Bearsden and Milngavie Ramblers and Hillwalkers Minute of the Executive Committee Meeting 21 September 2015 Present: Bob Diamond (Chairman), Fiona Taylor, Hazel Miller, Karine Davison, Moira Allan, Peter Allan, Peter Bartos, Sheila Crawford, Phil McElroy, Mary Darke, Beth Diamond 1. Apologies: Imogen Johnstone, Euan Kilpatrick 2. Minute of the Meeting of 28 July 2015 This was agreed after amendment of item 4.7.a. from It had been relatively simple to produce to With some help, and a great many man-hours, the process in Word had been labour intensive but should be much more straightforward in future. 3. Matters Arising 3. Item 3. Toilet Provision in Milngavie Town Centre. As the Information Centre was due to close in the near future, signposting was now irrelevant. Members felt that the Council s decision to close the service, and the consequent loss of toilet and information facilities was a great loss to Milngavie. Bob suggested individual members might wish to write to East Dunbartonshire s Chief Executive, with a copy to Thomas Glen, Head of Development and Enterprise, EDC, expressing concern at this decision. Item 4.2.a. Postcode for Ramblers Scotland s new address. Karine (Area Representative) had included this in her report. (Attached). Item 6.2 Walk Panel for Mugdock The walk panel had been erected. Moira pointed out that the panel did not have legs, for which the club had paid extra, so a refund was due. She had contacted Andrew Summers and asked him to check this. 4. Reports 4.1 Chairman No items to report 4.2 Secretary (Copy attached). 4.2.a Eurando 2016 The club had been invited to take part in this Europe wide event. After some discussion it was decided not to put on any specific walks for this event. 4.3 Treasurer (Copy attached) 4.3.a. Programmes The current costs for printing programmes had been confirmed as 79.40 4.3.b. Extra pages for programme As agreed at the previous meeting, a contingency fund would be available if additional pages were required in any programme. 4.3.c. New Bank Account. The bank account was being moved to a new bank. The sort code would change, but the account number would remain the same. 4.3.d.Ramblers Holidays advertising fees. Ramblers Holidays still owed the club fees for advertising in the programme.
4.3.e.Bus Walks It was agreed that the cost of Bus Walks would be increased to 11 per person. 4.3.f. Income for No.2 Account. Moira was asked were the income came from for this account. She said it was funded by surpluses on bus walks and events, and donations. 4.4.Walks Coordinator 4.4.a. Spring Programme. Work on the Spring programme would commence shortly. 4.4.b. Coordinator. A replacement coordinator was required as Fiona was giving up this role. 4.5. Programme Editor - (Copy attached) Moira Allan s niece had sent her thanks for the voucher she had been given as a thank you for her assistance in producing the programme. 4.6. Social Convenor. - (Copy attached) 4.7. Membership.- (Copy attached) 4.7.a. Deaths of members. Hazel asked if she saw a notification of death of a member should she notify the committee. It was agreed this would be done on an ad hoc basis. 4.8. Webmaster - Nothing to report 4.9 Bus Coordinator. (Copy attached). It was agreed that from the AGM the role of Bus Coordinator would not be a committee post. 4.10 Access Officer - (Copy attached) 4.11 Area Representative - (Copy attached) 5. Madeira Holiday. 5.1 Hotel Contract. The contract with the hotel was formally agreed. Peter B had prepared an information sheet which would be sent to all those registered. A copy of the contract would be attached to the minute. 5.2 Deposits. It was agreed that Moira would collect all deposits. The deadline for payment was 30 November 2015. 5.3 Sub-committee. A sub-committee consisting of Peter B, Helena, Moira and A.N. Other would complete the organisation. 5.4 Holiday Insurance. All participants would be required to submit details of their holiday insurance to the organisers. 6. AGM/New Committee No nominations for Chairman and Secretary had been received to date. Committee members would speak to club members to assess their interest in taking up a post. If necessary details would be put on Breaking News. 7. AOCB 7.1. Bus Trip timing. Karine asked that Bus Trip details included approximate return times. Fiona said that this is normally included, but was omitted in error from the details of the last bus trip.
