Information for Walk Leaders

Below is information for folks planning to submit a walk for Jane's Walk Ottawa-Gatineau 2022. It includes general information on the May walk festival, along with more specific information on how to submit a walk. The sections below will cover:

2022 dates and contact information for the Jane’s Walk organizers
How to register:
On-line (new walk)
On-line, previous walk short-cut
Off-line, by filling in our registration form
Providing photo(s) to illustrate your walk listing
2023 Covid-19 precautions & link to the guidelines
Comments welcome on the website or any other aspect of Jane's Walk Ottawa-Gatineau

__________________________________________________

2022 dates and contact information for the Jane’s Walk organizers
How to register:

a. On-line registration, including a new entry: type of walk (in-person, self-guided, virtual)
b. Using the registration short-cut
c. Other ways to register

Providing photo(s) to illustrate your walk listing
2022 Covid-19 precautions & link to the guidelines
Comments welcome on the website or any other aspect of Jane's Walk Ottawa-Gatineau

___________________________________

1. 2022 dates: This year's Jane's Walk will be held on Saturday and Sunday, May 7 & 8.

Registration opens: The on-line registration form will be available starting April 6.

Registration deadline: We'd like to have all registrations submitted by April 15.

2022 contact information:

email (right-click to copy the email address)

website: www.janeswalkottawa.ca

phone: 613 563-4922

Postal address:

Jane's Walk Ottawa-Gatineau

c/o Leigh Thorpe

272 Holmwood Ave.

Ottawa, ON K1S 2P9

If you have questions, want to give feedback, want to discuss your walk idea, or if you just want to touch base, you can reach us by email or by phone.

2. Registration:

On-line registration is open. If you submit a walk but do not hear back from us in a day or two, please give us a poke to make sure your registration was received. A phone number and email and postal addresses are given above.

2a. Details we need to register your walk

Your information: We need your name, email address, phone number, a title for your walk, and a description, including the starting place, the ending place, the route you'll follow, and the main topic or theme that you'll be sharing along the way. You can look at a few walks from previous years if you want some ideas about how to describe your walk (see Past Events under Walks on the website, or look at the examples given near the top of the on-line registration form).

Note that your contact information will not be shown publicly. We will only use your contact information to:

contact you about the walks
if you agree by answering 'yes' to the media question on the registration form), you allow us to share your contact information with reporters, in case they want to contact you directly about your walk. This is helpful to us in promoting the walks, but it is not required that you agree to us sharing your contact information. (Note that reporters have other ways of finding your contact information.)

Double-check that your email address and phone number are entered correctly. Otherwise, we won't be able to contact you to confirm your registration and to share additional information as organizing proceeds.

Walk type. Choose the type of walk you walk to offer. As well as our standard in-person walks, this year we will be accepting submissions of self-guided and virtual walks. There is a new question in the registration form where you will indicate whether your walk is in-person, self-guided, or virtual.

Self-guided walks are walks where the participant physically takes the walk, assisted by text or recorded audio descriptions of the points of interest, possibly accompanied by photos. The walk materials should be either: available to download to mobile devices or suitable to print out so the walkers can bring the description along. Note that the route of a self-guided walk should not require the walkers to venture onto private property that would require permission to enter.

Virtual walks are comprised of video, still images, etc., along with text or audio description, viewed on a computer or mobile device. Virtual walks should be self-contained. The walk description can link to the material on another website or uploaded to Jane's Walk Ottawa-Gatineau.

Choose a day and time: For an in-person walk, you are asked to indicate a time during the weekend that would be convenient for you. Please indicate a preferred day and time when you register. We may ask you to change the time of your walk so that we can accommodate availability of marshals and/or megaphones. You will be consulted about any change to the time or day.

Language: Walks are welcome in English, French, or other languages. Normally, walks are given in (one of) English or French (you do not need to do both). Our new website offers the submission form in both English and French. Please provide the walk description in the language you will use when leading your walk. If you'd like to lead a walk in a language other than French or English, please get in touch so we can talk about how the best way to handle your walk description and publicity.

2a. To register online: Submit a walk Soumettre une promenade

Fill in the form with your contact information, the type of walk you are submitting, your walk description, and other information. For in-person walks, specify a day and time you'd like to hold your walk.

Note: if you are asked to enter your city, it means you have reached the Toronto website. We will not see your registration if you enter it there.

2b. Registration short cut

If you have led a walk in previous years and you want to re-use most or all of the description from that walk, the form can automatically be filled in with the previous information.

How to use the walk recall function:

Click on the blue button, “Autofill a Previous Walk” or “Cliquez Ici.”
A dialog box will open.
Enter your first name, last name, or both, and click “Search.”
A drop-down box will appear. One walk title is shown, which is likely your most recent walk. If this is not the walk you want the system to recall, click on the box to see a drop-down list with all the search results. If you don't see the walk you want, try changing the name entry and click search again. (For example, if you entered 'Bob', but your walk did not show up in the list, you can try searching for 'Robert' instead).
When you find the walk you want to recall, click on that walk in the list, and it will appear in the box. Then click “Select Walk.” The text from last year's registration will be automatically entered into the registration form.
If you decide you don't want to retrieve a walk after all, click “Close” to go back to the form without recalling a walk.

After the computer fills in the entries from last time, read it over and make any changes that are needed to update the details. Please make sure your contact information is current.

2c. Other ways to register:

We use the on-line form for convenience, but we're not trying to exclude people without access to the Internet or a computer. If the on-line form doesn't work for you, you can fill out and return a MS Word form by email or by postal mail. If you need assistance, please email us. We can send you a soft copy or paper registration form and we'll work with you to register your walk.

Once you've submitted your registration, we'll be in touch with you about your walk. We will send a link or walk page image so you can see how your walk will appear, and you will have an opportunity to request changes. We will need to get an approval from you about the final walk description before we publish it to public view. If you've submitted a walk but you haven't heard back from us in a day or two, please give us a poke to make sure your registration was received (email).

3. Photos:

It is helpful to have a photo (or photos) to illustrate each walk. A photo will make your walk listing unique. If you have a suitable digital photo, we'll make arrangements for you to send it when we contact you about your walk. Good choices to illustrate your walk would be a photo of the starting point, a building or a view that will be seen along the walk, a picture of the group from your previous walk, or a picture of an item or artifact that you'll be talking about. We can also include links to your website or other websites of interest.

4. Covid-19 precautions. As noted earlier, for this year we have put a few additional requirements in place with the intention of reducing the risk of covid transmission and helping our participants to feel a bit more comfortable while particiating. First, we're concentrating on outdoor walks this year, as there is less risk of covid contagion out-of-doors. As well, we have a limit on the number of participants for each walk. Participants are instructed to sign up for each walk they wish to attend. We will be providing all walk leaders with amplification, so that people do not have to stand close in to hear.

The non-face-to-face walk options described above will allow everyone to participate in Jane's Walk, regardless of their individual situation.

We've developed a covid-19 protocol and will adapt the recommendations as required by changes in the Ottawa public health recommendations. Walk leaders, marshals, and participants are encouraged to read the guidelines. See our Covid-19 guidelines.

5. Comments on the website. Our new website has been up and running for a few years now, but given the pandemic, we have only really been through one organizing cycle for the Jane's Walk festival (2019). We're still open to input. If you have any suggestions or comments on the site contents or how well it works for you or if you find errors, malfunctions, or out-of-date information, please let us know (email).

Information for Walk Leaders—2022