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Ramblers’ Association, Kent Area
Minutes of Annual General Meeting held on 2
February
2008 at St Andrew’s Church Hall, Maidstone Road,
Paddock Wood, TN12 6DZ
Present
Peter Skipp (Chairman), Les Preston (Vice Chairman),
David Law (Vice Chairman),
Robert Peel (Treasurer) and about 120 members
Welcome from the Hosting Group
John Smout, Vice Chairman of Tunbridge Wells Group,
welcomed members on
behalf of the Group to Paddock Wood – once the
centre of hopgrowing
in Kent.
Welcome and Introduction
Peter Skipp welcomed members to the meeting and
introduced the other Officers. He
explained that Groups took it in turns to host the
AGM and thanked Tunbridge Wells
Group for doing so this year. He noted the
tremendous effort that goes into preparing
lunch and expressed appreciation to all involved.
Peter also welcomed our guest speaker, Tom Franklin,
the RA’s new Chief Executive.
He had heard well of Tom’s presentation and aimed to
get through the formal
business as soon as possible.
Apologies for Absence
Arthur Russ, Area Secretary, was unable to attend
the meeting. Peter and Robert
would be sharing the task of recording the
proceedings in order to prepare the
minutes. Ken Wright from Bromley Group also sent his
apologies.
Minutes of AGM held on 3 February 2007
The minutes of the Annual General Meeting held on 3
February 2007 in Littlebourne
were agreed to be a true record subject to the
substitution of “Brian Arguile” for
“Brian Arguiles”.
Annual Report
Peter Skipp presented the Annual Report for the year
to 30 September 2007. He
hoped that members had enjoyed the new format with a
more “newsy” style and more
colour. As this is the only opportunity to
communicate directly with the members,
especially those members who do not walk with
Groups, it is important to make it
attractive and encourage people to read it.
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For the last year we have been anticipating a new
strategic plan from Central Office.
That’s why we felt it so important to get Tom to be
here today to talk about the future
and enable us to discuss it with him.
In last year’s report David Law raised some key
issues which are still very relevant
today. One was the state of the footpath network,
probably the largest of any Area in
England. Some of it is in good order, some not.
Footpath workers work hard to keep
KCC on their toes. Over the year there have been
changes in the way we do things.
There have been changes to the titles given to our
footpath volunteers– this may
sound like window dressing but the new titles do
more accurately describe the tasks
and we are trying to provide more focussed resources
and backup
to be even more
effective.
A very successful workshop for footpath workers was
held in October. KCC
representatives were there all day and made much of
their new management system
which shows every footpath, gate, stile etc – over
50,000 individual items. We are
pushing KCC to be open and give the RA access to the
system. We have negotiated
that our volunteers can assist with resurveying
using our handheld
computers to
download data, revise it and upload again. The cost
to us of £5,000 represents a
significant gesture on our part, demonstrating to
KCC that we are prepared to respond
with positive action.
We are also pressing KCC to use volunteers to do
essential footpath work. This
already happens in White Cliffs Group but we would
like to see this develop much
further if insurance and management issues can be
overcome. In return we want to
see KCC improve their performance in dealing with
footpath problems.
On publicity and membership recruitment, we need to
make more progress. We
ought to have more members in such a heavily
populated area. We are currently the
fourth largest Area and should be looking to
overtake Hampshire and maybe even
Essex and Surrey. So we need someone to help with
the media and a new
membership secretary to replace John Wellard who is
standing down today. Les
Preston is standing in for the time being.
We are getting used to computers and email as a way
of life. It is so helpful to be able
to communicate this way – no need to write letters
etc. We will be moving more in
that direction. We really do want to encourage
members who are not comfortable
with IT to help us by considering having an IT buddy
who can provide a working
link.
Arthur Russ is standing down as Area Secretary. As
stated in the advert in the Annual
Report, Robert would like to take on the role but
that means finding a new Treasurer.
That is proving difficult despite approaching
outside organisations that specialise in
volunteer recruitment. So for the moment Robert will
have to remain Treasurer but as
a result the vital administrative work on which the
Area depends will suffer.
We are also looking for someone to help with the web
site as Web Correspondent –
writing a few words about this and helping to keep
the flow of information going for
inclusion on the site. We now have links to the
Central Office site and are hoping for
links to the KCC site. So we hope someone will
volunteer to work with our
Webmaster, Margaret Lubbock.
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Finally Peter offered a big thank you to Arthur for
his work as Secretary over four
years and to Michael Collins who was standing down
after heading up the
Countryside Committee for ten years.
The Report was approved nem con.