7.2.Children in Need Walks. The BBC Countryfile programme is encouraging viewers to undertake walks on 10/11 October in aid of Children in Need. It was agreed that a collection for Children in Need would take place on club walks on these dates. 8. Date of Next Meeting Tuesday 10 November 2015. Committee Reports for meeting on 21 September 2015 Chairman Nothing significant to report. Bob Diamond 14/9/15 Secretary Jess Dolan, Director of Ramblers Scotland, joined the Glasgow and Edinburgh Young Walkers at the Falkirk Wheel as part of the Get Outdoors weekend at the beginning of August. Our walks were submitted for that weekend so new walkers might join us. We had no-one extra on the Saturday walk but Peter Allan has a couple on the Sunday walk. A letter from Helen Todd, of Ramblers Scotland, was forwarded to the committee. The draft Walkers Manifesto to MSP s highlights what Ramblers think politicians should do to promote active healthy lifestyles, protect the environment and improve access to the countryside. We are invited to read the draft manifesto and respond to its proposals. Eurando 2016: As Ramblers GB is a member organisation of the European Ramblers Association, we are invited to take part in a Europe wide event Eurando 2016 - which runs from September 2015 September 2016, finishing with a week-long event in Sweden. It is hoped groups in Scotland will be keen to participate. The theme of Eurando is Energy. If our group is able to do such a walk in our 2016 spring or summer programmes, details should be sent to Jane Chatto janechatto@googlemail.com who will then notify the ERA office, who will publish the information on their homepage. Mary Darke 15/9/15 Treasurer No 1 a/c - General a/c Balance as at 13 September 2015 1237.67. Fourth quarter s funding of 279 and recce contribution of 60 have now been received. Main outgoings year to date are recce expense 333.75, programme printing and postage 458.19, Milngavie in
Bloom 400, meetings (incl AGM) 148.06 and 55 for General Council Accommodation for Karine Davison. 500 has still to be paid to Mugdock, 300 to Milngavie in Bloom and 150 for Andrew s maps. This will bring the balance to just under 300 with 12% reserves both these figures are well within the criteria set by Central Office. No 2 a/c - Activity a/c Balance as at 13 September 2015 1768.75. A deposit of 50 has been paid to Theatre Royal with funds still to be credited from members. The thank you night at Cyan currently has 31 acceptances with 6 still to reply. Approximate cost for this will be 400 ( 50 deposit already paid). These transactions will leave us with around 1400 at the end of the financial year thus keeping us within the Area guidelines. No 3 a/c - Restricted Funds a/c Balance as at 13 September 2015-133.45. No further funds deposited since last meeting. Moira Allan 14/9/15 Walks Coordinator Nothing to report. Work for the Spring programme will commence very shortly. The current post-holder would like to give up this role so a replacement needs to be found. Fiona Taylor 7/9/15 Programme Editor The Autumn programme was successfully printed in good time. Fiona is prepared to continue doing this role on the assumption that someone else takes over as Walk Programme Co-ordinator. The Autumn programme was successfully printed in good time. Fiona is prepared to continue doing this role on the assumption that someone else takes over as Walk Programme Co-ordinator. Fiona Taylor 7/9/15 Social Convenor Glenlee on 27th August 2015: There were 8 on the tour, which was very interesting. The guide was clearly very knowledgeable and passionate about the Glenlee which meant that the tour was very well worth while doing.
Theatre Royal backstage tour on 30th September 2015 So far there are 21 names signed up out of a maximum size of 30 and I will confirm final numbers with the Theatre Royal by the 23rd September. Vanilla Black, the inhouse caterers have been very helpful and the light finger buffet lunch looks promising. The Group Christmas Lunch at the Killearn Hotel on 12th December at 1.30pm is now confirmed at 17 for 3 courses, glass of wine, tea and coffee. It will be a traditional Christmas menu with a vegetarian option at each of the 3 courses. I will put this on Breaking News just before bookings open on 30th October 2015. Sheila Crawford 14/9/15 Membership and Mailing Numbers: As of 31st August, there are 300 members. During August, 9 members lapsed (3 months overdue subscriptions) and 1 resigned. There was also a notification of a deceased member, N. Peacock who I think joined in 1976. Would committee members wish to be notified when there has been an official communication with Head Office? Mailing: All the components of the September December circulation came together in good time and posting was done with some time to spare before the end of the month Hazel Miller 12/9/15 Webmaster Nothing to report. Peter Allan 14/9/15 Bus Co-ordinator The big busses have been very well attended this year. All have been fully booked except for the September bus, which still has six seats available five days before the walk. Euan Kilpatrick 15/9/15 Access Volunteer work continues with Milngavie in Bloom on planting and maintaining the start of the West Highland Way. The next two dates are 15th October and 12th November. Information re dates has been put on Breaking News. In 2014-15 we have helped Milngavie in Bloom up its rating with Beautiful Scotland from Sliver to Silver Gilt. See Jenny Overton s letter below:
