The Ramblers (St Helens Group)
21stAnnual General Meeting
Minutes of the 21stAGM of the Ramblers (St Helens Group) held at St James’s Church Hall,
St James’s Road, Rainhill, on Wednesday 31stOctober 2012
- PRESENT: JohnBarker (chairman); A McGovern (treasurer); C Walsh (secretary);D Callan, (footpaths officer); CF Rigby; J Fuller; N Rignall; M Howden; J Jones; K Rees; C Atherton;
J Rostron; R Fairclough; WP Siveter; M Siveter; E Middlehurst; J Mather; Jean Barker; S McKay; H Wareing; J Farnall; Paul Bolton; Pam Bolton
John Barker opened meeting by welcoming all and accepting apologies. He also regretted that Karen Shaw was unable to lead C walk at Settle on 3rd November (in 3 days’ time) and thanked
Joan Fuller and Jean Barker for volunteering to lead another walk from the same venue at short notice. This is one we did 3 years ago, and will be unrecced due to short notice.
- APOLOGIES: T Thompson; K Shaw; R Shaw; J Parish; J Foster.
- MINUTES OF THE 20th AGM:
Accepted unanimously (proposed Jean Barker, seconded M Howden).
- MATTERS ARISING:
Item 6, Treasurer’s Report; J Fuller asked whether the 8 new members we recruited March 2011 under the March for Membership campaign had renewed after the first year. CW to check and report. NB 5 have renewed, being 2 couples and one single member.
Item 6, Footpaths Report; DC referred to his last report and the fact that the Marine and Coastal Access Act was not achieving very much, ie only a small part of the Dorset coast had been opened up and mainly for the Olympics. To date not much headway has been made, and it will be about 15 years before the programme is completed. The government will not grant money to open up routes, but say they are reviewing the scheme and the RA is monitoring progress; this was discussed at the General Council in Leicester in April this year.
Item 12, AOB; J Rostron asked for update from D Callan on proposed ManchesterShip Canal excursion, which was also discussed at programme meetings. DC said he had been unable to get any group reductions on suitable dates for 2012, and the full price of £35 is too dear.
Item 12, AOB; DC will organise a weekend at the chalet in Mold for May as there are currently 2 dates free. 2 dormitories each holding 8 people, but maximum number for comfort is 12 (6 each). There are several good walks from there, which are tried and tested, and can be obtained from people who have been before. M Howden suggested sending a flyer round the coach.
- MATTERS AFFECTING THE CONSTITUTION:
This summer a revised Model Constitution for Groups was obtained from Head Office, along with a similar one for Areas. It covers 4 pages of notes, and copies can be sent out by email on request or obtained via a link from the website after approval by Area committee then HO. We have modified Paragraph 9 (Management) to say that any complaints of conduct against other group members must be made in writing or email to named secretary or chairman, which committee will then deliberate and convey decision in writing if necessary to the complainant and accused member via secretary or chairman.
- ADOPTION OF THE ANNUAL REPORT 2011/12
Chairman’s Report
John Barker highlighted a reasonably successful year overall, against the trend in other groups and the RA, with membership remaining constant and people leaving being replaced with new members. Coaches have been well supported but by no means always full, so we must not get too complacent in this area. We have checked coach prices with another operator and prices were similar; we will check again next year. We had a new walk leader, Robert Fairclough, at Christleton, which went well. Looking at his report from last year, John again asked for more people to take an interest in walk leading and joining committee. At the moment we are a permanent walks coordinator, booking and social secretary short.
Head Office have supplied us with a new constitution, details of which have been incorporated into our own rules (see above).
To celebrate our 20th anniversary we had 2 walks with wine, which went down very well. We also had a ‘Bit of a Do’, which was a success. He then handed over to Dave Callan who thanked the organisers, Joan Rostron and Joan Fuller, for their excellent efforts in this, and presented them with flowers and chocolates respectively. In the end 40 people booked for the party, which was encouraging as initially there were only 12 on the list, and everyone appreciated their hard work on the night.
Treasurer’s Report
Ann McGovern presented audited accounts showing a balance of £2063.40, a gain of £36.36. The group received a grant of £485 from Area, £248 more than the basic allocation of £237 allowed by Head Office. This helps towards our admin costs. Royal Mail increased the cost of postage stamps during April; second class went up from 36p to 50p. Carol bought extra stamps before increase to help keep costs down next year.
This year we celebrated our group’s 20th Anniversary with a couple of celebration walks and a party night. Your committee agreed to make a contribution from funds towards this; a total of £134.91 was spent, £39.91 for wine and £95 towards room hire.
The schedule of coach trips shows that during second part of the year the coaches were well supported and no losses were incurred. Ann thanked walk leaders who have made a great effort in keeping recce fees to a minimum by car sharing whenever possible.
