The Board of Trustees met for the first time since General Council on Saturday 22nd May at Central Office. The four new members of the board were welcomed. On the Friday evening, trustees and managers heard two presentations: one from Jonathan Kipling, Honorary Treasurer, setting out the financial responsibilities of trustees; the other from Katherine Hudson, from the National Council for Voluntary Organisations, updating us on a collaborative project which we are involved with, looking at the future of membership organisations.
Announcements
The Board noted with sadness the death of Jim Kerr, a long-standing volunteer with Hampshire Area. It also noted with pleasure the birth of Danny Montgomery to trustee, Eleanor Harris. He is believed to be the first baby born to a Ramblers trustee in many years. The Board sent parents and baby good wishes.
Board membership
The Board elected Harry Mycock as Vice Chair for the forthcoming year. It also co-opted Susan Carter and Naseem Akhtar onto the Board for the year. Susan was previously a senior civil servant at the Department for Environment, Fisheries and Rural Affairs, and will increase the Board’s depth of knowledge of campaigning and lobbying (critical at this time of governmental change). Naseem has been involved with encouraging newcomers – especially Asian women - to take up walking in Birmingham, and has much experience of grassroots voluntary sector organisations. She will increase the Board’s understanding of how to reach out to new communities. The Board also co-opted Andy Rogers, from the Notts and Derby 20s-30s Group, to the Finance and Audit Sub-Committee. He is a chartered management accountant with an MBA, with experience of both pensions and CRM systems.
Chief Executive’s report
Walking environment: the Chief Executive reported that a successful training event on coastal access had been held for 40 volunteers, and that useful discussions have already been held with volunteers in Dorset, Cumbria, Kent and Somerset – areas which will be the first to benefit from the coastal access legislation. He had written to Richard Benyon MP, the new Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Natural Environment and Fisheries, seeking confirmation that implementation of the coastal route will continue as planned. He reported that two more induction training sessions had taken place for new walking environment volunteers. Our General Election manifesto, Breaking Down the Barriers to Walking, had been signed by many candidates, including 115 who were subsequently were elected to Parliament (including the Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg). We’re now encouraging Areas and Groups to build relationships with these and other MPs, by inviting them on walks. He also reported that our new public path computer system (called ‘CAMS’) is now being used, for the first time, to record public path problems – this will mean we can identify problem ‘hotspots’ to help with campaigning. However we’re still having problems with encouraging Areas to report path successes, which is making it harder to show the value of Ramblers public path work.
Promoting walking: the Chief Executive reported that 156 Groups were hosting walks for Get Walking Day (202 walks in total – between two and six miles). This is a 50% increase on last year. We have sent out 6,210 £1 membership forms – and we wait to see how many are returned. He also reported that, from this summer, Walks Finder walks of five miles or less (about 100 a week) would be co-branded with Walk 4 Life (the healthy living campaign). This will help to promote these walks to more people. He also reported that the Get Walking, Keep Walking project had achieved its participant targets in the first quarter of the year. He reported that in Scotland, three temporary members of staff are being recruited as part of our successful application to the Future Jobs Fund, partly to help with walking promotion work linked to the Commonwealth Games. He said that the 75th anniversary baton walks were going well, with 80% of Groups in Wales taking part. Although not as many Groups in Scotland had taken part, he said the country had won the award for the highest ‘baton exchange’, from Dalgety Bay to Dunfermline and West Fife Groups, at the summit of Schiehallion, Munro No. 59, at a height of 1038 metres!
Volunteers: the Chief Executive said that the special 75th anniversary volunteer awards would be launched on 1st June, with eight categories covering membership, led walks, growing the organisation, campaigning, introducing people to walking, successful committee membership, partnership, and media. The closing date was 30th September.
Financial accounts and Key Performance Indicators
The Board received a financial forecast to the end of the financial year (September 30th), suggesting a likely year-end surplus of £325k (against a budgeted deficit of £41k). However, almost all of this is ‘one-off’ rather than recurring income – for example, legacies, and the claiming of gift aid stretching back over many years (made possible by improved gift aid efficiency and the CRM system).
