Volunteers - stondin Hwb - Eisteddfod Sir Gâr

I went today and I must agree that Maes D was very disappointing. There was no attempt to meet and greet people and there were virtually no people wandering around inside or outside talking to people. Where was the Hwb stand and where were the people from SSiW, just a banner. Only the people from Cymraeg i Oedolion from the local area showed any enthusiasm. The people from Nant Gwrtheryn May as we’ll not have bothered to be there for all the enthusiasm they showed. There were some competitions but there was no one around to discuss them.
A totally useless stand for promoting the learning of Welsh and to encourage people to start learning.

That’s interesting. It sounds like Maes D didn’t have the staff of Eisteddfod-run Maes-D volunteer greeters in special T-shirts that I’ve come to expect?

Really sorry to read the comment about the nant gwrtheyrn stand. I’ve been there three times now and have been taught by all their tutors. I can’t praise their enthusiasm and commitment enough. Perhaps the staff on the stand were having an off day / week, but don’t let that put you off the courses they offer.

I was not criticizing Nant Gwrtheyrn but the fact that the people on the stand showed very little enthusiasm in Maes D.
I can only think back to when I helped on Maes D at the Ebbw Vale Eisteddfod and Maes D was a hive of activity throughout the two days I was at that Eisteddfod. I still have the Maes D T-shirt. Every one wore one and you knew who was there to help you.
It is sad that the Eisteddfod this year missed the chance to encourage and help complete beginners and learners at all levels.
I am sure that things will be very different at the Sir Fynwy Eisteddfod in 2016 as Coleg Gwent will be involved.

“sure that things will be very different at the Sir Fynwy Eisteddfod in 2016 as Coleg Gwent will be involved.”

Really excited for that when it arrives. The coleg does a great job with its welsh courses ( as does Nant)
Shame to hear about Maes D. I hope people were not put off. My brother, sister and in-laws were all there this week and said it was bril! Great location too!

It was my first time at the Eisteddfod this year and I was quite interested to have a look in Maes D. I have to say that I agree with previous comments, When I was there the purple hub sofa was empty (at least I assume it was their sofa ) and there was nobody standing by the small rather solitary say something in Welsh poster.
Oh well it didn’t spoil my enjoyment there were plenty of other people to speak to!

It was my first Eisteddfod since I was- a little while ago now!! I must say I enjoyed every minute of the day last Thursday and am already thinking of the best next year. I couldn’t fault the organisation as a whole and was pleasantly surprised at the smart and very clean loos.
HOWEVER, my main reason for going on Thursday was to see Dafydd Iwan for the first time, as I must be one of his biggest fans, but I was both disappointed and quite honestly horrified at the bad manners of quite a few of the audience who were chatting while Dafydd was singing!!! Also those who were late turning up (Why?) simply walked in in the middle of his songs and in addition moved another two rows of chairs in front of Dafydd. I only hope there weren’t any “Non Welsh” people there to experience such a show of bad manners.

I volunteered for the first time as a Maes D ‘helper’ this year and I have to say I agree with some of the comments above. We were not given anything to identify us as volunteers, apart from a little badge to wear which wasn’t obvious. They came in different colours and on the first day I was handed a yellow one. Another person was given an orange one. Her task was to be ‘generally helpful’ inside Maes D and mine was to serve tea and coffee, so I assumed the colours related to the tasks. Only when I went on the second day did I find out that in fact they related to ability to speak Welsh and I’d been given a beginner’s badge as the person handing them out had made no attempt to find out what level of Welsh I had. It didn’t actually matter though as there was no way for anyone visiting the Maes to know what they meant.
The only successful part in terms of volunteers was the tea and coffee which was generally quite busy, but there was no coordination in terms of anything else. At one stage when I saw there was a circus skills session about to start and virtually no one there to take part, I took it upon myself to go outside and approach people walking by with children asking if they would be interested and I got a few takers in like that, but there was no one assigned to be outside Maes D welcoming people in and looking out for non-Welsh speakers like there have been previous years. I was discussing with another SSiWer that there needed to be something near the entrance, not just pointing to Maes D, but introducing it to learners, encouraging them to go there as their first stop and then having people there ready to greet them.

