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CAIRNGORMS LOCAL OUTDOOR ACCESS FORUM 
Paper 3 – Recruitment and membership Date 
5 May 2009 

CAIRNGORMS LOCAL OUTDOOR ACCESS FORUM 


Title: Recruitment and membership 

Prepared by: Fran Pothecary, Outdoor Access Officer 

Purpose: To update the Forum on current recruitment and changes in 
membership for the year 2009-10 


Advice Sought: 

1. The Forum is asked to note the decision to postpone recruitment for the vacant 
seat(s) until 2010 

Background 

2. The Forum comprises of 21 seats – 5 for land manager interests; 5 for recreational 
user interests; 7 for community interests including all-abilities and 3 for public agency 
representatives who are drawn from the FCS, SNH and Sportscotland. There is also a 
seat for a Board member to provide a link between the Cairngorms National Park 
Board and Forum. The Forum is also supported by a number of attendees including a 
member of the Association of Cairngorms Communities, a member of staff from the 
Paths for All Partnership and as from April 2009 Dougie Baird from the Cairngorms 
Outdoor Access Trust in recognition of the significant links between this organisation 
and the Forum. Current Forum membership with indications of future term is given in 
Paper 3 Appendix 1. Several members of staff from CNPA attend meetings as 
appropriate. 

Changes in membership and external observers 

3. This year we are saying goodbye to Jo Durno and Fred Gordon to whom we extend 
heartfelt thanks for their contribution over the years. 

4. Following the recruitment in 2008, we had 3 reserves – two of whom (Andrew Dunn 
and Juliet Allam) we offered places to on the Forum during the past year when 
vacancies became available, and who accepted. We are in the process of offering Jo’s 
vacant seat to the third reserve, who would represent land management interests. If 
this reserve should accept, that leaves us with a single community seat to fill. 

5. We also welcome Bob Kinnaird as a Forum member who has taken over from Tim 
Walker at the helm of Glenmore Lodge. Bob will perform a double role in that as well 
as representing Sportscotland, as a Board member he will provide the link between 
the Board and Forum, previously done by Nonie. This has been agreed between the 
Park Authority staff and Board. 

6. Bell Macaulay of the Association of Cairngorms Communities has stepped down and 
we welcome Joyce Simpson from Grantown who will attend future meetings. Joyce 


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will be familiar to many as a previous member of the National Park Authority Board. In 
addition she was a member of the Access Working Group which helped to establish 
the Forum in 2004-05. 

Future Recruitment 

7. The three rounds of recruitment to date in the life of the Forum, have been 
comprehensive and involved a widespread publicity campaign resulting in a good 
number of strong applications. It is always disappointing to have to turn people down 
and manage the expectations of people who are in effect volunteering to do a job. 
With this in mind, and given that we are only looking for one new member of the 
Forum at present (possibly two), we are minded to delay the recruitment until next 
February/March (in time for April 2010) when we have indications that other current 
Forum members will be on the move. Such a delay will mean more places will be 
available thus justifying a full recruitment drive including the associated expenses of 
advertising and press releases. 



Fran Pothecary 
Outdoor Access Officer 
01479 870533 

franpothecary@cairngorms.co.uk