Doncaster Ramblers

Minutes of committee meeting held on 23rd May 2022
Finningley Village Hall

Committee members present: David Gadd, Tony Marsh, Brian Milne, Peter Rowsell, Norman Lewis and Dave Binnington.
Attendees: Kim Binnington.

1 Apologies: Steve Tomlinson, Peter Gravestock and David Horne.

2 Minutes of the meeting 21st March 2022. These were accepted as accurate.

3 Matters arising from those minutes. None.

4 Financial Report.
DH had reported that the only expenditure since the last meeting was the £20 fee for the hire of Finningley Hall. Our balance now stands at £2300.00.

5 Walks Programme.
DG reported that the programme for Saturday, Tuesday and Thursday walks is full until Thursday, 23rd July, which is a healthy two months ahead. Beyond that date there are many Tuesday walks, although there is only one Saturday walk. Steve Tomlinson has five walks in the programme; offers of more leaders for Thursdays and Saturdays would be welcome. It is better that many members lead one or two walks every few months, rather than a few members leading many walks each.

6 Publicity
PR reported: Our column in the DFP has become a rather irregular appearing only nine times in the last 20 weeks.  Walk reports have also largely disappeared from Today and I assume also from Arrow Press being replaced (in Today at least) by a timetable of future walks. I have had no feedback from The Gazette, or Doncaster Echo. 
 
FB remains our most interactive social media tool. We have 3408 followers and 3254 “Likes”. In the last 28 days our posts reached 32k people and 5800 engagements ie likes, comments shares.  FB is one of the few ways the public can get in touch with us.  For example last week I had a lady asking for advice about a footpath near to or including Baithwell 5 in Micklebring where she lives.  Also another lady was looking for a lift for Saturday’s Ladybower walk.  She was able to take part in the walk. I continue to look at other social media, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube but I am struggling to see any benefit. 
 
Earlier this month I was interviewed on TMCR95.3FM a community radio in Thorne. The session lasted 40 minutes and included a series of question ranging from who we were, how we coped with the pandemic, and where we saw the future.  A transcript is available.
 
  Finally there is a campaign running #Walk this May supported DMBC “Get Doncaster Walking” and Ramblers “Well Being Walks”.  We get a mention via a quote by DG and a couple of links to our website. 

PR agreed to consider the content of a possible advertisement in the DFP and possibly
other publications.

7 Rights of Way & Footpath Maintenance Report
TM reported: Footpath Checking
‘Square owners’ are making steady progress checking their respective footpaths with some 80+ paths checked so far this year.
We still need help to check the footpaths in certain areas, so if you can persuade anyone to put themselves forward please ask them to make contact with me on 01302 851795.

Footpath Maintenance.
Wednesday 6th April: After a blank month in March we finally managed to get out on site to do clearance work just outside Arksey, mainly along the flood embankment. This is a pleasant path to walk along and it looked even better after a couple of hours work cutting back the overgrowth. Thanks to the six enthusiastic volunteers who turned out.
Wednesday 4th May: We should have been removing damaged stiles in Austerfield and replacing them with galvanised kissing gates. Unfortunately the gates were not available because of delivery problems so we had to rearrange the date to Wednesday 1st June.
Wednesday 1st June: Cancelled again - further transport issues!
Wednesday 8th June: Gates to be fitted at long last!! We will have 8 volunteers on site to remove the existing stiles and to install new galvanised kissing gates.
The next volunteers session will be on Wednesday 6th July.

Insurance Issues: For years I have assumed that 'Volunteers' needed to be current members of the Ramblers to be covered by their insurance when carrying out maintenance work. Apparently this is not the case and I can use anyone who is willing to help so long as they are 'listed' on 'Assemble', which is part of the Ramblers administration system. All existing and new volunteers are on this list. So next time out on the 8th June, I have 2 volunteers who do not walk with us but they are willing to help with maintenance work. An added bonus is that some of our long-serving volunteers who have not renewed their membership are still insured when on maintenance duties.

8 Carers walks
DG reported that the monthly walks we provide for Doncaster carers have started this year, with a visit to Lotherton Hall on 4th May. Over 30 carers and cared-for people arrived by coach. Steve and Neil led the ‘long’ walk of about 2 miles while Allen Pestell (Area chair) and I led the ‘short’ walk around the gardens. Some of the carers group chose not to walk at all but we all enjoyed a good lunch. The Stepping Out organisation covers all costs. The next walk on the programme is on 1st June and is to Chatsworth.

9 Membership
Our current membership is 239. This is a very healthy figure, with figures for the previous months being 229 (Jan), 224, 229 and 226. Back in January 2016 we had 230 members.
Only ourselves, Deane Valley and the Sheffield 40s groups show an increase in membership since January 2016 among the eight groups in the South Yorkshire and NE Derbyshire Area.

10 Risk Assessment
At General Council in April two motions against the recently introduced risk assessment process were passed and we were advised that doing a written risk assessment was no longer necessary. However, a recent statement (see the homepage of our website) from central office states that this is not the case.

Whilst there is much criticism of the whole issue (the way it was introduced, the need for a written risk assessment, the template itself, the system of self-storing risk assessments, etc) central office is stating that ‘risk assessments must continue to be completed prior to group walks’. The template is available in Assemble on the Ramblers website.

11 Information for new members.
DB said that much useful information was available in the printed programme that we produced pre-pandemic, information particularly useful for new members. Information such as the 112 emergency number, ‘what3words’, submitting a walk, etc. We agreed that we would consider what information new members need and how we should pass this information to them and that it should be an agenda item for the next meeting.

11 AOB
None.
The meeting closed at 20.25.
The next meeting will be in the Finningley Village Hall at 19.15 on Monday, 18th July.