Footpaths Report
Dave Callan presented a general footpath report, mentioning huge cuts in funding by local authorities to their rights of way budgets, resulting in deterioration of the footpath network. This was disclosed by a recent report by the RA, naming the top 4 worst councils as Hertfordshire, Devon, Cumbria and Cheshire & West Cheshire, part of which covers our Area. We are lucky in St Helens to have still retained the Rights of Way officer despite the budget being cut by a third to £25, 000. We are managing a difficult situation which is not serious at the moment. The exercise of prolonged lack of maintenance by local councils is very short sighted because costs will be far greater in the long term. Local authorities have a duty to maintain footpaths, thereby avoiding costly legal action, and they should therefore wake up to the situation that may come to haunt them. The Highways Act 1980 gives rights of way the same status as a road or highway, making it an offence to wilfully obstruct free passage. It also enables the public to serve notice on a council to reopen an illegally blocked footpath, and states that if a route is used by the public for 20 years or more without interruption, it is deemed to have been dedicated as a highway.
He then quoted section 59 of the Wildlife & Countryside Act 1981, stating that it is illegal for farmers to pasture bulls more than 10 months old of recognised breeds such as Ayrshire, Holstein, Dairy Shorthall, Guernsey, Jersey and Kerry in fields crossed by rights of way. Unfortunately, there is no accompanying advice to ramblers in how to recognise age and breed of said animals, or what to do in such circumstances.
R Fairclough said that under Health & Safety Executive laws, farmers must erect a sign to warn walkers when bulls are in a field. There are, however, no laws about cows and their young.
H Wareing noted the fact that councils do not always respond to complaints, and in such cases we should tell Head Office.
There was then a discussion about footpaths and landowners nationally. There was mention of a case study showing that half of the footpaths in Lancashire have not been maintained. A recent walk in Rainford was hampered where a farmer had ploughed right up to the edge of the field boundary instead of leaving the requisite 2 metres; this has been reported but there is less chance of enforcement under present conditions. Compared to other areas, however, it was accepted that our local landowners are very good.
Annual report adopted unanimously (proposed Paul Bolton, seconded C Atherton).
- ADOPTION OF THE ACCOUNTS:
Adopted unanimously (proposed M Howden, seconded J Rostron).
- ELECTION OF CHAIRMAN, SECRETARY AND TREASURER:
John Barker told the meeting there were only 2 nomination forms submitted, and these were done by committee members. We need new members to consider putting their names forward for committee, as the same people have been doing their jobs for years now and cannot carry on for ever. His request for volunteers from the floor was unfruitful. There being only one nominee for each position, the entire committee was proposed, seconded and unanimously approved en bloc. Proposed J Jones, seconded Paul Bolton, approved by all.
ChairmanJohn Barker
Secretary/membershipsCarol Walsh
TreasurerAnn McGovern
- ELECTION OF OTHER MEMBERS ONTO COMMITTEE:
The only change is that Karen Rees has moved from booking secretary to general committee. Although unable to take bookings for 4 months at a time, she has volunteered to cover holidays for the 2 remaining booking secretaries.
Footpaths officerDave Callan
Programme coordinatorPresently vacant but to be covered informally by Joan Rostron until position can be filled.
Booking secretariesMargery Howden
Jean Barker
Committee membersKaren Shaw
without portfolioPaul Siveter
Joan Rostron
Jeannie Farnall
Eddie Middlehurst
Karen Rees
Social secretaryVacant
John thanked all the committee members and walk leaders for all their hard work throughout the year. He said that somebody (a long standing member) had asked a volunteer how much they got paid! He stressed that all our committee and walk leaders give their time free of charge.
- ELECTION OF HONORARY AUDITOR:
Ron Norton is willing to do this again for us, without charge, and the meeting thanked him.
Proposed John Barker; seconded A McGovern.
11.ANY OTHER BUSINESS:
a) Joan Jones queried the proposed £2 charge for car walks and coach walks for people meeting us at the venue. This was originally voted in by committee at the May meeting. It was explained that due to good revenues from the summer coaches and also cooperation by walk leaders in saving expenses by car sharing for recces it was decided at the August meeting to postpone the implementation of this new charge, starting it if and when funds may be low in the future.
b) Hugh Wareing mentioned the recent Todmorden coach, when the driver was on his hand held mobile phone for 15-30 minutes while driving along minor roads and not being fully in charge of steering. C Walsh and John Barker to write to Ogdens and report back.
c) Re distribution of minutes, it was decided to put these on website for general reference, but they will still be circulated to all who attended or sent apologies.
13.DATE AND TIME OF NEXT AGM:
Wednesday 30thOctober 2013, 7.30 pm, St James’s.
New committee to meet Wednesday 7th November 2012 at 7.30pm, St James’s.