support the rights of anybody to legally enjoy the countryside, so long as they do not seek to diminish the rights of others.

One thing I'm very aware of is the damage done to the rights of legal motor vehicle users by the sadly growing number of inconsiderate and wilfully lawless. The idiots are ruining/have ruined our past-time and we have been homogenised with them, even though there are far more careful, considerate and lawful users than there are idiots.

I think one of the most important roles for GLASS is to seek to reach out to walkers, horse riders and cyclists, to damn the activities of the illegal and repair the damage unfairly done to our own reputation. At the moment there is a widescale public perception that we are all a bunch of idiots and therefore deserve everything we get. This must change.

What some proponents of our past-time are doing is the exact corollary of this. In the same way that we not all a bunch of inconsiderate, unlawful idiots, not all hikers are hateful zealots. If we are going to change their perception of us, we need to change our perception of them.

I'm happy to raise any specific issues with people at GLASS, but I am not here to do their work for them. My job is to raise their profile and get them heard. One of the most key components of this is to attract more members, because the more people they represent, the moreinfluence they carry.

If you, or any members here, have any specific views on GLASS, positive or negative, I want to hear them, because I need to know where we are starting from before I can plot a path to where we need to go, and that is why I made this post in the first place.

[mkeating]

Malcolm
Email and PM set (Later as requested)
An intresting reaction, but I guess you have your client to protect.
Before you shoot at me from the hip you really should read all my posts.
Please READ Stonehenge and CHUT you may not find much on the GLASS forum on both, but for sure you will find them both on the TBM forum. You will find plenty of reaching out there!
I left GLASS as they chose to run away from the conflict. At £40 PA I expect them to stand and fight
GLASS needs to win over the likes of 13AY57 its his back yard that is getting torn up. He is the victim in all this, are you saying GLASS does not care? You are the GLASS rep on this forum I aked you to pass on my concerns. Believe it or Not I am (as stated in your PM) passionate about the Lanes.
So it follows that 13AY57s concerns ARE my concerns.

The Email I sent reflects the issue of you being a Landrover owner recieving funds after the 3 month fee bee period.
Most here on this forum give up their time free to follow there passion

As I said in my Email Truth and directness is my method.
The TRF will give you a much harder ride, believe me.
Its a dirty war... not cup cakes at dawn.

Martin

[mkeating]

So Malcolm
you can see the confusion I am in

You being a keen Green laner and intrested in ROW issues, whilst also being PAID to sing the praises of GLASS.
When you speak I will not know which side is speaking.

Your heart or
Your bank balance.

regards
MARTIN

[mcupis]

I have no agreement with GLASS beyond three months. They have approached me asking me to help them and I have offered to initially help them for three months for nothing. I sell my time. I can't sell my time twice. Time I have chosen to give away to GLASS is time I cannot sell to somebody else. I have a mortgsge to pay and a family to feed, but have significantly reduced my earning potential for the next three months. I can't begin to understand what you are so angry about, but quite honestly it feels pretty insulting.

Can we go back to the original question please? I have a job to do and I want to do it well. I need to understand who is aware of GLASS (and of Treadlightly), wht your perceptions are of them, whether you are a member or not, if not, why not and what it would take for you to become a member.

[mkeating]

Thought I made my experiance of GLASS quite clear.
The question you might ask is WHY is TRF doing so well whilst GLASS are shatter'd.
Might it be the way the two conduct business.
TFR regional groups very strong bond. When they encounter problems call on the rest of the Federation for help. They have a publication in support (TRAIL Bike.) This in turn has a forum FREE
compare GLASS
Regional Groups who do not support fellow members.
Exc consider'd as Elite aloof and out of touch with Grass roots,
CLOSED Forum members only.
Sounds like a dictatorship...don't you think

Sorry If you feel insulted, but I had to find out where your soul was.
Its only Business (not personal)

TL is another thing all together. You do not need to sell me that
As I do have the TEE shirt

Are you aware of CRAG ? and how it came about There are only a couple of us. Great fun though (all EX GLASS members) I tell you Malcolm I would trust my life with those Guys

Its a pity that you have not picked up on my concern for disabled access to the country side.Where is GLASS on this issue

Malcolm
Please take the trouble to research why GLASS is in the Mess it is in Go back to the way they misread the situation when NERC first raised its head...They got sold out by an MP.

Be aware also that the TRF fall back position in any TRO action is to sell the option of excluding 4x4 from Byways They have played this card a number of times whilst GLASS Exc look on
but hey It is ONLY business

Good luck with the Ankle
Martin

[mkeating]

Malcolm
EMAILED the TL guys as all three are long standing contacts in their own right. AND friends.
TL is not a problem promotion reqd for sure, but in John ( Also GLASS Exc Magazine Editor) you have a VERY clever IT GUY.TL going FACE BOOK is really where it needs to be.
Martin 4x4 is also new blood on the Glass Exc, but untill 'the preception'of GLASS changes from being ''you don't need to know that''to being open to all you have a problem. (a free forum would help there).

The only time GLASS extended their hand to me was to ask for money.
That needs to change.

GLASS is a political animal, but once again MY GLASS experiance is that is being that of sold out.

My Daughter (24) Drives a Landie. ( Currently teaching her to ride a Motor Cycle,)
Sell her GLASS rather than TRF if you can.
You can use my Email address for the exercise.
Now this is a GREEN LANE thread so how about some in put from GLASS on it?

Martin

[Mike O'Connor]

GLASS certainly has problems and in the past was of very little help when Northants people were battling to try and preserve what we had. In addition to that there subs were more than any other clubs that a whole load of us belonged to. At the time there map system was so distrous half the time it wouldn't let a number of us paid up members in. I think something like 85% of local members left.

The local group still meets where it did before but there's only one GLASS member. Other organisations were available and preferred as more proactive.