This was the first meeting of the new Board of Trustees since General Council (GC), and thus included several new members. (For more information about members of the Board of Trustees, their duties and responsibilities, click here.)
On the Friday afternoon, new trustees attended an induction afternoon with staff teams at central office, to gain an understanding of the work of staff teams.
On the Friday evening, Jonathan Kipling (Honorary Treasurer) gave a presentation on the financial responsibilities of trustees. (This takes place annually, at the meeting following GC, so that all trustees are updated on charity finance issues.) There were also presentations from Tony Hall, Director of Marketing and Communications, and Robert McKinnon, Acting Head of Marketing, on the latest membership data and results from surveys.
The main Board meeting took place on Saturday.
Announcements
The Board noted with sadness the deaths of Colin Jacob, Brentwood Ramblers; Bill Sheldon, founder and Chair of Biddulph Ramblers; Keith Walkerdine, Derbyshire Area acting Chair and Area Publicity Secretary; Ken Payne, Hertfordshire & North Middlesex Area former President and Footpath Secretary; and Eric Gibbons, founder member of South Yorkshire & NE Derbyshire’s Dearne Valley group
Election of Vice-Chair
The Board elected David Thomson as its Vice-Chair. David is the nominee from the Scottish Executive on the Board of Trustees. It is the first time in many years that somebody from Scotland or Wales has held one of the officer posts on the Board of Trustees.
Co-options
The Board agreed to co-opt Malcolm Newman (a member from Sussex) for the coming year. Malcolm was formerly Deputy Chief Executive and Treasurer of Sheffield City Council, and helps to fill a key gap in skills and experiences that the Board had identified - experience of local authorities. The Board is also seeking to co-opt somebody with strong marketing expertise, and intends to advertise for this place shortly. [Please note: the Board can co-opt up to two people, to help fill gaps in skills, experience or diversity. The co-opted trustees serve up until the next General Council, although the Board can decide to co-opt them again for a further period.]
Sub-committees
The Board also agreed the membership of the its three sub-committees: Strategy and Governance; Finance, Risk and Audit; and Campaigns and Marketing. For more information about the sub-committees, click here. The Board also agreed to set up a remuneration committee, which will determine the pay of the chief executive and senior staff members.
Chief Executive’s Report
Amongst other things, the Chief Executive reported on his work on the Independent Panel on Forest and Woodland Policy, including the establishment of the Forest Users Group (made up of walkers, cyclists, dog owners, mountaineers, horse riders, and others) which has put out a statement about the importance of woodland access, and met with the Panel’s Chair, the Bishop of Liverpool.
The Chief Executive also reported on progress with coastal access, with several milestones likely for May 2012 – the completion and opening of the All-Wales Coastal Path, and the completion of the first English stretch around Portland (the scene of the Olympic sailing events). We are also gearing up to put pressure on the Government to announce the next tranche of coastal paths.
He reported that we had unfortunately lost the Bayham Abbey rights of way legal case. The Inquiry Inspector found that, although there was evidence that the public had walked the paths for many years, there was also evidence that their use had been interrupted by the locking of gates and by other obstacles. The Board thanked Eugene Suggett, who did a marvellous job at the inquiry, and local volunteers who had campaigned on this for decades.
He reported that two workshops on promoting walking were recently held in Newcastle and London, which were enthusiastically received by volunteers, and the overwhelming feeling was that variety of walks, including short walks, was key for membership growth.
Finally, the Board noted that the Chief Executive and other staff will be running in a half-marathon on Sunday 25th September to raise money for the Ramblers, and that requests for sponsorship will be forthcoming soon!
Membership
The Board had a major discussion regarding the fall in membership. Our target for the year is to end the year with more members than we started, but membership is still declining. We have undertaken research into the motivations for leaving, and we will be aiming to draw all of this together, and make decisions on immediate steps we need to take (as well as longer term steps) within the next few weeks. (This will be the subject of separate communication with Areas and Groups shortly.) Although we are not the only membership organisation which is experiencing a decrease in membership, it is a serious situation, and one that we need to turn around.
New type of groups
Following consultation with Areas and Groups (through the consultation paper, ‘Liberating Led Walks’, which was also discussed at a workshop at GC), the Board gave the go-ahead to a more flexible group model, for those that wanted it. The new model would not require a committee, a constitution, an AGM, a bank account, etc – and would be able to focus on its walks programme.
The aim is for this new model of group to be offered firstly to existing groups which are struggling – for example, in filling committee places. It will then be available to volunteers who wanted to set up new groups, but couldn’t (or wouldn’t) fulfil all the current requirements for setting up new groups.
The research that we have undertaken shows that a key reason why people leave the Ramblers is the lack of choice in our led walks programme (length, variety, location, type, timing, etc). We hope that, over time, this new model will help the Ramblers to expand the choice of led walks we offer.
Defining our vision
The Board agreed to begin to consult on a new ten-year vision for the Ramblers, which answers the following question: “What do we want the Ramblers to be in ten years time?”
The aim is to complete consultation in time to put a proposal to GC in 2012. Consultation will incorporate volunteers and members, as well as non-members. After our vision has been agreed, we will then consult on a five-year rolling business plan.
Scotland
The Board received a presentation from Dave Morris, the senior officer in Scotland, on Scottish issues, including the campaign against large-scale on-shore windfarms in Scotland, promoting walking in the run-up to the Commonwealth Games, the likely effects of the new SNP government in Scotland, and action on membership retention. It was noted that the Board will be holding its away-weekend in Aviemore in Scotland in September – the first time it has held a meeting in Scotland in living memory. This follows the Board’s away weekend in Wales last year.
Finances and KPIs
The Board received the latest management accounts and Key Performance Indicators for the month ending April 2011.
We are currently forecasting a surplus of c£300k for the year as a whole, against a budgeted deficit of £316k (the deficit being made up of strategic investments). The positive difference between forecast and budget is made up mostly of legacies.
Of the 16 key performance indicators, covering different aspects of Ramblers work, which the Board monitors on a monthly basis using a traffic light system, we are green (‘on track’) with five, amber (‘needing watching’) with four, and red (‘behind’) with seven. Action is being taken on those that we are behind with.
The Board also discussed the draft budget for next year. We have significant financial pressures next year, due to falling membership, the ending of grants like Get Walking Keep Walking, and rising costs. We may agree to invest some of the surpluses from the last two years, whilst abiding by our principle of not spending money that we have not raised. The budget and business plan for 2011/12 will be agreed at a Board meeting in July.
Risk management of led walks
The Board discussed the progress in improving risk management in the Ramblers led walks programme. This discussion takes place at the Board meeting at least annually, and is a key plank in meeting the conclusions of the Barton Report into our led walks programme which recommended that the Ramblers “must take significant steps towards a new culture of safety and improved methods of operation”. This also helps to keep our insurance premiums lower. It was noted that some of the improvements include:
• A newsletter for Walk Leaders, called ‘The Leader Column’, giving information about best practice in leading walks.
• Better incident-reporting procedures, and analysis of incidents and lessons learnt.
• Better information on best practice available on the walk leaders section of the website.
It was noted that as a result of the better incident-reporting procedures, we had identified a problem with 999 operations staff not understanding grid reference locations of people in distress. We have launched a campaign to ensure all operations staff are trained to understand grid references – and received our first campaign success last week when South Western Ambulance Trust agreed to update its software to accommodate grid references.
