RMC Committee Meeting 4 May 2005 – Minutes
Present
Simon Chetwynd Chairman
Baldric Treasurer
Dave Sanderson Secretary/webmaster
Jenn Powley Membership secretary
Mike Portelly Meets Secretary
Tim Cole Social Secretary
Adrian Cohen Newsletter editor
Sarah Ireland committee member
Louise Acreman committee member
George Hostford President
Apologies for absence
None
1. Introduction
The chairman thanked everyone for attending and Jenn and Darren for being hosts.
2. Committee jobs and major dates
In order to bring everyone up to speed with the running of the club, all the committee members gave a run through of their jobs and major dates in the club calendar.
Treasurer (Baldric)
Maintenance of club accounts, paying in and out of club funds. We have two accounts: a deposit account and a current account. Baldric tries to keep as little money as possible in the current account. If it goes overdrawn by a small amount the bank automatically transfers money from the deposit account to compensate at no cost. We earned £21 in interest last year.
Financial year is 1 March to 28/9 February
Subscriptions are due on 1 October each year and are valid to 30 November the following year.
Main BMC fees are paid at the end of February and we get notified of the amount in the preceding November.
New members’ forms are sent to Baldric together with the fees. Baldric emails the member details of the club meets and passes the members’ details to Dave.
Secretary and webmaster (Dave)
Dave maintains two lists of club members’ details: one for distribution to members and one for distribution to committee members only with all members’ details on including addresses. He also maintains details of next of kin. There is also a list of members that is sent to the BMC. On a quarterly basis details of new members (and the appropriate fee) is sent to the BMC. Regarding insurance cover, new members are still covered by the BMC insurance even if the BMC has not yet received their details. Lists of members’ contact details are sent out three times a year. Dave also prints out and distributes membership cards (sent to everyone as soon as possible after the AGM). As soon as Dave receives details from Baldric, new members are sent a membership card, an invitation to join the Yahoo email group and the members version of contact details (no addresses and only listing those members who have given their permission to be listed). Dave also prints address labels for those members who still receive their newsletter through the post (10).
Dave is also the webmaster and he maintains the club’s website and the Yahoo Groups email list. The email list is not self subscribing and is only open to members. If anyone changes their email address then Dave has to be notified in order to do it. Currently there are only ~20 members who are not subscribed to the email list.
Membership Secretary / librarian (Jenn)
The membership secretary deals with requests to the club’s public email address (the one listed on the website), answers questions and generally chats to new and prospective members.
Jenn also maintains the club’s library which is brought to each pub meet. She also buys books and DVDs for the library.
Social Secretary (Tim)
The social secretary organises the annual dinner meet and miscellaneous other social events throughout the year. In addition Tim proof reads each newsletter, and photocopies and posts copies of the newsletter to those members who elect to receive it by post. Note that the printed and posted version is in black and white, the email version is in colour.
Newsletter editor (Adrian)
Adrian produces a newsletter each month. The aim is to get the newsletter out one week before each meet. It is sent out via the Yahoo Groups email list as a PDF file.
Meets Secretary (Mike)
The meets secretary keeps an eye on the summer meets and ensures that the organiser has arranged a campsite. Where necessary advice is given on campsites. For hut meets the meets secretary books and pays for the huts, arranges for distribution and collection of the key,copies any direction/instructions and collects payment from members. The meets secretary also publishes and maintains the meets list and circulates a draft meets list for agreement at the AGM. Additionally the meets secretary makes sure that details of forthcoming meets are circulated to members via email and the newsletter.
President (George)
The post of president is an honorary position and does not automatically entitle the holder to attend committee meetings. However, it has become current practice to invite the president to committee meetings to provide advice and guidance. The main role of the president is to read out toasts at the annual dinner and to meet and liaise with members.
Chairman (Simon)
The role of chair is to organise and chair committee meetings and the AGM, and to ensure that all the tasks necessary for the running of the club are undertaken.
One year posts (Sarah and Louise)
The one year posts are designed to give the post holders an insight into the running of the club with the aim of encouraging people to take up other committee posts in the future. Various club tasks may be delegated to the post holders and they are expected to be ambassadors for the club.
