Vacancy - Volunteer TVTA Chair Person

The Tweed Valley Trails Association (TVTA) is currently looking for a new volunteer Chairperson to help continue the success and steer the organisation forward. 

The TVTA was set up to formalise and better maintain the trail network across the Tweed Valley. In a short space of time it took on the inspection and management of many of the most popular bike trails at the infamous Golfie near Innerleithen. The charity was set up to focus on maintaining and improving mountain bike trails, but also works on paths for all users to enjoy across the Tweed Valley area.

The charity’s board are excited to advertise the role of chairperson to lead the charity; the board are all volunteers and they are looking for an experienced figurehead for the charity to lead and join them. The Chair will help the group realise more of its ambitions, with a focus on better working with local landowners to help them adopt more trails and help more landowners realise the benefits of the group managing trails on their land. However they certainly don’t need to be expert trail builders nor have to get their hands dirty, if they don’t want to! They just need to bring the right skills, enthusiasm and be willing to commit a few hours a month to support the group grow and achieve its ambitions for the community it represents.

The Tweed Valley Trails Association currently has over 300 members who donate to the charity to help support its aims and ambitions. Without support from so many volunteers, companies and individual donations, the group just couldn’t deliver the work it does. Whether this is on public dig days or the less glamorous admin behind the scenes to improve the trail network.

While the group has had a lot of success, it also has faced challenges as it looks to grow and adopt more trails across the area. These challenges continue to drive trail builders to continue to build and seek forgiveness rather than attempt to secure formal approval from land managers as the TVTA was set up to do.  With so many local businesses now reliant on the community trail network that TVTA help manage, it is as important as ever to ensure more trails can be secured for the future to keep the Tweed Valley as the best place to ride mountain bikes in the UK. 

In 2023 the TVTA  is also launching its new Trail Committee, a new group set up to help plan and prioritise the trail network for the next few years. This will help all those who access the forest to come together and deliver in a single voice what they want to see developed and hopefully get results. It is hoped the new Chair can play a key role in helping this group kick start more great projects and further improve the network of trails. Anyone interested in joining the Trail Committee at the TVTA should get in touch directly via the groups website. 

Current TVTA Board member and ex-professional mountain biker Ruaridh Cunnigham said “The TVTA has recently worked hard to consolidate its role in managing the trail network and has delivered some exciting projects already and we’re busy planning more for 2023. The charity is in a great position but we want to do more and grow our reach. We are excited to find a new Chair who can really help us deliver the next stage in growing and sustaining the trails we all love to ride.”

The TVTA would love to speak to interested parties; please contact us via [email protected] and we’ll be delighted to send more information and set up the opportunity to discuss this further.