NDWG Committee Meeting 2020-09-01

Meeting held by Zoom at 19:30.

Attending

  • Maggie Langley, Chair
  • Taliesin Walker, Secretary
  • David Richmond, Socials
  • Fiona Halliday, Walks Organiser
  • Joanne Morris, Weekends Organiser
  • Alistair Green, Web/IT
  • Tracy Fisher, Membership
  • Rachel Williams, General
  • Andrew Cowell, Communications
  • Angela Smedley, Treasurer
  • Rachel Johnson, Weekends Organiser
  • Paul Adams, 2nd Walks Coordinator

Apologies

  • None

Chair

  • AGM:
    • Could do zoom.
    • Lacks the social aspect.
    • Issues around encouraging people to join committee.
    • Ambitious to run AGM by October.
    • AGM in January may attract more interest in committee members.
    • Need to work hard to get committee.
    • Agreed: Hold AGM until first week of February Tuesday (2nd February)
    • Agreed: AGM to be communicated website/facebook
    • Agreed: In person if possible, Zoom otherwise, no further postponements.
    • Agreed: Committee to continue.
  • Maggie gave encouragement to committee members for good work.
  • Stated that Ramblers Guidelines haven’t changed regarding walks except to increase the allowed numbers on a walk from 6 to 30

Treasurer

  • Not much to report
  • £4,700+ in bank.
  • Payment in from Ramblers, payment for Meetup.
  • There has been an offer of assistance from Zoe Clutton.
    • Action: Maggie to contact Zoe re: joining as general member of committee.

Walks

  • Walks numbers allowed up to 30.
  • Some problems, eg; One lady managed to book 5 places and not show up.
  • Walk cancelled due to leader sickness. In future, send out a general message rather than asking a specific person to stand in.
  • Paul assisting in walks coordination, adding leaders to Assemble etc
  • Issues getting people to commit to leading a walks ahead of time. Admin getting participants into “Assemble”.
  • Volunteers up to 27th.
  • Action: Maggie to post asking to give Fiona a hand with volunteers.
  • Need to emphasise about the responsibility of walks leaders to deal with issues if they need to change a walk or withdraw after sign up closes on EventBrite.
  • Getting a list of walk participants to the walk leader is a manual process. Paul is ok to do this Saturdays early evening.
  • Why are we focused on Sunday walks, rather than on Saturday. Issues with public transport on Sundays for non-drivers.
  • Agreed: No reason not to be looking for volunteers on Saturday or Sunday and keep an eye on signups.

Weekends

  • This Halloween deferred to next Halloween.
  • Unlikely the New Year weekend will go ahead.
    • YHA give different answers depending on who you talk to. Can move it to a date within 12 months.
    • New Year 2021 isn’t available.
    • May give us cash refund if cancelled 4 weeks in advance.
    • May give credit for use within 12 months. Conditions unclear.
    • If we cancel, we may not get a refund.
    • We could apply the credit to the May bank holiday weekend in the Lake District.
    • Agreed: Try to apply the credit to May bank holiday.
    • Alternatively, if we can’t, try to get a refund. If we can’t we may just have to write it off, but may challenge this.
  • Suggestion: Use EventBrite to manage weekends.

Membership

  • Ramblers haven’t sent an updated list.
  • Hub not showing information.
  • Action: Tracy to follow up with Ramblers when she returns from holiday.
  • We are asking people to quote their membership number when booking on EventBrite.

Socials

  • Not much uptake on zoom socials. Advertised on Facebook.
  • If someone wants to volunteer to organise something online, feel free.

IT

  • Sent test email to committee.
  • Now locked out of admin system.
  • Website background image too bright to read text.
  • Action: New website to go live before next committee meeting, some feedback may still be required. Change photo or background to make text clearer.

Communications

  • Pretty quiet on communications front.
  • Steady trickle of people join Facebook and Meetup.
  • Posted weekend walk on MeetUp, still need signup via EventBrite.
  • Action: Facebook background to change for autumn.
  • Point about Instagram being a better way to communicate with younger members/potential members. Work to continue leading to next. Need someone who has more experience with Instagram.

Secretary

  • Next committee meeting Tuesday 3rd November.

Other Business

  • Thankyou Rachel for flyers.

Meeting closed at 20:50.