THE RAMBLERS – SOMERSET AREA

Somerset Area’s 43rd Annual General Meeting

The Area A.G.M. will be held on Saturday 18th February 2017 commencing at 2:00pmat St Mary's Church Centre. The address is: St Mary Street, Nether Stowey, TA5 1LL. There is a good size car park and the hall is located 50 yards on the right as you turn into the village from the A39 opposite Cricket Malherbie Dairy & shop.

Grid Reference ST 194 396.

Please refer to the following pages for the agenda and supporting papers

Nominations for office, which must have the nominees’ consent, are invited for all posts. Please note that such nominations should be in writing and received by me ahead of the AGM.

Each group should nominate two representatives to serve on Area Council.

A morning walk is being arranged by Sedgemoor Ramblers. Meet at St Mary’s Church Centre for a start at 10:30. Toilets will be available from 09:45. The walk will finish about 12:30 to 1:00pm. The hall will be open for those attending to eat their packed lunches before the meeting.

The guest speakers this year will be Chris Sidaway, Consultant and Practitioner in Somerset Culture. The subject is "The worthy and not so worthy of Somerset from the Normans to the 18th Century."

We will also have Kate Ashbrook from Ramblers Central Office attending. Kate is the President of the Ramblers, General Secretary for Open Spaces Society and a patron for Walkers are Welcome.

Refreshments will be served after the meeting.

David Thompson

Ramblers Somerset Area Secretary.

1

  1. Apologies
  2. Chair’s opening remarks
  3. Minutes of A.G.M. held on Saturday 13th February 2016 at Shipham Hall
  4. Matters arising from these minutes
  5. Receipt and adoption of the Annual Report
  6. Receipt and adoption of the audited statement of accounts
  7. Election of Honorary Officers:

Chair

Vice Chair

Secretary

Treasurer

Footpath Secretary

Membership Secretary

Newsletter Editor

Publicity Officer

Countryside Secretary

Webmaster

  1. Election of two individual members
  2. Appointment of an independent examiner
  3. Nominations to General Council 2017 University of Southampton Saturday 1st April to Sunday 2nd April 2017.
  4. Directions to Area Council
  5. Any other Business. All questions should be addressed to the secretary by 10 February.
  6. Guest Speaker Chris Sidaway
  7. Kate Ashbrook President Ramblers.

.

SOMERSET AREA’S 41st ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

Staplegrove Village Hall

Saturday 13th February 2016

20 members attended the meeting

  1. Apologies

Tony Fawle

Peggy Fortunati

  1. Opening remarks from the chair:

Good Afternoon, my name is Gus Halfhide, I would like to start by thanking Phil for leading this morning’s walk, and Taunton Dene for hosting this year’s AGM. We have a speaker from Ramblers HQ, Mike Church Ramblers Trustee, who will speak after the meeting.

  1. Minutes of the AGM held on Saturday 21st February 2015 at Long Sutton Village Hall

The minutes were accepted as a true record of the meeting, proposed by David Thompson and seconded by Peter Gatenby, and carried unanimously.

  1. Matters Arising

It was suggested that the drip feed advertising for new members may not be effective and that a concentrated campaign may be better, and the HQ rep was invited to respond. Unfortunately time did not allow at the meeting so a reply was sent by email. The reply did not address the question directly, but suggested that the questioner contact directly for further information.

All other items have been covered during the year at the Area Council meetings and are reported in those minutes.

  1. Receipt and adoption of the Annual Report

The Chairman presented his annual report, copy attached below.

  1. Receipt and adoption of the audited statement of accounts

The Treasurer presented the audited accounts, copy appended below.

The funds originally provided for the walking festival were repaid to HQ by accepting reduced payments during the year. Otherwise it has been a normal year with no extra items.

It was confirmed that the issue of the walking weekend deposits had been sorted out, although we were not happy with the HQ ruling. In future self funded activities would be shown separately in the accounts to ensure that we follow the HQ ruling.

The Taunton Treasurer raised the problem of HQ questioning the large balance in their account, which was caused by the production of walk leaflets for sale, and why were Area not held to the same rule. It was pointed out that there were extraordinary items, plus the distribution to the Groups that gave a false impression of the Area funds, and that this was taken into account by HQ.

The adoption of the accounts was proposed by Peter Gatesby, seconded by Robin Downton and carried unanimously.

  1. Election of Honorary Officers:

ChairMike Plaskitt

Vice ChairNot required

SecretaryDavid Thompson

TreasurerRobin Downton

Footpath SecretaryCarlton Earl

Membership SecretaryLes Stather

Newsletter EditorJoan Gubbin

Publicity OfficerNo nominations – to be handled by the committee as required

Countryside SecretaryNot required

WebmasterLes Stather

These were the only nominations received by the last Area Council meeting, and the Chairman invited those present to nominate anyone else for these positions, but as there were no further nominations the meeting was invited to confirm the nominations in one.