The Board also received the dashboard of Key Performance Indicators up to the end of April 2010. These are 16 indicators which help the Board to assess whether we are ‘on track’ for the year - they are a mixture of financial, development, and business targets. All are on track apart from two - the target of 500 footpaths unblocked, opened, or recorded on definitive maps as a result of Ramblers efforts this year (where we are experiencing difficulty in persuading volunteers to share their successes); and progress on coastal access implementation (where we are awaiting news on the intentions of the new government). The Board was pleased to note that the 10-working day turnaround for membership applications and renewals (and related correspondence) is now being achieved and, indeed, bettered. The Board received membership figures up to the end of April. These show active membership at 123,037 (a slight dip on the previous month), with 1,365 new members during April.
Business Plan and Budget 2010/11
The Board received a report on progress in setting the business plan and budget for 2010/11, including feedback from Areas, and agreed to finalise these at its meeting in July. It agreed that the budget would balance, with this year’s surplus then being used to fund additional activities for next year (with a final decision being taken in July on the likely size of the surplus for re-investment). Such initiatives and activities were designed to either improve efficiency, generate additional income and/or members (partially in 2011/11 and fully in 2011/12), or continue existing led walks/public paths work. The financial commitment could be ended after a year if the desired outcome was not achieved. This approach is consistent with the recommendations contained in the Kipling Report into financial management.
In particular, the Board agreed to:
• Set up a designated public path/access legal action fund, from which national casework on public paths can be funded;
• Continue support for led walks training and safety work;
• Provide more support for helping to set up new groups or sub-groups, and to help groups put on a greater variety of walks, to help attract more members;
• Provide support for members of affiliated clubs to join the Ramblers as individual members;
• Support work to expand partnerships with the private sector, and encourage more individual giving through top-up donations on subscription fees;
• Continue to resource membership services, to make sure that the improvements we’ve seen recently are maintained;
• Invest in the design and content of the Ramblers website, to drive up the numbers visiting and joining online;
• Investigate letting out more office space at Central Office, to further reduce rent costs.
Following consultation with Areas, it was agreed that for the coming year, the focus of campaigning work would be the protection of public paths, and working to increase political support for them within a climate of government cutbacks, and to begin work on scoping a campaign around access to rivers and woodland (following the decision at General Council).
Motions from General Council
The Board noted that it would receive an update on progress with motions from General Council (GC) in September. Motions remitted from GC would be discussed by sub-committees in July, before coming to the Board for approval in September.
Kipling Report and CRM review
The Board received an update on progress in implementing the recommendations of the Kipling Report, ‘An Inquiry into the Financial Affairs of the Ramblers’. This is very broadly on-track, and there will be a further report at the Board meeting in September. It also agreed the Terms of Reference for the review into the CRM (Contact Relationship Management system) problems, which would be undertaken by Andy Rogers (newly co-opted to the Finance and Audit Sub-Committee) who has previously undertaken an evaluation of a CRM system in a work environment.
Devolution working party
The Board approved the Terms of Reference for the Devolution Working Party. It will contain two volunteers from Scotland, two from England, and two from Wales, together with the Ramblers Chair and Hon Treasurer, and will report in February 2011.
Board Sub-Committees
The Board agreed the Terms of Reference for the three Board Sub-Committees, and also the membership for each. These usually meet in the month before the Board, to consider issues in more depth, and to make any recommendations to the Board.
Board skills, diversity and experience
The Board reviewed the results of its self-audit, and noted the following relative weaknesses in the Board from 2011 onwards. It agreed to publicise these amongst potential Board candidates and GC delegates:
• Women
• People from black and ethnic minorities
• Younger people
• Experience in central and local government
• Experience in fundraising
• Experience in urban walking
• Experience in the voluntary sector
• Experience in constitutional matters
• Experience in property matters
• Good geographic spread of trustees
