IWA: A Time For Change?

Five years ago he was a new recruit to canal restoration volunteering. Now he’s the new Chairman of The Inland Waterways Association, with some ideas about how it needs to change for the future. We meet Paul Rodgers

“I’m quite change-minded” says Paul Rodgers, the newly elected national Chairman of the Inland Waterways Association. He’s talking about the future direction of the Association and its campaigning for the inland waterways, but it applies equally to his own arrival on the scene.

Following a series of national chairmen who have already been retired before they took on the top IWA job, Paul is the first in a while to still be in paid employment. He’s also the first to be younger than the author of this article! While many would see benefits in appointing somebody with a younger perspective, there are also the practicalities. Recent chairs have found the role to be a full-time job in its own right; Paul says he will be very reliant on his three deputy chairmen – Rick Barnes, Chris Howes and Dave Chapman – who will at times be called on to do their job and deputise for him.

But that’s not all that he’ll be relying on them for. In another departure from recent years (indeed, recent decades) Paul isn’t a lifelong waterways enthusiast with a lifetime of canal boating experience under his belt. In fact he arrived on the scene just five years ago, when his wife bought him a week’s Waterway Recovery Group volunteer canal camp for a present.