Good news, Imogen, we have moved from a Silver Award to a Silver Gilt Award, and we got a second Award (a silver bowl) for our community work. Well done Ramblers! From Sliver Gilt, the next step up is GOLD! Jenny Overton Imogen Johnstone 16/9/15 (sent from Crete!) Area Rep Area Council Meeting - North Strathclyde. Sat. 12th September 2015 Area Officers and Standing Committee: *Annual returns packs have been distributed. Deadline date for return is 22nd October. *Medal Routes App is now available and can be downloaded on Apple and Android devices. *Eurorando 2016. As Ramblers GB is a member organisation of European Ramblers Association, it has been invited to take part in a Europe-wide event- Eurorando 2016. This runs from Sept.2015 to Sept. 2016. Groups in Scotland are encouraged to participate by putting a walk in their Programme, to be published as part of the event. Theme is ENERGY. Ideas include : Walks along rivers, canals & estuaries. Walks along disused railways & canal towpaths. Walks in ancient forests with remnants of Caledonian pines etc. Walks along the coast, beaches, cliffs. *What should individual MSP s do for walkers? Draft manifesto can be accessed at www.ramblers.org.uk/get-involved/campaignwith-us/holyrood-manifesto-2015.aspx Comments can be made at bottom of webpage if logged in as a member, or emailed to Helen Todd, Campaigns & Policy Manager, at Scotland@ramblers.org.uk NO contact with individual MSP s as yet. *RAMBLERS Scotland - moving end of September to Sportscotland s Edb HQ in Caledonian House, Redheughs Rigg, South Gyle. Edb. EH12 9DQ * Membership.
Despite a surge in May by Group totals to 1214, individual total Membership in August was only 10 MORE than in Jan. at 1183. It was noted that some Community Councils are affiliated to the Ramblers Association within their area, and sometimes Paths funding is available through them. Page 2 *Camping rights in loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park. Plans are awaiting the approval of Environment Minister, Aileen McLeod. Ramblers Scotland along with many others, opposes this. HALF of the respondents to a public consultation on proposals to introduce byelaws, in response to overcrowding and incidents of antisocial behaviour, said they did not want this restriction. * Regional Park around Campsies and Fells area has been suggested by North Strathclyde. * NEW Walk : Gary Linstead, Countryside Ranger with Glasgow City Council South Team, has devised 10 mile walk in South side of city, linking Linn, Kings and Castlemilk Parks, a wildlife corridor, Cathkin Braes, woodlands and a site of Special Scientific Interest,which he calls The Magnificent Seven. Glasgow Ramblers Group is liaising with Mr Linstead to be involved in waymarking and improving the route. Glasgow Young Walkers may also become involved. This is probably a 3-4 year project, which will involve liason with Glasgow City Council, Ramblers Scotland and possibly other external agencies. * ICE: In Volunteer Zone of Ramblers website, there is now available a large amount of information, help and templates to help Walk Leaders carry out a safe and successful walk. Also included is a template for incident report forms. Also under Volunteer Toolkits, there is a sub-category for Walk Leader Training Toolkits. The information now available is well presented and easy to use and download. Alan Watt is available for website help through N. Strathclyde. * Patrick Grady MP: Before the General Election, Ramblers Glasgow Group Secretary emailed candidates standing in Glasgow NORTH to ask their views on Walking Britain - Ramblers Campaign to ensure Govts across the UK are all working to make Britain a place where there is proper investment and promotion of walking etc. Replies from SNP, Labour and Green Party candidates. Patrick Grady elected and as he has previous involvement with The Ramblers as Countryside Campaigns Manager in London Central Office from 2005-2007, he could be a useful contact. He has already walked with Glasgow Group and hopes to do so again. * Page 3
* Emergency FOBS available through Strathclyde North contain paper with ICE information, to be attached to outside of Rucksack and therefore easily accessible. S N Buying in bulk, means each fob should cost approx. 1. * Funds SURPLUS available from Area! * Our AGM : Anne Thomson will attend as last year. Can she be introduced and welcomed? * Possible Joint Access meeting: Access Report from Imogen? *MEETUP: Attached information to email. *AREA AGM : 16th Jan 2016 in Cumbernauld Link Community Centre at 10am for 10.30 am. Speaker from Ramblers Office? Presentation from Board of Trustees. Packed lunch or cafe`, followed by a walk to Arria and back,approx at 2pm. Asking Groups to advertise this date in their Programmes if not already at printers, and perhaps not to have a walk arranged on that day. * Scottish AGM in Dunfermline on 12th March 2016. * General Meeting in York on 23d March 2016. KarineDavison Area Representative 18th Sept 2015. MEETUP Glasgow Ramblers Committee recently heard a presentation from Roxanne Kerr, of Ramblers Scotland office on MeetUp. MeetUp is a website which allows organisations to publicise events that members of the public can join. Many walking clubs use MeetUp. Roxanne herself runs a (non- Ramblers) club which does so. However, relatively few Ramblers groups currently do so. Using MeetUp is an excellent way to attract potential new members. Not using it risks losing these people to other clubs. Of those clubs or Ramblers groups which do use MeetUp, some simply post a link to their own website, where people can get details of their walks Programme. It is easy just to post this, but it is not really making full use of the potential of MeetUp. Also, it relies on members of the public visiting MeetUp to click through to the club/group website, which sounds simple, but in practice many people will only look at events which are actually posted on MeetUp, rather than switching to another website. Other clubs/groups post the details of individual walks on MeetUp. Obviously there is a certain amount of work involved in doing this.
