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To make a sound selection, it is obviously desirable that most Committee members should have actually done the Pattern Walks, and some at least should be familiar with the trips to be marked as tests. However, of the three pattern day walks, one has been led only once in the past ten years, and another has never been conducted - the route is rather illogical. Some of the week-end test walks on the various walks programmes have not appeared previously, and others are patently exploratory trips. Their choice is probably due to the fact that a few Committee members know the area concerned in a general way, although they may have only a sketchy idea of the details of the scheduled trip.
There is, too, an understandable tendency to think of the Pattern Walks as a minimum standard, whereas the Constitution actually says test walks shall be “approximately equivalent” to the pattern trips.
In the circumstances, perhaps it is rather remarkable that so many of the walks marked as tests have been so shrewdly chosen. There can be no doubt, however, that others have been far beyond the reasonable physical capacity of a relatively inexperienced prospective member.