Phil Bissatt proposed and Sandy Swayne seconded, carried unanimously.

  1. Election of two individual members

No volunteers were nominated, but it was pointed that Reg Young had volunteered last year, but had not attended any meetings. The incoming secretary was invited to contact him to invite him to the next meeting.

  1. Appointment of an independent examiner

Mr T Sheehan has agreed to continue.

Proposed by Joan Gubbin, seconded by Les Stather and carried unanimously.

David Thompson interjected at this point to propose a vote of thanks for the committee standing down. This was strongly supported by the meeting and carried unanimously.

  1. Nominations to General Council 2016 University of York Saturday 2 April to Sunday 3 April 2016.

The General Council is the ruling bodyof the ramblers and every area is allowed to send voting representatives to the annual meeting. Numbers of voting members depend on the size of the area, with a minimum of 2. Observers can also be sent but cannot vote on the motions or speak. It elects the trustees, Chairman and Treasurer. The trustees can decide not to proceed with passed motions but have to explain why to the next General Council.

David Thompson and Robin Downton were nominated and elected unopposed.

  1. Directions to Area Council

The Chairman expanded this title to Directions to Area Representatives to General Council.

Somerset have not proposed any motions.

It is difficult to direct our representatives, as we do not know what the motions are until the beginning of March. We therefore have to allow our representatives to listen to the debate and make up their own minds as to how to vote.

It was therefore proposed to circulate the motions via Group Chairs and to invite anyone who had strong views to propose a line to take through the Area Council. The Area Council would then have to meet to discuss and agree any direction to the representatives.

The meeting closed at 3:05 PM.

Mike Plaskitt

Area Secretary.

Ramblers Somerset Area AGM

13th February 2016, 1400

Hosted by Taunton Deane at Staplegrove Village Hall

Annual Report 2015-2016

In my report at last year’s AGM I mentioned that the Clevedon Group were considering moving to the Avon Area. Regretfully (from the Somerset Area perspective) that move finally took place midway through this reporting period. I haven’t had any communication from the group since the move but I hope, for the group’s sake, that it was successful.

In my report last year I also mentioned the efforts by the Ramblers Board of Trustees to change the Governance structure. In that report I voiced my concerns about the conclusions that had been drawn from an online survey. As it turned out a majority of Area Representatives at last year’s General Council shared my views. The Board agreed to revisit the Governance proposals and address the issues raised at GC2014 and GC2015. In December 2015 the Board of Trustees circulated new proposals and a new online Governance survey. The survey was addressed to all members but it is unclear to whom the survey was sent as many members are still unaware of it. Fresh concerns (or the same old ones) have been raised with the December 2015 proposals as they still appear not to address the issues initially raised at GC2013, raised again at GC2014 and again at GC2015. It is also of concern that attempts, by the Ramblers Kent Area, to share their concerns with the Board of Trustees and the wider Ramblers membership have been deliberately obstructed by Ramblers Central Office and Des Garrahan, the Chair of the Board of Trustees. In his response to the Kent Area Chair, Des Garrahan would only agree to pass the Kent Area communication on to some Board members. He also stated that an Area could not require the Chair to pass on communications to other Board members nor the Board pass on communications from one Area to another. Surrey Area also encountered similar difficulties on these issues.This is particularly interesting as in the Governance proposals the Area Chair provides a pivotal role. An inference could be drawn that the Board of Trustees are determined to implement their view of Governance regardless of the views of General Council or the wider membership.

Can I take this opportunity to urge all members to complete the latest Governance survey which can be completed online or by using a Paper Version.

In my opinion the greatest challenge facing the Ramblers continues to be the one of declining membership. Recent initiatives have reduced the rate of decline but membership is still inexorably falling. That is the challenge on which we should be focusing, not Governance.

There has been some good news in the past year; the Big Pathwatch. Members and non-members have been enthusiastically surveying grid squares and reporting their findings. I had hoped that the associated publicity about the wider role of the Ramblers would lead to an increase in membership but this has not been evident. I think the Ramblers needs follow up actions to ensure the identified faults are addressed and then publicise that success. There is a risk that they fail to do that and do not meet the expectations of many who participated.

After 3 years, in the position, I am standing down as Chair of Somerset Area. All in all I have been on the Area Council for about 9 years (I estimate). I have found it a very interesting and enjoyable period and I have been pleased to ‘put something back’ into an activity I’ve enjoyed for over 50 years. I’d like to say thank you to all the Council members with whom I’ve worked.

Gus Halfhide, Chair, Ramblers Somerset Area

1