Hammersmith, Fulham and Wandsworth Ramblers
Annual General Meeting, Wimbledon Library, 2 November 2024
MINUTES
1. Attendance
a) 24 Members present
b) 2 Non-members present
c) 1 Apology for absence received
2. Minutes of previous meeting – Lorraine read out the minutes of last year’s AGM and they were approved. Matters arising:
- Post of Secretary is still vacant – Lorraine suggested that the posts of Secretary and Membership Secretary be combined.
- A committee meeting was held on 4 January 2024 to discuss the future of the Group following which Lorraine as Membership Secretary emailed all members with known email addresses and sent letters to all those with known home addresses but no email to ask for volunteers for committee posts and for walk leaders. In response David Tatlow offered to be Treasurer and Jacquie Freeland offered to lead walks. Both assumed these roles soon afterwards.
3. Announcement from the Chairman – Graham told the meeting he would like to resign from the role of Chairman, which he has held since Rose resigned. He was asked to become Chairman when Rose needed to leave after eight energetic years in post. It would have been thoroughly unreasonable to have expected more of Rose so he did not require a great deal of arm twisting. Now he thinks HFW would be well served by finding a new Chairman. He would like to be ex-Chairman by 2 April 2025.
4. Election of officers
a) Chairman - Graham was re-elected unopposed with the agreement that he could step down on 2 April 2025. In the meantime we will look for his replacement – action required.
b) Secretary – Lorraine’s suggestion that the posts of Secretary and Membership Secretary be combined was discussed. Paul said that Lorraine’s having the more senior title of Secretary or Group Secretary might be helpful when she communicates with the Ramblers Association. Tim said that normally the constitution of a Group would require it to have a Chairman, a Treasurer and a Secretary and that other posts, eg Membership Secretary, were optional. It was agreed that the posts should be combined. Lorraine was elected unopposed as Group Secretary.
c) Treasurer – David T. introduced himself to the meeting. He is a long-term RA member and supporter of its work, but doesn’t come on Group walks so isn’t known to members outside the Committee. On retirement he had time to offer to help out in some way in the Group and agreed to take on the role of Treasurer, which he has been fulfilling for the last few months. David T. was elected unopposed.
d) Walks programme organiser/Walks editor - Paul was re-elected unopposed.
e) Social Secretary – Edwina was re-elected unopposed.
f) Committee member – Rose was re-elected unopposed.
5. Treasurer’s Report
David T. reported that the Ramblers’ financial year runs from 1 October until 30 September. He had taken over as Treasurer some way into the financial year. The ‘gap’ between Nigel Davies, our previous Treasurer, finishing and his starting had been very kindly covered by our Area Treasurer, Dick Dunmore. David thanked Dick for all the help he had given him and Tim confirmed that Area will continue to give assistance whenever it’s needed.
He has spent the first few months dealing with the Unity Bank and the changes are now properly registered with the Bank. However given that a couple of committee colleagues have stood down as Bank signatories we now need another member to authorise payments from our bank account. This role can be easily done by a member who is comfortable using a computer and the internet. All payments will be made by the Treasurer using internet banking but these payments will not be made by the Bank until ‘authorised’ by a second member. It would be helpful if this appointment was agreed at the AGM.
Accounts:
The Closing Balance as at 30th September 2023 was £561.75 as reported by Nigel last year.
Money received during the financial year 2023/24 was:
Ramblers Main Funding 516.17
RWH Travel - holiday income 190.00
———
Total Annual Income 706.17
Money paid out during the current year was:
Room Hire - 2023 72.40
Membership Secretary’s expenses 142.65
———
215.05
(please note that a further payment of 38.40 is due to the Membership Secretary for our AGM in November room hire but currently cannot be repaid as we have no second signatory with the Bank).
The Closing Balance as at 30th September 2024 is therefore: opening balance of £561.75 plus annual income of £706.17 (£1267.92) less payments of £215.05 =
£1052.87.
The HFW Ramblers Group therefore has currently £1052.87 in the Bank.
We can expect to receive c£500 main funding for the current year but we cannot estimate other income. For the current year we therefore have at least £1500 to spend as Members may wish but Ramblers rules are clear that we should end the year (30/09/25) with a minimum of 40% of our annual expenditure in the Bank.
So for example if we spent £1000 we should still have £500 in the Bank at the end of the year and £500 in the Bank would be 50% of our annual expenditure (£1000) and therefore just within the guidelines.
So the question for the Group is whether to spend up to £1000 during the year and if so on what exactly having regard of course to the fact that all expenditure must be for the charitable purposes of the Ramblers. This question now arises for the Group as there is no longer any expenditure on printed ‘walks’ bulletins as all this information is available on the Ramblers website.
