Doncaster Ramblers

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Minutes of Ramblers Association Doncaster Group

Annual General Meeting – Saturday October 24th 2015

7.00pm Finningley Village Hall

1. Attendance: David Gadd, Pamela Gadd, Peter Gravestock, David Horne, Cynthia Elvidge, Jim Elvidge, Wendy Atkinson, Tony Marsh, Tony Liversidge, Keith Staines, Sandra Staines, Keith Skelton, Dave Binnington, Bob Carlisle, Catherine Palmer, Elaine Holt, Pam Tower, Maureen Forshaw, Ron Forshaw, Kim Binnington, Brian Milne, Julie Milne,Pauline Harvey, David Priest, Sonia Priest, and Martin Wyman.

Area guest: Allen Pestell, Chair.

Apologies: Marion Thompson, Owen Evans, Dennis Neal and Kerry Foreman.

2, Appointment of tellers: Bob Carlisle and Dave Binnington.

3. Approval of minutes of the 2014 AGM: Proposed: Jim Elvidge. Seconded: Keith Staines. Approved by the meeting.

4. Matters arising from the 2014 AGM: There were no matters arising.

5.Chair’s annual report.

David Gadd thanked Peter for his comments at the 2014 AGM when David was away, and read his report.

Thanks for coming.

Our walks programme continues to function very well, with good attendances particularly on the Tuesday walks. The committee’s overall aim as far as the walks programme is concerned is to provide a wide variety of walks - from short to long, easy to strenuous, flat to hilly, local to not local. I believe we have successfully done this during the past twelve months. Jim Elvidge has yet again arranged the short Wednesday evening walks in the summer and the twice-monthly 7-8 mile Thursday walks, organised by Beryl Clarke, have continued, although these will in future be reduced from twice a month to once a month because of the shortage of leaders.

Dave Binnington & Bob Carlisle have successfully continued to find leaders for the Tuesday walks and Trevor Jenkins has done likewise for the Saturday programme. I can remember a time, not too many years ago, when the walks programme would often be printed with tba - to be announced - alongside some dates.

The walk detail information is then passed on to Owen Evans, our Programme Co-ordinator, who pulls everything together prior to sending the details to the printer. Peter Gravestock then arranges distribution of the completed programme. It’s a very slick operation.

One current suggestion being considered by the committee, regarding our walks programme, is to introduce shorter walks on Thursday’s, maybe twice a month. The idea is that these walks would, where possible, follow a strenuous walk on the Tuesday. This past week would have been a good example, with last Tuesday’s strenuous walk in Derbyshire attracting just nine of us. If there had been a 7-8 mile walk on Thursday, maybe some members would have welcomed a 7-8 mile walk later in the week.

The Rights of Way committee, chaired by Wendy Atkinson, continues its excellent work. The committee organises members to monitor the RoW within DMBC every year, and teams of volunteers regularly help the DMBC RoW Dept by cutting vegetation back, erecting way-markers, repairing or replacing stiles, kissing gates, etc.

There are two particular issues that the committee have concerned themselves with in the past year. One, a carry-over from last year’s AGM, has been the occasional examples of poor leadership, with the leader failing to keep the group together and losing touch with the back-marker. The committee sent a letter to all members, pointing out that the leader has a duty of care to the whole party, that a back-marker must be appointed and that leader and back-marker must maintain contact. The committee felt that a letter was the best way of emphasising the importance of the matter, and are pleased to see that the problems seem to have been overcome.

The second issue concerning the committee is an attempt to address the perception, by outsiders, that we walk too quickly. The phrase ‘Racing Ramblers’ has been heard. Obviously the committee would hope that any member hearing such comments would correct the speaker. And in photographs and reports of walks we emphasis the relaxing parts of walking - like coffee breaks, lunches, admiring the scenery, etc.

We continue to support DMBC’s Get Doncaster Walking programme by submitting several walks for each 6-month programme. For a couple of years now GDW walks have attracted fewer walkers than when the programme started, but we continue to support the programme and spread the word about the benefits of walking. A core of us have been submitting walks for several years now, if any other members would like to submit a walk, please speak to Tony Marsh. Walks can be local to your home and usually take place on a Sunday morning.

Ramblers Central Office organised a training day at Doncaster racecourse in May, attended by several of our members.Training was provided on a number of topics, including map reading, leadership, rights of way issues, etc. We also provided some 'in-house training' led by Pete Smith, who gave us an entertaining and extremely useful session on first aid appropriate to the outdoors i.e. if someone needs urgent medical help, there wont be an ambulance there in the next 5 minutes.

The Group has established a new website in the past year. The committee were very aware that the old website needed replacing, but none of the committee felt that we had the IT skills to develop a new website. However, the matter was taken out of our hands when the old provider, Meadowsoft, gave us one year’s notice. I then made contact with a group of Ramblers volunteers who assist Groups to set-up their own website. A couple of months later, our new website became operational.   Special thanks must be given to Martin Wyman for the process of setting it up. Everybody seems to be delighted with it. It is much easier to negotiate the website. Our walks - entered on the central office website by Peter Gravestock - are automatically entered onto our site, together with precise details of starting points as well as the weather forecast. Photographs can also be up-loaded by any member with the password. It is not necessary to have a Flickr account to enter photos, contrary to what I wrote in the current Newsletter. I have written a document to describe the process of up-loading photos onto our website. Anybody who would like to upload photos and needs help to do so, should let me know and I’ll send them the document. Finally, regarding the website, it is worth noting that it has cost the Group nothing. Martin and I obviously did it voluntarily, the men who supported us technically do so voluntarily, and Central Office pay the hosting fee.