Roxanne s presentation was excellent, and I asked her if she would come to give the same presentation to the Area Council meeting on 12th September. She initially agreed, but then remembered that she had another commitment on that date, so was unable to come. I don t really know any more about it than I have stated in this note, which is clearly not an adequate substitute for Roxanne s presentation. Maybe some Area Council members are already familiar with MeetUp. Certainly the impression I got is that this could be very useful for Ramblers Groups. The major downside is the cost: approximately 50 for six months. However, this cost allows for up to three MeetUp groups. Therefore three Ramblers Groups could share the cost. This is my reason for bringing it up at Area Council: either the Area could matchmake for Groups who wish to use MeetUp, or the Area could take out its own subscription for MeetUp. In the latter case, the Area would have to be one group for MeetUp, and I don t think anyone would want to take on the task of uploading details of all the Groups walks but, if we were just going to use MeetUp to post links to Group websites, then the Area could post links to all the Groups websites. Barry Pottle September 2015 Copy of contract for Madeira holiday Bearsden & Milngavie Ramblers and Hillwalkers 37 Garvel Rd, Milngavie, G62 7JD, Scotland, United Kingdom Dear Mrs Hamrita I would be grateful if you would confirm the following agreement between The Flame Tree Hotel and the Bearsden and Milngavie Ramblers Group. Arrival Monday 14th March, departure 21st March 2016 (7 nights) A block of 12 Double/twin rooms at the rate of 70.00 per night and 12 Single rooms at 37.50 per night will be held for the Bearsden and Milngavie Ramblers until 14th December 2015. The rates include Half- Board (Breakfast and Dinner).
After the formal confirmation of this agreement, each member of our group will contact the Flame Tree Hotel directly and reserve their accommodation by paying a 50% deposit. The balance will be payable on arrival....... Milngavie, 5 th August 2015 Robert Diamond Group Chairman Bearsden and Milngavie Ramblers Group Funchal,... A Hamrita Hotel Manager The Flame Tree Hotel Funchal, Madeira, Portugal Addition to contract From: p.bartos@ntlworld.com Subject: Booking by Ramblers Date: Sat, 19 Sep 2015 12:00:06 +0100 CC: bobdiamond@ntlworld.com; m.allan577@ntlworld.com To: amine@flametreemadeira.com Dear Mr Hamrita, Please, confirm your agreement with the following addition to our contract: (a) CANCELLATION: The hotel deposit (50% of the total cost of the accommodation) will be repaid in full by the Flame Tree Hotel if the booking is cancelled before 15th December 2015. For cancellations on or after the 15th December 2015, the deposits may be recoverable through personal insurance, if applicable. (b) Our members with Euro accounts can pay by a cheque : to whom should the cheque be made payable? Please, advise. (c) We now have all the 12 single and 12 double/twin rooms provisionally taken and expect the deposits to start being paid. Please, note that any payment from our group will have have a code RAMBLERS attached, to ensure that the Flame Tree hotel knew that the booking was from a member of our group. An early reply will be much appreciated. Looking forward to our visit,
Kind regards Peter Bartos Organiser, Bearsden and Milngavie Ramblers and Hillwalkers Group +44 141 0561706 +44 79041 25558 p.bartos@ntlworld.com