Doncaster Ramblers
Minutes of committee meeting held on 17th January, 2022
Finningley Village Hall
Committee members present: David Gadd, David Horne, Peter Gravestock, Dave Binnington, Norman Lewis and Tony Marsh.
Attendees: Angela and David Nicholson, Hilda Levine.
1 Apologies: Lisa Edwards, Brian Milne, Peter Rowsell.
2 Review of the minutes of the AGM of 22nd November 2021.
These were agreed as accurate.
3 Matters Arising from those minutes.
None.
4 Financial Report.
DH said that there was little to report since financial transactions had been very limited.
Our current balance stands at £2340.33
5 Walking Programme.
We discussed the current situation re Risk Assessment, about which there is widespread dissatisfaction. The will undoubtedly be a motion or motions concerning the situation at General Council. In the meanwhile we need to accept the situation as being out of our control.
DG presented a full list of all walks that have been submitted so far, most on the website but some not yet on it. Saturdays have been a problem and although the recent email from DG requesting more Saturday walks had had some success, the additions to the programme were from members who were already submitting walks.
We had a lengthy discussion about the way forward in terms of promoting out walking programme and decided to proceed with a ‘simple’ programme to cover the period from April to the end of July. ‘Simple’ in this sense means a printed programme giving details of Tuesday and Saturday walks only, plus information on committee meetings and maintenance sessions. We consider that the Thursday and Friday walks are doing well by being online only. Any vacant Tuesdays or Saturdays will ask people to refer to the website.
We also considered the possibility of placing an advert in the DFP to coincide with the start of this programme.
6 Publicity.
PR reported that little has changed since the AGM, with our regular copy in the DFP no longer happening. Peter said that he will continue to seek ways of publicising what we do.
7 Membership.
BM reported that the current membership stands at 237, with membership being very stable. Since 12th October there have been 8 leavers and 11 new members, with one reinstatement.
8 RoW and Maintenance.
TM reported that there had been no recent updates from MW but that there are three bits of encouraging news to report:
* The metal bridge which crosses the main railway line at Ferry Boat Lane in Mexborough has been removed and replaced by a splendid new structure.
* The bridge over the River Don by the prison has also been completed.
* The boggy section of the path out of Barnburgh village towards the Crags, the boardwalk, which we have repaired several times over the past 14 years or so, has been vastly improved by the DMBC RoW Dept.
Re footpath checking, despite the limitations caused by Covid 19 we have managed to check fill the gaps created by those who have retired. There are still area where help is needed so please spread the word.
Re maintenance volunteers 8 of our team of volunteers met on 1st December and installed two kissing gates in Hatfield, replacing two broken stiles. This was the first meeting since December last year.
The RoW Dept have agreed to our suggestion to introduce a system of monthly ‘work parties’, starting in February and running through to December 2022. Where possible sessions will be on the first Wednesday of every month.
9 AOB.
a) DB reported that Go Outdoors are not offering an extra 10% off on production of a Ramblers membership card.
b) PG reported that central office appears to expect every walk leader to submit their own walks via Assemble i.e. not to do it via Peter. He has pointed out that some members may decide not to lead in future but his argument was not accepted.
c) PR requested that more members step forward to write walk reports.
The meeting closed at 20.30.
Jim Elvidge had phoned DG recently to say that, for health reasons, he will no longer be involved with Doncaster Ramblers. DG has written a letter of thanks for his long service to Ramblers.