We have been working on the FSA business plan over the past couple of months. This has meant taking a close look at ourselves. As you know, we are you and you are us. But do we really know who we are? Well, the following statistics and figures taken from our membership database are quite interesting and so we thought that we would share them. There is some overlap between different categories and some bits were done at slightly different times so please don’t expect the different sections to add up exactly.
How well does our membership reflect and represent the Forest School community across the UK? Members’ thoughts or observations are welcome – please use the comments section below. For example, do we have many members in the South West and Eastern parts of England because we have three FSA affiliated local groups forming in those regions? Or perhaps we have three local groups forming in those regions because that is where we have lots of members?
General
Total members at time of analysis – 790
Full members – 570
Trainee members – 220 (referred to the FSA by 16 different trainers)
64% of members have a Forest School qualification
23% of members are working towards a Forest School qualification
13% of members have no Forest School qualification
Qualifications held by members
Level 1 – 15 Members
Level 2 – 16 Members
Level 3 – 432 Members
Stated None – 103 Members
Trainee – 182 Members
Trainer – 42 Members
Main role in relation to Forest School
Assistant – 80 Members
Family or Friend – 1 Member
Higher Education – 10
Landowner – 3 Members
Leader – 523 Members
Learner – 55 Members
Other Educator – 38 Members
Strategic position – 28 Members
Trainer – 52 Members
Where are our members from?
All Ireland
Ireland – 11 Members
Scotland
Scotland – 42 Members
Wales
Wales – 12 Members
England
East Midlands – 36 Members
Eastern – 153 Members
London – 24 Members
North East – 20 Members
North West – 68 Members
South East – 169 Members
South West – 126 Members
West Midlands – 80 Members
Yorkshire and Humber – 51 Members
I agree with Deb – organisational membership would be good.
A small question – I am a landowner, Leader and am in a Strategic Position ( I own and run my own site and am freelance) – which category did I come under? I can’t remember if there was an option to tick more than one box?
We ask you to choose the main role relevant to FS. I appreciate that it may be a bit of a grey area if you have multiple roles. I am open to correction, and it really does come down to personal views, which is why we ask you, but I imagine that, all else being equal, Leader trumps Land Owner in this sense – the logic being that a Leader is actually delivering FS while a Land Owner is facilitating the delivery. Similarly, if your strategic position comes about because you are a business owner managing a site and your own practice then I would probably tick Leader but it really is up to you. The strategic role was added so that managers, who are not practitioners, had something to tick … people like me. Please don’t ask me to choose between Strategic and Land Owner. Hopefully that combination will not come up too often … que the feedback from all the Strategic Land Owners.
I guess there are probably not that many landowner/strategic/leaders lol.
Thanks for the quick and very clear response – I was just curious. I think I said I was a Leader ( but tbh can’t recall)
Another interesting question is how many are independent or work in schools? Many who work as a TA for schools and also deliver fs may feel their employer should pay their membership. At our FSA SW meeting there was a real interest in organizational membership.
What is the difference between a school paying the membership fees for the staff and the school paying membership fees to become a member themselves? Can you explain? Presumably if they are willing to pay for one then they are willing to pay for the other? Organisational membership has been discussed by the board but not yet resolved. I have a personal concern that schools may have a perception that by paying for membership of the FSA they are somehow getting ‘badged’ as a ‘Forest School’. Only yesterday I was approached by a school asking how, ‘now that one of its staff had qualified as a FS leader and it had become a Forest School’, it could use the FSA logo. I had to explain to the marketing manager, who had asked the question, that Forest School was an ethos being practiced by their staff and not a badge that had been earned by the school. Having said all that – there may well be ways to make organisational membership work.
I think schools are often reluctant to pay membership for individuals, as they can’t see what they, as a school will get out of it. This also applies to people working for other organizations. Whereas freelance practitioners are joining because they really want/need to be part of something bigger. So there is a likilihood that FSA will mostly comprise freelance practitioners.
Agree with Gareth. We (FSA Essex) have recently had a school explain that they will pay the lower fee for an Outdoor FA course we are running as they have ‘FSA membership’ when in reality it is one (different) member of staff who is a member. In our old FEI cluster group days we had group or corporate membership which enabled anyone from that school to have access to courses or events at member prices but we most definitely didn’t badge the school as many of those attending would be untrained and starting a FS journey. Before I was keen on the school membership but I am beginning to move away from it; what we need is committed (probably mainly trained or training) individuals to join. I think local groups can chose to encourage non members to come to events with the enticement of £25 off if they are members; that’s what we now do on local courses and will do (as FSA did last Oct) for the national conference. Schools that want people to attend will then see the financial benefit of more than one member of staff becoming a member. Incidentally we offered money back last year on people attending conference/ courses if they became a member within say a month and we had some takers.