I also agree about the apathy of the people on the Nant Gwrtheyrn stand. Unfortunately they just seemed to sit there, not smiling or looking interested in anything, and appeared very unapproachable. I think it was just a case of particular personalities not really being suited for the task.

The issues with the Hwb/SSiW stand were caused by a couple of things. Firstly, the Fflic crew that made Hwb didn’t know what new series they would be promoting at the Eisteddfod at the time when they were planning the stand so they just went with a series they knew was on, but it wasn’t really related to Hwb. We didn’t know that, so when we arrived we were surprised to see no Hwb like previous years, but just recognised a couple of people from Fflic plus the purple sofas. Secondly, up until very late in the picture we didn’t actually know we were going to be sharing a stand so there was no time to organise the band of SSiW volunteers that we usually have to cover all the time slots. A couple of people that had been on bootcamp the week before were available to be at the stand some of the time, and others spent a bit of time there too, but it wasn’t a central gathering place of SSiWers like it has been previous years.

So sorry to those that were disappointed. It was just an unfortunate combination of circumstances, but I’m glad to hear that you made it to the Eisteddfod and were able to use your Welsh!

Thanks for that, Dee!
Perhaps it would be an idea for people to contact those in charge of Maes D and let them know; offer suggestions on how to make it more attractive. Previously I remember helpers having t-shirts that were highly visible…
Your comment about the Nant Gwrtheyrn stand echoed my observation the previous couple of years.

I didn’t go into Maes D this year, but I think it’s very much up to people who are learning to offer suggestions as to how MaesD can work better for people who are learning. The National Eisteddfod is run for the most part by people who have been speaking Welsh since sitting in their parents laps as babies and MaesD is organised by the National Eisteddfod with input from commercial organisations and educational institutions all of whom may be (albeit unwittingly) looking through the wrong end of the telescope as far as learners’ needs and wants are concerned. So it’s up to you lot to make your voices heard!

One issue is that the scope of Maes D is very wide, from trying to attract those who may be thinking of learning but don’t know how or even if to start, to trying to give a nudge to already-fluent learners to leave the comfort zone of learnerdom and go out and enjoy the wider Welsh world.

What can Maes D do to help? I must confess that I have no idea, as I was saying to our own SJ when I bumped into her at Caffi Maes B, though one thing that might work would be some kind of ‘speed date’ event where people are encouraged to sit down with a stranger and just malu awyr for a fixed few minutes. This could go on all day as people come and go, as long as you’ve got a steady critical mass of victims and volunteers. And the fixed time limit gets you comfortably out of those embarrassing “I’m not enjoying this, but I really don’t know how to stop it” moments.

There you go, that’s one idea to take to them - you don’t even need to give me credit :wink:

I agree with your comments Rob, and to be fair, part of the remit for those on ‘general’ duties in Maes D was to chat with learners that came in. On the Sunday morning when that was my task I did manage to circulate about and greet people that came in, chatting with them about their learning, especially if I heard people speaking English to each other, but the lack of an identifying t-shirt meant it wasn’t obvious to anyone that I was part of the Maes D team that day. I will definitely write a summary of my experiences and suggestions and send them to the organiser for next year’s Maes D, so if others have ideas and post them here, I’ll add them to my letter.

Have to agree on the Maes D front. Chilly this year compared to previous. One lady in particular who appeared to be some level of “in charge” (or believe herself to be anyway) cut me off very brusquely (in English) when I tried to order a last minute coffee at around four o’clock - the poor volunteer who was about to pour me out a cup from the newly boiled kettle looked every bit as taken aback as I was.

Mind you a few others got served after I gave up and walked away so she must have turned her back!

The people on the local Welsh for adults stand were good though, giving me plenty of stuff for my bilingual board at work.

