Committee Meetings
Thursday 29 Jan 26 January Committee Meeting
Meeting at 19:30
Location The Greyhound PH, Newcastle, ST5 1JTAgenda
- Apologies for absence
- Minutes of previous meeting
- Matters arising from the minutes
- Reports from Officers and Representatives
- Footpath maintenance team leadership and disposal of equipment
- Ramblers Insurance for walkers and walk leaders
Please refer to 24/11/25 Email sent by Stephen M - 2026 weekend away
This item could be deferred to our April meeting - AOB
Reports
Chair
Secretary
Treasurer
Membership Secretary
Since 14/10/25 Stoke/Newcastle Ramblers has recruited 6 new members, but lost 11, so our current group membership is 239.
Overall, group membership numbers remain substantial in relation to the number of active volunteers with most walks and social events well attended. While there are few gaps in the Sunday, Thursday and Friday walking programs, the Wednesday half-day walk program is less complete.
Thanks are due to the social secretaries, event organisers and both new and experienced walk leaders for volunteering their time in support of our group activities. In particular I am pleased to note the increased number of members who have completed the online walk leader training or the experienced leader self-accreditation form.
Less positively, I note that Ramblers central office has now stated that after 2nd February, walk leaders who have not updated their [training] record should not be leading group walks, and they have also introduced new risk assessment forms for walk leaders to complete stating: It is good practice to keep a record of your risk assessment. Please see the 14/1/26 Volunteer Update Email for further details.
Stephen Merry
14/1/26
Webmaster
Walk Leader training
Six members attended the training sesion at the Greyhound on Tuesday 20 Jan. All found it useful, and on leaving felt confident they would be able to complete the courses at their own pace without further assistance. Five members were unable to attend and would welcome a similar session if it could be repeated.
I had an interesting conversation with Paul from Central Office membership team when I was setting up the training meeting; he told me that it is permissable to carry out a "manual" training session with walk leaders, and this will we recognised as sufficient. The procedure would be for the person who has given the training would write to rambles@ramblers.zendesk.com with:
- person giving the course
- date of the training
- modules covered
- list attendees (name, membership number or postcode)
CO would then register the members as trained walk leaders. This is too late for us now, but it would have been useful to have known this information earlier.
Display of walks on the website
(Karen - please paste my report here)
Walks Coordinator
Walks Organisers
Full day walks
Half day walks
Midweek walks
13/1/26
Minutes
Minutes Stoke and Newcastle Ramblers Committee meeting 29.1.26
|
Item |
Details |
Action |
|
1 |
Apologies |
Peter Till |
|
2 |
Minutes from last meeting |
Charlie Bigley (CB) confirmed that now that Karen Mountford (KM) the new secretary for the group can be contacted via the following e mail address. Secretary@stokeandnewcastleramblers.org.uk |
|
3 |
Matters arising from last minutes |
In the July minutes Tony had confirmed the purchase of 4 First aid kits. For completeness we need to establish who has been given a kit. We are aware that 1 kit was given to Linda Bourne. Another was given to CB who has given it to one of the regular long-distance walkers in the group. It was agreed that committee members on walks should ask participants if they had received a kit. KM should be informed of the whereabouts of the 2 missing kits for the purpose of record keeping. |
|
4 |
Reports of officers |
Stephen Merry (SM) flagged up that in the latest e mail from central office after 2nd Feb walk leaders who have not done the Walk Leader training could not lead walks. He also flagged that central office recommended that Walk Leaders should do risk assessments and keep a record of each assessment. He confirmed that the risk assessment recommendations were described as good practice but not mandatory. Concern was raised in the group that the training and risk assessment instructions were putting excessive pressure and responsibility on walk leaders who were acting in a voluntary capacity whilst protecting the national ramblers organisation.
A comment was made that they heard it was going to be made mandatory to take the names and contact details of all walk participants before the walk. CB said that our group had agreed that all walk participants should have an ICE card with them. If people joined from other groups leaders would need to check that had an ICE card. If not, they could provide them with one at the start of the walk. On this issue it was mentioned that on the back of every membership card is an ICE card.
