For the first time, to save money, the board meeting took place at central office instead of in a hired meeting room. The Board agreed that most future meetings would also be held at central office. Trustees acknowledged that many Areas and Groups had made great efforts to reduce their spending. Like many other volunteers, trustees often don’t claim the expenses which they could. The Board agreed that, as a further cost-saving measure, wherever they were able trustees would voluntarily reduce their claims for car travel mileage from 28p to 20p. The Board was also pleased to note that excess office space at central office had been successfully rented out to another charity, helping to reduce the net cost of central office.
Announcements
The Board noted with sadness the death of Phil James, husband of Christine James, Cornwall Area Secretary.
Governance improvements
The Board thanked Jonathan Kipling, Hon Treasurer, for his report into the circumstances leading up to the financial decisions taken at the May board meeting. The Board had agreed all his recommendations including that next year’s business plan and budget would be agreed in May rather than September - four months before the start of the new financial year. It also agreed to hold two extra board meetings in the coming year.
Financial and business performance
The Board reviewed the financial and business performance for the first month of the financial year. Broadly, we are on track, with income slightly higher than projected. However, too much should not be read into a single month’s figures. The Board noted that managers were reviewing management accounts and performance indicators on a monthly basis, and that the Hon. Treasurer was also reviewing them.
Scotland and Wales
The Board received a report on devolution options which had been discussed at the Scottish Council Executive Committee. The Board agreed to put forward a motion to General Council calling for greater devolution of Ramblers work in Scotland, Wales, and England, and to set up a small working group to look at potential devolution models to achieve this. The Board also noted the new Ramblers Cymru business plan, and noted the intention to produce a Ramblers Scotland business plan by mid-January, to help with raising specific grants for Scotland and Wales.
Campaigns
The Board received an update on our campaigning work, the highlights of which were:
Royal Assent for the Marine and Coastal Access Bill has put coastal access on the statute books.
Our response to the section 3A order (to amend the CRoW Act as it applies to coastal land) has been submitted following feedback from volunteers and staff.
The South Downs was confirmed as a National Park by the Secretary of State. We are working with partners in the South Downs Campaign to bring this work to a satisfactory conclusion.
Our Rights of Way Improvement Plan campaign continues to attract support. We had the front page story and an editorial comment in ‘Waymark’, the journal of IPROW (the Rights of Way Officers and Managers organisation).
The Countryside Access Management System (CAMS), which we have bought to improve our management of footpath casework, has been successfully installed on a remote current path order database. This should be operational in the new year.
In November the Secretary of State confirmed a definitive map modification order opening up a new length of restricted byway at Burnham Market, Norfolk. Norfolk Area Ramblers applied for the order, citing maps dating back to 1797; the Inclosure Award of 1825; and the tithe commutation map of 1837. Norfolk County Council rejected the application but the Area persevered with a Sch 14 appeal to the Secretary of State, which was successful. The matter went to inquiry where the Inspector, satisfied by the evidence, confirmed the order. The result is an excellent link in the network with no motor vehicles allowed on it.
A meeting has been held with partners to discuss issues around the mapping of downland in the CRoW mapping review process. These discussions have given us a useful focus for going forwards - based on a landscape-scale approach to mapping, and the importance of securing downland access land which makes sense from a user point of view.
The independent report into our family walking pilot was very favourable and has been sent to the Department of Health. A summary of the pilot, including findings of evaluation team is planned.
A micro-website for our Get Walking, Keep Walking scheme has been launched. Paid for by grant funding, it strongly promotes the Get Walking packs, to encourage those new to walking, and includes on-line functionality to request them. The launch will include routes for each project location, with more being added in coming weeks.
A paper has been presented to the Board’s Strategy & Governance sub-committee outlining some of the opportunities and challenges that face the Ramblers in terms of potentially increasing the breadth and depth of Ramblers Groups offering programmes of walks, by making it easier to establish and maintain ‘specialised groups’. More work is being done to look at options.
Our Led Walks team has produced an analysis of reported incidents that have taken place on led walks for two 6 month periods covering Oct 1 2008 – Sept 30 2009 in totality. This is the first time that such reports have been produced. The information they contain will help to raise the profile of risk management, identify any trends and help inform guidance and planned training for Walk Leaders.
Membership data
The Board received a report on membership levels, generated by the ‘master database’ of our CRM system. Now that the data in the CRM system is accurate, we will have regularly available reports on the size and trends in our membership; this also dovetails with the new membership reports which will be provided to membership secretaries from the November data run (at the beginning of December). The Board noted the amended definitions for the various membership types that have been introduced from December 2009 - this leads to a smaller ‘headline’ membership number, of 122,616 as at 23rd November. (This represents those people who have a current paid subscription to the Ramblers.) A further 6,436 are categorised as 'payment pending' (which means that the person's last subscription has ended within the last 3 months and the renewal has not yet been processed). However, these changes in definition means that the information is much more accurate.
Volunteers
The Board received a report on the special National and Regional meetings which the Chair and Chief Executive had held with 150 volunteers, during November and December. It noted that four more meetings had been set up for January and February. It also received a report on the progress of the Ramblers Volunteers Survey, which all volunteers were encouraged to take part in.
