Notts & Derby Walking Group AGM, Saturday 10 October 2026 at The Strutts, Belper

Number of attendees: 23

Presentation by the Chair

Membership

  • 218 – up from 167 last year.
  • 2400 people on Facebook

Finances

  • £3665 – healthy position
  • Reviewing finance security following a fraudulent transition from the Group account, though the money has been refunded. No member information was taken
  • In response to a question on the amount of money held in the account, it was explained that this is a fluid account to allow adequate cash flow to pay for weekend deposits.

Weekends

  • Building on the weekends was a key aim for the committee this last year and we have held a number of successful weekends. This is thanks to people who have organised and lead the weekends.
  • We have adopted a new weekend sign up process to enable members who cannot readily attend a social meeting to be able to sign up. This involves a spilt 50 /50 between in person and by email sign in.
  • Future weekends
    • Youlgreave Dec 2026
    • Tremadog Easter 2027 – booking to open at the first social of the new year
    • Scotland May 2027
    • Isle of Scilly (Sold out) June 2027
    • Potential weekend in Late January

Walks

  • 123 walks this last year, covering a total of 1062 miles
  • 32 new leaders – including 9 new walk leaders. It was noted that all new walk leaders have to do online Ramblers Training (repeated after every 3 years)

Challenges and Opportunities

  • Affordable group accommodation is being more difficult to find. YHA booking policy is moving us towards looking at booking to independent hostels and group self-catering accommodation
  • Social –Request for ideas of social events
  • Getting non-drivers to walks has been a challenging due to limits in communication. Discussion on the development of an app to facilitate the arrangement of lift share and the setting up of a WhatsApp group for weekends to facilitate lifts etc

New Committee

The following members were appointed to the Committee for 2026-27

Chairperson: Andrew Cowell

Secretary: Kevin Robotham

Treasurer: Stuart Broadhurst

Membership Secretary: Claire Sharp

Weekends Organiser: Jonathan Bramley-Maye and Robert Stevens

Walks Organisers: Josh Grainger and Rachael Drewery. Gary Olds happy to support with his vast knowledge

Social Coordinator: Nick Baddeley

Sally-Ann Wallwin agreed to be co - Social Media & Comms organiser for facebook whilst Darrel Ball is to be for Instagram

Website: Alistair Green and Richard Sparrow-Steels

General Members: Sally-Ann Wallwin & Joanne Morris & Chris Parkin

Decided to drop the Conservation position - it was agreed that the group should undertake activities such as litter picking.