Some discussion took place following the Treasurer’s report.
- Liz and Paul both offered to be bank account signatories. It was agreed that Liz should be David’s first port of call and that Paul would act as cover if either of the other signatories was unavailable and an urgent transaction was pending. Action – David to get in touch with Liz and Paul and the bank to sort this.
- What to spend our money on -
- Jo suggested commemorating one or more of our deceased, eminent members with a plaque on a gate, such as had been done for John and Rosemary Archer. It would be worthwhile consulting Nigel Davies about this as he had played a prominent role in the installation of the Archers’ memorial gate. Gaining the approval of the landowner is an issue. As an alternative to a gate Joanna suggested a memorial bench. Tim later supplied contact information for North Bucks rRIPPLE (ramblers Repairing & Improving Public Paths for Leisure & Exercise).
- David T. suggested using the money to set up and support a new Wellbeing Walks Group. This would involve liaison with either the Hammersmith and Fulham Borough Council or the Wandsworth Borough Council (or both) and possibly with the local branches of Age UK and local GP practices. It would benefit the community by supporting the elderly and/or children in care. And it would benefit the Group by raising local people’s awareness of us and attracting them to join.
- Alan felt that we should spend the money in a way which would foster country rambling. Tim mentioned that South Bank Ramblers had recently donated money for the renewal of posts and signage on the London Loop.
- Lorraine suggested the purchase of first aid kits and the organization of first aid training. It’s likely that another Group will need to share the training session to obtain a viable number of attendees.
Action required – decision to be made on how to spend the money.
6. Membership Secretary’s Report
An email and letters were sent to approximately 390 members in January requesting volunteer committee members and walk leaders. There were three replies and two followed through. David Tatlow for Treasurer and a longstanding member, Jacquie, became a walk leader putting several walks on the programme during the year. One person did not follow through as a leader (not with HFW anyway). The recent AGM email also mentioned the need for volunteers and committee members.
After suggestions from several members of the West London group, the website was updated, with many emails sent to the Ramblers Zen desk. Lorraine spoke with Neil Lewis (HFW web editor), who had changed his email, and later sent him a text asking him whether he wished to continue as HFW web editor, with no reply. We will continue to request updates to our website via the Zen desk.
The welcome letter for new members was also updated, with 74 being sent since December 2023. The total membership for this group now stands at 421 + 2 affiliates, reflecting joiners, leavers and those changing groups.
As for walks, Lorraine is doing joint walks with Hampstead group, Kensington, Chelsea and Westminster and Richmond groups. With Hampstead leaders offering joint walks with us.
As an aside, in 1991 we had approximately 10 leaders, increasing to approximately 25.
We have a What’sApp Group, administered by Lisa Homan, which should be very useful in improving communication within the Group. Everyone is welcome and encouraged to join.
7. Social Secretary’s Report
First, Edwina apologised for not being very active these past few months. This was due to several reasons, the poor weather during the Summer months, rain preventing many of the walks she was planning, and knee and back problems, which plagued her in recent months.
She did, however, lead two walks in June, which were well received.
She is looking to arrange some cultural visits during the Winter months, and hopes to resume leading walks in the Spring.
8. Committee Member’s Report
Rose reported that it is now compulsory for walk leaders to carry out at least a brief risk assessment for each walk they lead. She also reported that there is now mandatory walk leader training for new leaders and reading the ‘Walk Leader Handbook’ is essential.
9. Walk Organiser’s Report
Paul said that in the year since the last AGM the Group had put on 53 walks, 24 at the weekend and 29 in midweek. 16 different people had led walks, which sounds very good, but most of them only led once or twice a year. In fact, 40% of our walks had been led by just two leaders so there is clearly a need for more volunteers.
A short discussion followed. Lorraine pointed out that if the third most prolific leader was counted in then just over half of our walks are led by just three people. Joanna enquired whether the need to do risk assessments had caused us to lose leaders. Lorraine thought probably not and that losing leaders was down to their dying, getting too old, or else moving away. Lorraine mentioned that the Walk Leadership section of the Ramblers’ website has links to sign up for the online course, ‘Getting started: an introduction to walk leadership’ and the Training Library section of the website contains two modules, ‘Walk leader foundations’ and ‘Preventing and managing incidents’, all three of which are essential for new walk leaders and very useful to existing walk leaders. Celia asked whether more shorter walks could be put on at weekends or, failing that, that the longer walks could have drop-out points.
The meeting ended at 4.55 pm.