3. Annual dinner meet
Tim said that he has provisionally booked the Lulworth Cove Hotel. We will have exclusive use of the hotel which can accommodate 36 people. The dining room is a single large area and can seat 50 people. There will however be a band playing in the public bar but the door will be shut. Cost will be £100 per person for a room for two nights and the meal. Superior and the four poster room will cost slightly more. People are welcome to make their own alternative accommodation arrangements (e.g. B&B) if they wish.
4. Other social events
RMC are hoping to enter at least two teams into the Bradfield triathlon on 14 Aug. Cost is £15 per person which compares favorably with the £19 cost for the Reading half marathon. A BBQ is planned afterwards at Kevin Jones’ house. An additional BBQ is planned at Davin’s house, date to be advised.
Tim is also planning to organise some cycle rides. These were popular last year. They will start around June in the light evenings. Louise kindly offered to help Tim arrange the cycle rides.
5. Photo competition
Sarah offered to organise the RMC photo competition at the Christmas dinner meet in Conniston. Dave will create and maintain a page on the main RMC website where entries can be seen. Sarah will arrange for printing to be carried out commercially (~10p per print). The cost will be 50p per entry and prizes will be bought. People will have to down select to one entry per category per person at the meet. The categories are: fun, action, classic and 2005. All pictures should be taken in 2005.
6. Indoor walls and training
Indoor climbing is still popular on Tuesdays at Swindon and on Thursdays at Craggy Island. Dave will remove the reference to climbing at Westway on Fridays from the website. It is hoped to run another abseil course in the near future and Simon will look into the possibility of running a course on setting up top ropes. This will be aimed at people who don’t lead and will give them more flexibility if they are capable of setting up their own top ropes. The course provider will be Pete Cook.
7. Meets
Cornwall is the next meet and the Rock Hoppers Club will be at the campsite as well. It was suggested that the winter meet in Braemar be changed to Aviemore as it offers much more in terms of accommodation options and climbing opportunities. Mike will speak to Chris about this.
8. Library
Jenn has recently bought the BMC climbing guide, the Dartmoor guide book and will be getting the NW Scotland guide book. She will tell Adrian when we get new books so that they can be listed in the newsletter. She is currently working on categorising the book list. For upcoming meets she will publicise what guides are available.
9. Website
It was agreed that Dave would put the minutes of committee meetings on the club’s website. They will be in the password protected members area. Additionally, photos of the committee will be put on the website in the information page. Adrian has pictures of everyone and will send them to Dave.
10. Complementary membership
It was agreed that the club will offer free temporary membership benefits to visiting foreign climbers. Last year Lola climbed with us during the summer and currently Martin (from Austria) is climbing with us. These people are only here for typically 1 –2 months. The temporary membership will entitle them to use our email list and to receive newsletters.
11. T-shirts
Adrian will send out an email asking who wants an RMC t-shirt (RMC Rocks design). The club makes £1 profit on each garment.
12. Newsletter
Adrian aims to get a newsletter out a week before each meet. It was agreed to call each publication a “newsletter” rather than either a “newsletter” or “flyer” depending on the content. Everyone is encouraged to send in articles from the various trips that they do, even if they are only a couple of lines long. Adrian will look into the feasibility of embedding live hyperlinks into the newsletter.
13. Any other business
Dave said that the RMC website domain name is currently registered to him. The Nominet registrant fees are due every two years and cost about £10. The Fasthosts hosting is renewable every year and costs £70. Dave also said that we haven’t had a club hot rock trip for some time. This is because of the difficulty of getting someone to organise one. Dave said that end Oct is cheap and that the weather in the Costa Brava / Barcelona areas where there is excellent walking and climbing is good. Mike will seek a volunteer to organise a hot rock trip.
Dave had also received a letter about an increase in the occurrence of Lymes disease (from ticks) in UK mountain areas. Adrian will put some information on it in the newsletter.
Mike asked advice about huts and campsites to avoid. The consensus was that the Climbers Club hut in Llanberis Pass (the old one not the new one) is best avoided as is the Llanberris Pass campsite in winter (too windy) and the Langdale campsite in summer (midges).
14. Next meeting
The next committee meeting will be on Tue 6 September at Jenn and Darren’s house. This is a month before the dinner meet.