Annual Accounts and Treasurer’s Report for the Year
Ended
30 September 2007
Robert Peel presented the Annual Accounts and
Treasurer’s Report. He explained
that this had been the first year when funding from
Central Office had been based on
budgeting rather than a proportion of membership
fees. The budgeting process had
gone well and, although there had been considerable
variation in particular items,
overall normal running costs had come in less than
2% under budget. However,
exceptional expenditure on computer equipment and
joint working with KCC had
been delayed and some of this was expected to fall
in the current year.
Income had been higher than expected, the most
significant item being the amount
received on winding up the Wealdway Steering Group.
So reserves had increased to
over £33,000.
In the current year we expect expenditure to
increase but we have sought no increase
in funding from Central Office so a deficit is
likely but our reserves are adequate to
cover this. We are still busy planning future
activities so that we can estimate the
level of reserves needed for the long term.
The most pressing financial issue is the funding of
Groups by Area. The formula that
has been in use for many years is giving some Groups
less than they need and some
Groups more. This problem has been noted by Area
Council and work is in progress
to develop new arrangements. Something will have to
change and Groups will be
consulted before proposals are put to Area Council
for approval.
Once again Robert was very grateful to Keith Miles
for his efficient independent
examination of the records and accounts.
The Report and Accounts were approved nem con.
Amendment to Area Constitution
Robert proposed the changes to the Area
Constitution. The only substantive change
was to reduce the notice required for the AGM from
28 to 14 days. This did not mean
that members would not be told the date or location
of the AGM until two weeks
beforehand – it just meant that the formal notice
with the agenda and the Annual
Report might not arrive until two weeks beforehand.
The date and location would
continue to be set a year or so in advance and those
present would be told today where
and when next year’s meeting would be held. But the
task of preparing the Annual
Report in time to be printed and posted in December
was a challenging one at such a
busy time as Christmas and we really need a few
extra days to be sure deadlines can
be met.
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The other proposed changes were simply to reflect
changes in the organisation of the
Ramblers’ Association that had changed the names and
responsibilities of various
groups. It made no sense for our Constitution to
contain redundant provisions and
references to bodies that no longer exist. So we
were proposing the minimum
changes necessary to put that right. Some amendments
to the RA’s M&A were to be
put to General Council in April and further changes
may be necessary as a result.
All the proposed changes were approved subject to
the following further changes and
to the approval of the RA’s Board of Trustees:
· Clause 8(i)
(“OFFICERS”) – before “Treasurer” insert “two Vice Chairmen,”
· Clause 14(iii)
(“FINANCE”) – for “ViceChairman”
substitute “Vice
Chairmen”
Pat Wilson asked for her opposition to the last of
these changes to be minuted on the
grounds that changes affecting financial matters
should not be made without prior
notification to members.
Election of Honorary Officers
Peter Skipp was elected Chairman
David Law and Les Preston were elected Vice Chairmen
Robert Peel was elected Treasurer
The following appointments were also approved by the
meeting:
· PROW Manager –
Neville Machin
· FP Sector
Coordinators
– Colin Bridge (East Kent), Geoff Turner (Mid Kent)
and John Smout (West Kent and Bromley)
· Footpath
Correspondence Secretary – Glynis Clifton
· Webmaster –
Margaret Lubbock
· Area Council
Representatives for Affiliated Clubs and Individual Members –
Gordon Sencicle and Ken Neville
Appointment of Auditor
Keith Miles was reappointed to a round of applause.
Address by Tom Franklin
Tom began by reflecting on how influential the RA
had been over the past 70 years
and on the contribution made by volunteers. He went
on to reflect on the even longer
history of walking, illustrated by fossilised
footprints from 100,000 years ago. But it
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is clear that many people are losing the habit of
walking with a very detrimental effect
on their physical and emotional wellbeing.
So the challenge for the future is to get people
walking again – to get them to
appreciate that walking is the easiest and cheapest
way of keeping fit. And we want
to make the UK a place where walking is easy and
enjoyable. This means looking
after and improving the infrastructure – the
footpath network – but also improving the
image of walking and assisting those in the
community for whom there are obstacles
including those without cars.
Open Forum
The points raised by Tom were widely discussed and
the following issues identified:
· Litter is an
increasing problem
· While we need
to work closely with other organisations such as Sustrans,
there will always be tension between the needs of
walkers and the needs of
others such as cyclists
· Not enough is
being done to encourage families – we used to organise Family
Rambling Days
· How do we
attract more members and keep them?
· Some Groups
put members off by organising only long walks
· Only 10% of
members join Group walks – so 90% join to support the cause
· In some Groups
a much higher proportion join a walk at least once a year
Next Annual General Meeting
This will be held on 7 February 2009 in Headcorn
Village Hall hosted by Maidstone
Group.
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