Previous years have had very loud keen volunteers shouting out the next event and generally encouraging people in to see the competitions and things which was a bit missing this year.

Basically Maes D just wasn’t reflective of the very warm and inclusive Welsh language community that makes up much of the rest of Eisteddfod.

Another thing that doesn’t help but is part of the physical setup and has been for years is that the layout of the tents means Maes D is a bit of a thoroughfare to the exhibition tent and CyngorLlyfrau stand so passers by are as likely to be first language speakers taking a shortcut as they are to be learners.

As I haven’t been to the Eisteddfod for over 50 years I didn’t have anything to compare Maes D with, but Judy and I spent over two hours at different times of the day - Judy wearing the SSiW tee shirt and nobody approached us at all even though we met with one learner who was mostly having to speak English.
The one great thing apart from “Dafydd” was watching the interview with Joella - she was absolutely brilliant especially answering questions from the audience - what an inspiration to us all.

Leia: Another thing that doesn’t help but is part of the physical setup and has been for years is that the layout of the tents means Maes D is a bit of a thoroughfare to the exhibition tent and CyngorLlyfrau stand so passers by are as likely to be first language speakers taking a shortcut as they are to be learners.

Looks like an opportunity to put a “How to help learners and why it’s so important” stand/display right in the faces of people coming out of the exhibition hall and into Maes D, making it impossible to miss and ignore.

Syniadau da!!!
On the three years I helped out on the SSIW stand it was noticeable - to me at least - how we seemed to engage a lot of passers by just by saying, Hi! or Bore da…and not waiting for them to come to us.
Not all the stands do that. I remember the “Nant” stand thinking: “I could drum you up some business…Your missing an opportunity.”

I was at the Eisteddfod from Sunday to Friday, but I didn’t spend a lot of time in Maes D. I walked through serveral times a day to see if any friends and SSiWers were about, but most of the time Maes D was either half-empty or busy with people over a certain age enjoying a panad.

I had a panad in Maes D myself on Monday and Tuesday as it was the only place open at 9.00am offering reasonably priced refreshments and used the opportunity to peruse the Eisteddfod App for events etc but none of the Maes D volunteers came over to speak to me, but the Merched y Wawr volunteers did. I had lots of ‘Dal Ati’ a ‘Paid a bod ofn yn defnyddio dy Gymraeg’ after I explained in Welsh that I had learned Welsh.

There was no welcome on the door as in previous years. The ‘welcomers’ were sat behind a table of leaflets to the side of the door. There always seemed to be very little going on. I was told by a friend that was volunteering in Maes D that it was very busy on Thursday and Friday at times, but when I was there, there was nothing much going on and the atmosphere was very flat. I did go to the launch for the new S4C learners’ service, but that was mainly attended by tutors and media people, not learners.
Maes D has its place at the Eisteddfod, but as others have said its purpose needs to be reviewed. If I had walked into Maes D this year as a new learner I think I would have had a panad and then walked straight back out again.

dinas: On the three years I helped out on the SSIW stand it was noticeable - to me at least - how we seemed to engage a lot of passers by just by saying, Hi! or Bore da…and not waiting for them to come to us.

I’m with you. One of the main reasons why the SSIW stand was lively in 2011 and 2012 was that we reached out to talk to people rather than waiting for them to talk to us. Both times the Nant table was noticeably quiet (despite its beautiful big picture of the Nant) because the people just sat behind it waiting for ‘customers.’

Just for the record, it was pretty lively last year as well, we had a great time at the combined Hwb and SSiW sofa. Pity it was quieter this year.

My experience in 2012 and 13 was very good with lots of contact. I agree with Diane that you have to reach out to the prospective punters. Passivity is pretty ineffective … and boring.

I raised the question on the old forum about the cost-effectiveness of a formal SSiW presence at the Eisteddfodau and got the answer that it was the opposite of cost-effective and in these hard times, I accept that hard-nosed decisions have sadly to be taken.

No reason why SSiWers shouldn’t continue to gather and enjoy our shared achievements and company, though.