Royal British Legion, Sedbergh & District Branch

Minutes for the monthly meeting held in the White Hart Club on Thursday 13thJuly 2017

The meeting started at 7.15 pm with the Exhortation and Silent Tribute led by the Chairman.

Those present: John Douglass, David Parratt, Tony Reed Screen, Elspeth Griffiths, Dennis Whicker, John Estensen, John Pease, Rose Pease

Also present: Jane Brown (Membership Council Representative for Cumbria, IOM & Northumbria), John Jones (RBL member)

Apologies: Kay Whittle, Keith Wood, Sandra Gold-Wood, Nick Cross, Myles Ripley, Martin Gray, Glenise Brood

Minutes: The Minutes of the Committee Meeting held on 8thJune 2017, having been circulated by email, were signed as a true record.

Welcome to Jane Brown and John Jones:

The Chairman welcomed Jane Brown to the meeting. Jane explained that she was in the process of visiting as many branches as possible within her area of operation. She was the first point of contact on membership issues. DP referred to the recent report of the National Membership Recruitment Campaign and the fact that the Legion was losing 75 per cent of new joiners within the first two years of membership. This was certainly of concern and needed to be addressed. There appeared to be better rates of retention where there was a military presence in the area. The age range of 30 – 50 was a particularly difficult one to target successfully. Jane offered to stay on for the remainder of the meeting and to respond to any issues raised if considered relevant.

John Jones was also welcomed to the meeting. John is a long standing member of the Legion.

Matters Arising:

Glenise Brood: DP said that Glenise had now been confirmed as a new member of the Sedbergh & District branch.

Sedbergh Bike Festival Saturday 1st & Sunday 2nd July: This had been a disappointing event with low attendance and few visitors to the Legion stand. The cycling events over the weekend had been cancelled due to lack of entrants. Significant effort was required to collect, set up and return the gazebo and other equipment to Penrith. Although the stand provided a presence for the branch it was unlikely that an application for a stand would be made for next year unless there was a significant change in the arrangements and marketing. DP will make contact with the organisers.

Talk on the National Memorial Arboretum – 13th October at 7.30 pm in the People’s Hall: Further details to follow.

Membership & Recruitment: Jane Brown asked about branch membership. At present, total membership is 188, with 73 full members and the remaining 115 being affiliated members from Sedbergh School.

GP90 – August 2018: DP reported that he had recently received an update on the arrangements for GP90, Great Pilgrimage that is due to take place over a full two-day programme of visits, much of it on foot, to battlefield memorial sites, trenches and cemeteries, as well as the parade on 8th August to the Menin Gate at Ypres, where a wreath from each branch will be placed on the memorial. A march past will then take place, observed by civic and military guests from the UK, Europe and Commonwealth countries. This will be the largest membership event in the history of the Legion. Arrangements will in fact mean that attendees will be involved over a 4 to 5 day period in total, allowing for travel, set up and other logistics. It had been confirmed that branches needed to ensure that they had sufficient funds in place to cover the cost of £1,000 before they register for the event. The deadline to register is 1st March 2018. It was noted that with the takings from the recent coffee morning, the target was achievable but would not allow for any surplus in the accounts without further fund raising. Jane Brown informed the meeting that a financial process has been agreed by which wealthier branches can support other branches so that they can attend GP90 and that Secretaries should make contact with their area MSO on this. It was agreed to explore this possibility as a first option.

JD said that after some deliberation and taking into account further details of the event and the amount of time involved, he had decided to stand down as Standard Bearer for GP90. Keith and Sandra had offered to act as Standard Bearer and Escort and after some discussion this was agreed.

Treasurer’s Report:

Martin reported that the Bank Balance stood at £769.33.Takings from the coffee morning on 12th July allowing for costs was £271.10, making a total of £1040.43.

Welfare/Branch Community Support:

Branch Community Support:

DP reported he had sent off the first quarterly report to the Legion for the period 1st April to 30th June 2017. This covered welfare cases, bereavement support and fundraising activities.

Marcus Hawthorn, the Area Manager North will attend our meeting on 12th October to discuss BCS and the Area Advice & Information Team.

Social Events:

Coffee Morning Wednesday 12thJuly: Although attendance was down on the previous year, probably due to the good weather, the event was judged a success with takings of £271.10. In July 2016, takings were £248. The breakdown was as follows:

Entry £66.00, Cakes 93.10 (£123.10 taken minus £30 hire charge for the room), Raffle 68.00 and Donations £40.00 (kindly given by Rose’s Mum, Jean Mitchell & John Estensen)

Rose wished to thank Anne Reed Screen and Ann Parratt for their baking contributions.

The next Coffee Morning is planned for Wednesday 8th November for the Poppy Appeal.

Poppy Appeal Issues:

Nil report. It was expected that NC will report on his visit to the North West Poppy Appeal Seminar on 9th July at The National Memorial Arboretum at the next meeting in September.

Any Other Business:

New MSO/County Secretary: The new Membership Support Officer, Clive Sumpter had taken up his post on 12th June and is based in the Penrith Office at the Eden Rural Foyer, Old London Road. DP and NC had the opportunity to meet him on 3rd July when returning the gazebo. He will visit our branch on 9th November.

Charter Motions & Motions carried at the Annual Conference 2017: Information had been emailed to members and noted.

There being no other business, the meeting closed with The Kohima Epitaph at 8.20 pm.

The next meeting will be held on Thursday 14thSeptember 2017 at 7.15 pm. This will be the AGM followed by the Committee Meeting. (There is no meeting in August).

Resulting Matters for review at the next meeting:

  • Talk on 13th October and arrangements
  • GP90 – update
  • BCS issues
  • Poppy Appeal Issues and the NMA Seminar report - update