NDWG Committee Meeting 2023-01-27
Present
- Alistair Green (Webmaster)
- Gary Olds (Walks Organiser)
- Stuart Broadhurst (Treasurer)
- Fiona Woodward (Membership Secretary)
- Rachael Drewery (Weekends Organiser)
- Helen Percy (Weekends Organiser)
Minutes were taken by Alistair Green in the Secretary’s absence.
Apologies
Due to technical problems, Rosanna Rapacchietta was unable to joint the online meeting.
Walks Organiser
Programme filled in until end of May.
How can we attact more walk leaders?
- Possibly a navigation course?
- Blank walks programme is overwhelming for potential leaders.
- Walks need to be taken off the website if nobody is leading. Remove the previous Monday.
Figure-of-8 walks could be an easy way to offer both short and long options.
We need to differentiate ourselves from other walking groups on Meetup:
- We tend to walk longer distances.
- Note that we are covered by Ramblers insurance.
Can we re-introduce car sharing? A recent walk at Dale Abbey had too many cars to fit into the lay-by. Also non-drivers have difficulty joining walks. This is to be discussed further when Rosanna is available.
Suggestion of hiring a coach: This has been done in the past, but not always enough people to cover the costs.
Should walks start earlier? This might be an improvement for popular Peak District locations where car parks fill up. Shorter and Saturday walks should probably still be 10:30 or later.
Weekends
Gower Peninsula trip opened at the pub meeting last week. Seven out of ten places have been sold.
Socials
The first social of the year, a pub meeting in Beeston, was held last week.
A restaurant meal has been organised and advertised on the website.
Treasurer
No change since the AGM - no transactions. Payment forthcoming to Dave H for last year’s Zoom subscription.
Membership
Membership count has dropped from 176 to 173 over the past year. Six new members but others have lapsed or left.
Website
Walks programme is being kept up to date on our website.
Investigate how to get our programme onto the Ramblers website. Some groups have stopped using the national website because it was not fit for purpose.
Communications
We do not have a dedicated communications officer but Helen can send messages to the group mailing list.
Helen Percy disconnected from the meeting at this point due to technical issues.
AOB
Links between Facebook and the website are not obvious enough.
Nottinghamshire Area AGM coming up.
Matters for discussion at the next meeting:
- Results of weekends survey
- Rules for social media. What should we do if people advertise non-group walks on our Facebook page?
Next meeting
The next meeting should be held in late March - details to be discussed with Rosanna.
“Jitsi Meet” did not work well for this meeting. Consider using Microsoft Teams as an alternative, or possibly meet in person.
A weekend daytime face-to-face meeting might be more convenient than a weekday evening for those who live further away from Derby and Nottingham.