I would like to thank everybody who contributes to making the Group successful - the committee who organise what we do, all the leaders, back-markers, etc who make each walk so enjoyable, and to Hilda Levine and her helpers who have worked so hard to make this evening possible.

6. Rights of Way Committee annual report.

Wendy Atkinson read her report.

The Rights of Way group was set up by the Doncaster Ramblers committee at the July meeting 2011. By the AGM that year contact had been established with DMBC, both large and smaller scale maps had been obtained and distributed, and 20 people had joined to walk all the footpaths each within a specific 5 Km grid square.

The following year footpath walking progressed well, with each square having a named person to take responsibility for reporting all paths and any problems found. Ten maintenance sessions were achieved, with each maintenance volunteer listed for insurance with Ramblers headquarters. The PROW committee from DMBC was very appreciative of all the efforts.

By 2013 the maintenance work, helping to fix problems which had been found, were more frequent and therefore the footpath network was in a much better state of repair, 523 footpaths out of a possible 580 were walked and reported on, which was our best year.

By 2014 the number of maintenance volunteers had grown to 30 members, and closer links with personnel at DMBC helped the whole routine of repairing to increase significantly. The group devised and achieved a new roundel to attach to work achieved by the group to help raise the profile of their work. 486 paths were reported on that year

This year people have started walking slightly later in the year, even so by now 417 paths have been walked, and a lot more will be reported on before the end of the year. We have identified that our reporting this year has tended to be more concise, in that some reports only give the problems for named paths and simply say that all the others are satisfactory. Each path needs to be listed with both Parish and number for it to be included in the total walked by Ramblers for DMBC.

Things are running smoothly, with most people walking and reporting their paths to both DMBC and our own RoW group, and some people not able to continue square walking are being replaced by others. We have made, and are making, a significant difference to the footpath network here in DMBC, which enables people to get out and walk, using paths in good order. All this is due to the efforts of a group of volunteers working in close collaboration with the RoW Department at DMBC. If you feel you could spare some time to help in this work please speak with one of our RoW group for more information.

7. Treasurer’s annual report.

David Horne read his report.

The 2014 / 2015 financial year has been another good year for the group. The bank balance remains healthy standing at the end of September 2015 at £887.46. Major contributions to the group’s finances came from a SYNED area credit in July for £510.00 and from the Ramblers Worldwide Holidays Walking Partnership worth £290.00. Income from Walks Programme & Newsletter advertising is up this year due to HF Holidays as well as Ramblers Worldwide Holidays placing an advert twice per year, The other regular advertisers are happy to continue and make a welcome contribution to our funds.

The usual donation to the Edale Mountain Rescue was paid as well as a donation to the Yorkshire Air Ambulance this year courtesy of the Christmas meal raffles. Both organisations received £75. The group paid out £252.00 in January to Metrosigns 2000 for Waymarkers, with the Doncaster Ramblers name on, to be attached to gates & stiles. This expenditure has been reclaimed from SYNED area funds. Financially the group are in very good shape for the next financial year.

Finally my thanks to all committee members for all their hard work during the last financial year. I am happy to stand again as Treasurer for the next financial year.

8. Allen Pestell (Area Guest) address.

Allen said it was a pleasure to see so many people present at an AGM, he knew it was hard to get people involved.

Area Council had written to Ramblers Head Office four years ago to ask how HO saw the role of Area Councils and received a reply that they were ‘working on it’. Then the new ‘Governence’ proposals emerged which proposed a strengthened Area structure lead by a ‘superman’. This was not agreed and fortunately was not accepted generally.

Allen believed that the role of Area is to support Groups. A Questionnaire had been circulated to Groups concerning the Area role and matters of Group development; one response had been interesting – ‘we don’t know what you do but we know you are very busy doing it’.

Area is changing. A sub-group of 3 people, Allen himself, David Gadd as Area Secretary, and Cath MacKay, a previous Chair of Ramblers, had been established to develop a way forward.

Allen concluded by asking members to attend Area meetings whenever they could.

David Gadd added that it was Doncaster’s turn to host the 2016 Area AGM, which would be in Tickhill, at the Methodist Hall.

9. Election of officers:

10. Any Other Business.

1. David Gadd revisited our support for Get Doncaster Walking, which is a twice yearly programme of walks run by DMBC. The group submits five or six walks managed by Tony Marsh who requires more volunteers. Tony said that himself, David Gadd and Wendy Atkinson are regular contributors but he needs more volunteers. Tony Liversidge and Dave Binnington agreed to lead walks.
2. Martin Wyman said that he had been approached by two Health Walks, Selby and Norton. Macmillan and Ramblers now provide an umbrella organisation for Health Walks and Ramblers provide the Insurance. Health Groups have been informed they must comply to certain rules, including walking for no more than 90 minutes, which has caused a problem for groups that have progressed. The latter are looking at their options, including joining Ramblers walks. David Gadd said this should be discussed at the next Committee meeting.

 11. Tribute to Catherine Palmer.

Special thanks must be given to Catherine Palmer, who is standing down after 10 years in the role of Membership Secretary. The Membership Secretary is often the first point of contact new members have with the Group and Catherine always makes them welcome and ensures they understand the walks available. She has also provided an email distribution service for the Group that enables all members with a registered email address to be contacted; this has proved very valuable in urgent situations.  

The business part of the meeting closed at 19:55 and was followed by an excellent buffet and a magnificent magician.