CB said that he had made an alteration to the Stoke and Newcastle website. Previously in an effort to show members local walks in addition to those led by Stoke and Newcastle he had put a link to neighbouring group walks on to the site. In order to include local walks being offered by groups not local to Staffordshire and Cheshire he had changed the link to include any walks within a 40 mile radius. CB was thanked for his efforts to improve the site.
Linda Wilson (LW) and Maria Foy (MF) who lead the social activities wanted to thank members for their suggestions, contributions and attendance. The next event for which there were a few remaining places was 10 pin bowling. |
|
5 |
Footpath maintenance team leadership and disposal of equipment |
Following his announcement at the AGM when Alan Bell (AB) said he was stopping footpath work he wanted to get a decision about where the equipment he was storing would go to. One suggestion was to give the equipment to the footpath teams run by Stone and Biddulph. However, LW said that she and Linda Bourne (LB) were keen to keep the footpath team previously headed by Tony Adair (TA) going. Howard Caton (HC) also confirmed that he would continue with the footpath group. It was agreed that a total inventory of tools from AB and TA would be given to KM. In addition, the remaining members of the footpath group would consider where any equipment might be stored and how it would be transported to work sites. KM would then agree with the committee how the tools should be distributed. AB was anxious to move the equipment on. It was agreed that the committee did not need to wait until the next meeting in April in order to make a decision on this issue. It was also flagged that some of the equipment had come from the council so any decisions would need to take this into account.
|
|
6 |
Ramblers insurance for walkers and walk leaders |
SM said that he didn’t need to add anything over and above the e mail he had sent out in November which gave a link to the key facts about the Ramblers insurance arrangements. A snapshot of Stephen’s e mail is as follows …
Following our discussion about the extent of Ramblers walk leader insurance at last week's group AGM please find attached two documents which I have downloaded fromhttps://ramblers.photoshelter.com/galleries/C0000dCvO3OQYE1E/G00007jFR0bBihlE/Insurance. It seems that our discussion was at least partially based on misinformation and I apologise for my role in spreading this; my comments were based on recollections of reading similar documents to the attachments several years ago. I now stand corrected.
To me the attached documents seem to show that all participants in Ramblers walks have public liability insurance, and additionally, approved walk leaders have personal injury insurance covering walks that they lead and their recces. |
|
7 |
2026 weekend away |
It was agreed that CB would draft an e mail for distribution to the members of the group asking for their suggestions for a 2026 destination and favoured dates. CB would initially distribute to the committee for feedback before sending out to the wider group. If results are received by the April meeting a final decision on location and date could be made. |
|
8 |
AOB |
The committee were asked to consider if the group would do a litter pick this year. Peter Till (PT) confirmed that he had bags, hoops and gloves however the the litter pickers had been returned to the council. LW confirmed that she would be happy to lead a group. It was agreed that she would put on a litter pick at a location to be decided on 15th March to replace the walk she was currently leading. Some members felt that a greater focus should be placed on footpath clearance rather than litter picking. MF suggested that footpath clearance could be also offered on 15th March so that member could choose which group to join.
Appreciation was shown to Maggie Caton from the committee for raising £60 at the Christmas dinner on for the British Heart Foundation on behalf of Tony Adair.
It was agreed that a date and location for the 2026 AGM would be discussed in the April meeting.
There was some discussion about the venue for the Christmas meal. MF would look at the availability of the red bull on Sunday December 6th. Stephen and Susan Merry said that they would be happy to lead a walk in the vicinity of the Red Bull.
AB circulated some drafts for flyers promoting the group that he had created, with the idea of putting them in different locations around the region ie libraries, supermarkets etc. MF said she would explore options for photocopying or printing and report back to the committee.
CB reported that he had organised training for Walk leaders a few weeks ago which had enabled the participants to go away and complete the Walk Leader training. CB was aware that a few people had been unable to attend the meeting so would consider offering another session. It was agreed that this would be a good idea. CB was thanked for his time and effort in helping the Leaders to overcome the hurdles to complete the training. |
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9 |
Next meeting |
Next meeting 16th April 7.30 at Greyhound pub. Meeting closed at 8.42 |