Announcements
The Board noted with sadness the death of Arthur Osborne, Vice-President and former Chairman of Derbyshire Area; and the death of Eric Wallis, Secretary of South West Coast Path Association for 24 years who worked closely with the Ramblers.
It also noted with pleasure that Stewart Ramsden, a Ramblers volunteer with Manchester Get Walking Keep Walking, and Margaret Bowdery, Footpath Secretary for East Berkshire Ramblers attended a reception at Windsor Castle to meet the Queen, to honour all their services to the countryside on behalf of the Ramblers.
Chief Executive’s Report
The Chief Executive reported on the eight special national and regional volunteer meetings which had taken place with the Chair and himself over the past two months. Over 200 volunteers attended in total, and the main points have been:
- They have been much more positive than the meetings last year.
- ‘How to increase membership’ has been the theme of most of the meetings. There is agreement on how important this is, and many ideas were coming forward – but there is a long way to go before membership really starts to increase.
- Ideas which we are already developing from the meetings include:
- Small ‘fixed by the Ramblers’ signs for Groups to put on stiles, etc, when they fix them;
- Clearer information on volunteer electronic communication – for example, stating who emails have been sent to;
- Incentives for Groups to encourage member recruitment;
- Member welcome/renewal letters to be tailored to include examples of achievements in each country (this was particularly strongly felt at the Scotland meeting);
- A need to ‘sort out’ the web – making sure there is more consistency across Area and Group websites, as well as the central website.
The Chief Executive updated the Board on campaigning work. On coastal access, the Government has committed to the first six stretches, but there is no timetable, or budget beyond this. On local authorities, he said that he would like Areas and Groups to be taking more action to lobby their councils against spending cuts in rights of way budgets. Some Groups were taking the approach that “it is inevitable, there is nothing that can be done”. Others were saying, “it won’t happen”. Our message to volunteers is that savage spending cuts will happen if we do nothing, but they are not inevitable if we campaign effectively.
He also reported on new walking projects for which grants have been awarded to the Ramblers:
- Get Walking Keep Walking in County Durham
- A Walk in the Park, a scheme to organise health walks in London’s Royal Parks
- Get Walking Keep Walking Prisons, a scheme to encourage prisoners to walk for greater well-being, at three prisons in the south west.
The Chief Executive gave an update on the financial situation. Although 2009/10 (the financial year just ended) led to a significant financial surplus (largely through one-off additional income), the next couple of years are likely to be financially difficult. We have some way to go before we can say that membership is growing again, and that our income is expanding. At the same time, there are a number of income and cost pressures over the next couple of years: the end of the Get Walking Keep Walking grant and other grants, and continued high inflation, for example. He urged caution and to resist pressures to increase expenditure, at least until the financial picture was clearer. His only exception to this was investment in the website, which is so critical for our future, and such a high priority of volunteers.
Finances
The Board received the latest monthly accounts to the end of the financial year (September), and also the first monthly accounts for the new financial year (October). They show a central surplus of c£800k for last year (mostly from higher than expected membership income, plus one-off income such as backdated gift aid, and legacies). For the first month of 2010/11, the finances were slightly better than the approved budget, but not as good as the more ambitious target budget.
The Board also approved a set of Standing Financial Instructions – a recommendation from the Kipling Report into the Ramblers finances. The Board also reviewed the key risks faced by the charity.
Key Performance Indicators
The Board reviewed the Key Performance Indicators for the final month of 2009/10. These are 16 key indicators – covering finance, membership, campaigns, and organisation – which give a snap-shot of how we’re performing against the Business Plan targets. Of the 16, we achieved 15.
The Board also reviewed the first month’s results for the new Key Performance Indicators for 2010/11.
Finally, the Board reviewed membership figures up to the beginning of December. They show that as of 1st December, we had 120,479 paid up members – this is 1,019 fewer than the start of the year. Our target is to finish the year with more members than we started – so we have quite a challenge to achieve this. Membership renewal – at 87% - is above target by 2%. However, membership recruitment is only just over half of the target of 3,000 for the first two months of the financial year. There are lots of activities taking place to boost recruitment, including:
- 90,000 inserts in Cotswolds brochures and Country Walking magazine,
- a new “member get member” leaflet in Walk magazine,
- a mailing to ‘long-lapsed’ ex members,
- encouragement to Areas and Groups to increase membership recruitment activities,
- a financial incentive to affiliated clubs to recruit their members into the Ramblers,
- a telephone campaign to 5% of new members, to welcome them and encourage gift aid declarations, from January 2011
- a web recruitment campaign in March 2011
Draft Annual Report
The Board considered the draft wording for the Annual Report. Managers were congratulated on producing this so soon after the end of the financial year (two months earlier than usual). We will also be producing a four page executive summary this year.
General Council
The Board agreed that ‘Increasing Membership’ will be the theme for General Council in 2011, with ‘good ideas’ workshops linked to this. The Board will also nominate Julia Bradbury to be Ramblers President for the second year. The format will be similar to last year’s, over Saturday and Sunday, with a general and financial introduction at the beginning, and the same length of time for debating motions. Hustings for the Board of Trustees elections would take place earlier, rather than at the end of Saturday. The Board decided not to put forward any motions to change the Memorandum and Articles of the charity – because the current reviews taking place are likely to lead to a re-writing of the M&As for GC 2011.
Piloting the option of not joining a group, for on-line joiners
The Board heard about a two-month pilot in which new online joiners of the Ramblers will be asked more explicitly whether or not they wish to join a local group. (New members have always had the option of not joining a group, but it has never been made clear.) This follows feedback from volunteers (including at the recent regional and national volunteer meetings) that some new members are automatically allocated to a group, when they just want to join the Ramblers as a whole. This can waste time and money in sending them local information which they don’t want. The pilot will take place soon, and more information will be provided to Groups. It will only last for two months, and we will monitor very carefully whether the renewal rates for those who elect not to join a group are higher or lower.
Devolution working party
The Chair gave the Board an update from the latest Devolution Working Party meeting. The next Devolution Working Party meeting will be taking place on 7th December in Scotland. Prior to the meeting, the Chair and the Honorary Treasurer will be meeting with members of Scottish Council Executive Committee (SCEC). SCEC are keen on independence, but realise it is not possible for this to be achieved by April 2011. The ambition is for 2-3 years time, but at present it is keen to have a strengthened protocol. This will be further negotiated at Tuesday’s meeting. Wales wants to remain in the existing organisation and an updated protocol with them is being written and discussed.
Reference from Sussex Area
The Board considered a reference from Sussex Area. It had requested that Sussex News be sent out with Walk Magazine, rather than separately; and this had been refused on the grounds that its content was not consistent with the editorial style of Walk Magazine. The Board considered this to be a management matter rather than a governance one, and as managers had made a decision it would not be appropriate to intervene. Managers felt that there had been unacceptable delays in giving a decision to Sussex Area, and that some of the correspondence had been ambiguous, and would apologise to the Area about this.
In the longer run, the Board noted that management would consider the production of brand new regional newsletters for the Walk mailing, possibly moving further to some kind of regional sections/content within the magazine.
