Carlisle and District Rambling and Fellwalking Club

Carlisle & District Rambling & Fellwalking Club

Minutes of the Annual General Meeting February 2014

Carlisle & District Rambling & Fellwalking Club

Annual General Meeting

Friday 14th February 2014

The minutes of the meeting were as follows

Present: Neil Thompson (Chairman) and 33 members, with apologies from 3 members.

Chairman's Opening Remarks, Neil Thompson

Neil welcomed members to the Club's 68th AGM. He thanked the Committee and all others for their work in running the Club, and the hosts of the Committee Meetings. The coach meets were losing money and he appealed to members to support them. The AGM minutes would now be on the web site and included

in the Spring Newsletter.

Minutes of the AGM of 8 February 2013. A full version had been sent to the Officers and Committee Members and had been available to members on request. A summary had been on the newsletter and was presented to the meeting. They were accepted.

Secretary's Report, Geoff Entwistle

Membership was currently 177 (200 at the same time in 2013), During 2013 24 (22) new members had joined (10 in the last 3 months), 2 had re-joined,

9 had resigned and 3 deceased. 34 (30) had not paid their 2013 subscriptions and been removed from membership.

Treasurer’s Report, Chris Fortune

The accounts were circulated. The Club had made an overall loss of £296. Coaches had made a loss of £1208, but this had been offset by a Council Grant of £500 and a surplus of subscriptions over administration. All other events had more or less broken even.

In addition to our usual donations we had also made donations to the Air Ambulance and Coniston Mountain Rescue as a result of their assistance in a Club walk incident.

We had £7224 in reserves, so still had a healthy balance.

12 members had attended a First Aid Course, and 10 gone on Map Reading courses. Funds were still available for a further 10.

The accounts were accepted.

Rambles Secretary's Report, Heather Perrin

There were usually about 90 walks on a programme, on the one in preparation there were 29 "self led" walks, ie with no allocated leaders. The previous programmes had 30+ different leaders, on this were 23. As a result the Rambles Sub Committee was suggesting that for leaderless walks:

1. Have suggested walks with routes available for members to offer to lead.

2. Have a list of last minute leaders who could do a walk they know.

3. Have a designated starting point and grade, the subsequent route to be decided by consensus.

This could result in more members becoming skilled in route finding and map reading.

Any changes would be on the Club's web site, which could include a walk's distance and grading being amended as a result of a recce, so members needed

to check it regularly. Walks descriptions should be accurate, include any possible problems, and not be misleading.

Heather asked for more leaders to come forward to share the load.

Information was also sent via e-mail, Heather had 100 members' e-mail addresses, so she still required about 80 more.

Social Secretary's Report, Judy Cherrie

In Judy's absence it was reported that the 2013/14 social programme was going well, and the quality of the speakers was generally good.

The end of season buffet would be on 28 March, at the Church of Scotland with an outside caterer.

Annual Coach Outing 6 September 2014. Options of Lancaster, Harrogate and Beamish were offered, the Meeting voted for Beamish.

Rule Changes.

The Committee proposed: "Any member who has not paid their subscription by 31 May will have their membership terminated". Defeated.

Subscriptions, Charges and Donations

Drivers Tip. The Committee proposed stopping the driver's tip, and instead invite the driver(s) to a Club function. This had the agreement of the coach company. Defeated.

Otherwise the Committee proposed no change. The Subscriptions, Charges and Donations would therefore be:

Annual Subscription £10, Juveniles under 16 £5. Joining Fee £5, Juveniles under 16 £2.50

Coach ramble fare £6. Coach driver’ tip £15, for long and special journeys £20

Car ramble passenger contribution £5 flat rate. Social evenings £2

Donations; National Trust £50, LDSAMR £250

Ramblers Association subscription, currently £45.

Elections

President. Marie Hall had completed 2 years of a 3 year term.

Committee. Alison Smith resigned, and the Meeting was unable to make an appointment. The Constitution required a minimum of 4 members, the Committee to try to fill it.

Eleanor Hodgson resigned a Tea Organiser, the meeting thanked her for her efforts. All the other Officers and Committee Members were willing to continue and were re-elected.

The Officers and Committee elected for 2014 therefore were:

President - Marie Hall, Chairman - Neil Thompson, Vice-Chairman - Tom Fortune

Secretary - Geoff Entwistle, Treasurer - Chris Fortune, Rambles Secretary - Heather Perrin

Social Secretary - Judy Cherrie, Safety Officer - Tom Fortune, Auditor - Fred Blundell

Committee: John McKay, Judith Mingins, Gill Thompson, A N Other.

Any Other Business

From the floor.

Coach Meets. Were members not going on official Club walks allowed on the coach? Yes, but only to go sightseeing, not to do their own walks.

Concern was expressed about anonymous political comments being included in walk reports on the web site, even if they were intended as a joke.

The President, Marie Hall, thanked all who had helped in the running of the Club over the year.

The Meeting closed at 9.06 pm