Doncaster Ramblers

Minutes of Ramblers Association Doncaster Group

Annual General Meeting – Thursday November 1^st 2018

7.00pm Wheatley Working Men’s Club

Attendance: David Gadd, , David Horne, Cynthia Elvidge, Jim Elvidge, Peter Rowsell, Sue Robertson, Steve Robertson, Dennis Neale and Martin Wyman.

Apologies: Tony Marsh, Peter Gravestock, Bob Carlisle, Catherine Palmer, Tony Liversidge, Dave Binnington, Steve Saddington and Norman Lewis.

1. Approval of minutes of the 2017 AGM: Proposed: David Gadd. Seconded: Jim Elvidge. Approved by the meeting.

2. Matters arising from the 2017 AGM: There were no matters arising.

3. Chair’s annual report.

From David Gadd

The highlight of the year has undoubtedly been the walking festival we held between 26th May and 3rd June. We organised a total of 27 walks, primarily to encourage non-walkers to walk, but also to attract new members to Doncaster Ramblers. We were delighted to be able to offer this huge number of walks in the nine-day period over a school holiday, in the hope that families may also be attracted to what was on offer. Volunteer leaders were numerous and enthusiastic about the event and came up with some really interesting walks – some with a specific theme. Themes included bee and tree recognition walks, map-reading walks and several history walks. We tried to cover as many areas of the town as possible and included local nature reserves who welcomed us at no charge. Whilst most walks were significantly shorter than our normal walks we did preserve our normal programme with three longer walks in the 9-day period, including walking the Heron Way in two stages.

A very early decision was to concentrate our efforts on the population of Doncaster and not to promote the walks externally. We contacted DMBC, who were delighted to assist us and produced and distributed the festival programme widely, 5,000 copies of which were printed.

There was a real buzz during the nine days of the festival and to our delight there were no notable problems. Walk leaders were well supported by other members of Doncaster Ramblers who enjoyed the walks, alongside members of the public. The weather was fairly kind to us, with only a couple of damp walks during the week. All in all, 315 people enjoyed a festival walk, split about evenly between members and the general public. Around 150 miles of footpaths were walked in total. Although the festival took place during school holidays we were disappointed not to attract many parents and their children. And although we didn’t attract many people completely new to walking, we did attract a number of occasional walkers, some of whom have become Ramblers. On the final walk, on Hatfield Moors, we were joined by local MP Caroline Flint.

To organise the festival we established a sub-committee of five members, consisting of Bob Carlisle, Dave Binnington, Peter Rowsell, Tony Liversidge and myself. All of this committee made a good contribution but the lion’s share of the work was undoubtedly carried out by Bob and Dave, to whom many thanks.

The second major initiative introduced this year was to provide walks for Doncaster carers and their cared-for people. These walks are externally funded. The carers are picked up by coach from the carers’ centre on Bennetthorpe, and lunch is provided after the walks. Two walks are offered, a ‘long’ walk of 3-5 miles and a short walk of a mile or so. Some people do not walk at all but enjoy the company of friends on the day out. There’s a growing awareness of how important carers are for the often unpaid work that they do.

Our first carers walk was based at Cusworth Hall and a 5-mile walk was provided. However this was definitely too long for some people. For the second walk, based at Chatsworth House, the carers and cared for people had a better idea of their ability and the people who came on the long walk of about 3 miles walkers were all easily able to cope. Long walkers, short walkers and non-walkers all had a good day out in beautiful weather. The third walk was based on the Yorkshire Wildlife Park. A coach full of 40 carers and cared for decanted at the Yorkshire Wildlife Park on 17th October to be met by six Ramblers volunteers who spent the day helping wherever necessary and guiding some of the guests around the expanse of the park. The more ambitious walkers headed off to the furthest enclosures (polar bears) before returning to meet up for lunch. In the afternoon, further groups and individuals were helped or guided around other areas of the park including the new brown bear pen. Everyone had a great day, helped by good weather and, of course, the cheerful of assistance of Ramblers volunteers.

The committee has agreed to continue with this project in 2019 and provide monthly walks from May to October, with the exception of August. The biggest problem is choosing a venue where the non-walkers can happily spend a couple of hours - any thoughts on this would be most welcome. There is no doubt that the publicity from these walks is hugely beneficial to Doncaster Ramblers. My thanks to all the members who have supported this project.

