Notts Derby Walking Group Meeting Held On Tuesday 1st April 2025 At The White Lion, Beeston

Present

Andrew Cowell in the Chair & acting Secretary, Stuart Broadhurst (Treasurer), Jonny Bramley-Maye (Member without portfolio), Gary Olds (Walks Organiser), Alistair Green (Webmaster)

1. Apologies

Rachael Drewery (Membership Secretary), Joanne Morris (Social Secretary), Rob Stevens (General Member)

2. Minutes of the Previous Meeting

Minutes of the previous meeting were distributed with the agenda. Raised for approval. Proposed: - Andrew Cowell. Seconded: - Jonny Bramley-Maye

3. Matters Arising from the Minutes of the Previous Meetings

None arising.

4. Officers’ Reports

4.1 Group Secretary

The group secretary position is currently vacant and unlikely to be filled. Andrew is performing the duty for the time being. I will be attending the next Nottinghamshire Area meeting on 15th April 2025 at Bilsthorpe Miners Welfare.

4.2 Group Treasurer

Stuart confirmed we are in a healthy financial situation with £3210.47 in the bank account after paying £982 to the YHA for the Conwy accommodation. Due to group inactivity there hasn’t been much spending but restarting weekends will see activity increase. As the price of accommodation increases and we hopefully organise more trips it was agreed that managing cashflow will become more imperative as we could easily spend a lot of the remaining balance on deposits for weekends.

4.3 Walks Organiser

Gary presented the next walks programme which is not quite complete. Jonny is going to lead some walks and will supply these to Gary. Still awaiting confirmation back from West Midlands and OneStep on the exact joint walks we will offer. Talked about several options for the summer programme. Andrew agreed to try a couple of Friday day time walks as an experiment to see if there is much demand. He would offer on weeks with no Saturday walks. As work patterns have changed and more people work four day weeks, Friday is the most likely day people would be available. We also discussed varying the Wednesday evening walks to some Tuesdays and Thursdays so people who always have a commitment on a particular day aren’t excluded. The possibility of an overnight walk near the summer solstice was discussed. Stuart was very keen and could potentially lead! Could we also suggest a camping option for the Trinnacles and Edale skyline walks to make more of a weekend of it? All good ideas but we are going to need more people to help make all this happen.

Joanne had agreed to start posting regular monthly pub meets and monitoring numbers. Numbers have been a bit disappointing to date but there does seem to be quite a bit of interest in the forthcoming Derwent Valley pub meet. We agreed to continue pub meets for the time being. In was agreed that tagging meals onto walks may be a more popular format, although it takes a degree of organisation. We’ll continue to monitor pub meets for the time being. A trip to Bustler market was suggested as a possible social event.

4.5 Weekends Organiser

Since the last meeting we have booked Conwy YHA for the August Bank Holiday with a mix of four and two bed rooms. We agreed to open at the forthcoming Derwent Valley social so we could book more rooms at the same price if it proved popular. Discussed the best way of advertising the late May Hebden Bridge weekend including abandoning idea. Agreed we’d list two walks and suggest people book accommodation. Possible it might not work but nothing to lose! The owner of the Scotland accommodation booked for April 2026 still hasn’t confirmed back to the booking agent. It’s been over a month now and frankly not very confident in the owner. Jonny agreed to send some Scottish alternatives he’d come across recently.

4.6 Membership Secretary

The membership secretary sent her apologies and could not be present due to family issues. Membership has increased every month this year and stands at 146 as of the end of March. All present agreed that getting a regular walks programme and a buzz going in the group is the best way to attracting new and returning members. We have attracted a good number of returning new members, some of whom have already joined Ramblers.

4.7 Web

Jonny enquired whether we could use the old NDWG hill logo on the website as well as the modern Ramblers incarnation. Discussed a longer term aim to modernise the website with a new design, especially one that works well on phones. OneStep and Sheffield walkers cited as good websites we could approach to use as a template.

5. General Chat

Discussion around setting up a WhatsApp group for paid up Ramblers members. This has the advantage of creating an exclusive area and creates an incentive for becoming a member. Need to investigate possible privacy complications, something I’ll also raise with area who have a lot of knowledge in this area. This group could also be used for organising lifts. We will action this if it’s possible.

Following the early appearance of Ticks I will do a Facebook general awareness post.

Alistair mentioned he can make things in acrylic. May be do a NDWG logo in acrylic for pub meets?

6. Date and Venue of Next Meeting

Meeting closed at 21:34. Next meeting 7.00PM at The White Lion, Beeston. Date to be confirmed.