The one area that Doncaster Ramblers are not doing as well as we could be doing is in re-claiming lost ways. 1st January 2026 is the cut-off date for adding historic paths to what is known as the definitive map: the official record of the public’s rights of way in an area. When a path is on this map, it not only means we have a right to walk on it, but it is much easier to protect and maintain. However, any path which came into existence before 1949 and that has not been requested to be on the map by 2026 will be lost forever. In January 2016 we set up a sub-committee of five members to look at lost ways in DMBC. We had a number of meetings, but in September 2017 we agreed to ‘pause’ our efforts, mostly because none of the five of us had enough time to spare to do the necessary work. If anybody wishes to express an interest in re-claiming lost ways, please let me know.

Peter Rowsell has continued to do a wonderful job in getting a massive amount of publicity for the Group. We appear regularly in the Doncaster Free Press as well as more local publications in the area.

(DG asked PR if he would like to add a comment. PR said that special thanks were due to Dave Binnington and Tevor Jenkins who submitted the reports that became articles. Since October 2017 he has submitted 55 items, of which 44 were published. Also the Facebook page has had 96 likes and over 100 followers.)

Membership has increased significantly during the last year, due no doubt to a number of factors including the walking festival and increased publicity. Membership figures throughout Ramblers nationally have been declining for a number of years for many much-discussed reasons, including the growth of many, many, other walking groups, and that, these days, people have many other leisure options. I would also add serious mis-judgements made by previous Chief Executives to the list of reasons for a declining membership. Thankfully the present Chief Executive, Vanessa Griffiths, seems to be correcting the errors of her predecessors, although nationally the decline in membership has not been arrested. The membership figures for Doncaster Ramblers in recent years reflect the national decline and in October 2017 we reached a low of 208 members. But last month, in October 2018, our membership had increased to 228 - a fantastic increase.

Our walks programme continues to offer a wide variety of walks, both locally and in the Peak District, the Yorkshire Wolds, Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire, etc. We have continued to offer one more strenuous walk per month in the summer programme, this being followed by a 7-8 mile walk on the following Thursday.

During the year we have had two changes to the committee. Maureen Forshaw resigned as membership secretary for health reasons. I was delighted, at the start of a Tuesday walk when I asked for any volunteers to take over the role, to have had three volunteers. In the event Sue Robertson became our new membership secretary and Stephen Saddington, who also volunteered to be membership secretary, was happy to accept an invitation to join the committee. The other change during the year was the resignation of Owen Evans as programme compiler because of other commitments. We were delighted that Norman Lewis accepted our invitation to take over the role. Norman’s first Walks Programme was compiled, printed and distributed well on time for the Winter Programme start in October and, as you will have seen, it’s a very well-produced programme. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Maureen and Owen for their work for the group over several years as Membership Secretary and as Walks Programme Co-ordinator respectively.

Of course, the Walks Programme is the result of hard work by many people. The Binnington/Carlisle double act compile the Tuesday programme, Trevor Jenkins compiles the Saturday programme, Norman then puts it together and after it’s checked it’s sent to the printer, who delivers the final document to Hilda Levine, which is then distributed by Peter Gravestock to members who deliver it in their locality. The Newsletter, which is distributed with the Walks Programme, is compiled, usually at the last minute, by Tony Marsh and myself. The committee increasingly feel that the Walks Programme and Newsletter, because they are so well produced, are a very effective way of promoting the group.

The website is also a very powerful way of promoting the group. It’s kept up-to-date with walk reports and photos from walks. Martin Wyman and I were originally the ‘controllers’ but my website skills are very limited and Peter Gravestock agreed to become a controller. More recently Tony Marsh has also become involved. A couple of people, Peter Rowsell and Steven Ruffles, have joined me in being able to upload walks photos. Peter Rowsell, in his role as Publicity Officer, has given the group a Facebook presence. These are all very positive actions, with more people involved making it less likely that a serious problem will arise if and when somebody drops out.

I would like to finish by thanking everybody who contributes to the success of Doncaster Ramblers - all the members mentioned above as well the members of our very pro-active committee, the maintenance teams who help DMBC keep our footpath network in good condition with a very high level of skill. I would of course like to thank the walks leaders and their back-markers, without them there would be no walks programme. Last but definitely not least, the two officers who quietly and efficiently keep the group on track - David Horne, our treasurer, and Martin Wyman who prepares the agendas and writes the minutes for our meetings. In addition Martin is the main person who controls the website as well as attending the Public Rights of Way meetings and investigating RoW problems.

Thank you.

     4. Rights of Way Committee annual report.

Peter Rowsell presented Tony Marsh’s report.

During the course of the year the team has been boosted by the addition of a number of new members, so that we now have a list of almost 40 volunteers willing to offer their services. This welcome influx not only spreads the load more widely but also injects that essential enthusiasm which is so important. It also reveals hidden talents which would otherwise remain untapped. But, perhaps most important of all, it provides the opportunity to get to know better, those we walk with.

Since last year's AGM the RoW Volunteers have turned out regularly on a monthly basis in groups, ranging in size from four to fourteen, to carry out improvements throughout DMBC. Inevitably, some parts of the Boro' seem to require more attention than others, particularly those in more outlying areas. However, we do try to maintain some sort of balance and to spread our resources across as many areas as possible and this year we have carried out work in 13 parishes. One of our objectives is to improve the conditions in some of the areas which are less popular with walkers because the footpaths are not so user-friendly. It is important that we as a walking group walk our own footpaths in Doncaster as well as those in neighbouring areas, otherwise we are missing the opportunity to enjoy the fruits of our labour.

May I give you a few facts relating to the past 12 months:-

• For the past 2 years we have managed to 'check' ALL 594 footpaths in the Boro'. We are also on target to do so for 2018 with 390 paths checked to date.
• We have erected 35 posts of varying sizes
• Replaced 5 stiles with kissing gates
• Repaired 6 damaged stiles and 3 footbridges
• Used over 50 bags of quick setting cement
• Carried out extensive 'cutting back'
• Spent over 200 man-hours on site.

So all in all, another good year for the teams of volunteers who carry out the maintenance work on our network of footpaths.

Two more points if I may before I finish. Firstly, those of us who carry out the 'practical work' get immediate satisfaction from seeing a task completed, hopefully to a good standard; there is something visible to relate to. The many other volunteers who painstakingly 'check' the footpaths and report the problems they find, do not have this instant reward and their contribution must not be overlooked. Without their vital input the work of those of us who put things in order would not be possible. This is a team effort in all respects. So a big thank you to ALL who carry out work on our footpaths.

Finally, I would like to say a specific thank you to someone who works tirelessly behind the scenes dealing with the many aspects of our Rights of Way network, as well as performing other essential duties. Someone who we don't see very often on our walks. Someone who never seeks to be in the public eye. I refer, of course to our Footpath Secretary, Web-site guru and General Secretary, Martin Wyman. Thank you Martin.

    5. Treasurer’s annual report.

From David Horne.

The 2017 / 2018 financial year has been another good year for the group. The bank balance remains healthy, as at 30/9/18 standing at £2254.44. However, there was a grant from Ramblers Head Office paid in July to cover costs associated with coach outings for Doncaster Carers group. Most of this has yet to be claimed so the above balance figure will drop quite dramatically once the costs are paid to the organisations involved.

Other sources of income are close to previous years, with a steady level of contributions from our Walks Programme advertisers. Ramblers Holidays Walking Partnership provided £250.00 for the group, well up on last year. The group coach trip to Ripon in June was financially successful. Income from coach fares was £450 against the coach hire charge of £380.00. The cost of producing our two walks programmes has increased this year. Extra copies were ordered for the summer with the walking festival and more publicity raising the group’s profile.

£50.00 was paid in lieu to the Rotherham Ramblers as the retail outlet Foothills had paid us £50 in error for advertising when it should have been paid to the Rotherham group. Due to a cheque being mislaid in the post a transaction stop fee was paid to the Unity Bank to avoid it being fraudulently debited from our account.

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.

   6. Election of officers 

David Gadd introduced the election of officers:

    7. Any Other Business.

DG asked MW to send a letter to our three MPs enclosing a Walks Programme and newsletter.  

The meeting closed at 20:18.