Minutes of AGM 2025

The Ramblers Association, East Surrey Walkers Group

43^rd Annual General meeting Minutes

2pm Saturday 8 November at St. Andrew’s Church Hall, Limpsfield Chart

1.      Chairman’s Welcome

Helen McDonnell welcomed 39 members to the AGM.

2.      Apologies for Absence

Rosemary Blythe, Barbara Bulman, Julia Draper, Fran Edwards, Mark Fulstone, Pat Glenn, Steve Hanks, Judith Mills, Chris Myers, Janice Sillitoe, Linda Wellbrook, Ron Wellbrook.

3.      Minutes of the 2024 AGM

The minutes of the 2024 AGM were on the website so were not read out. The approval of the minutes was proposed by Anne Le Petit and seconded by a show of hands.

4.      Matters Arising

None

5.      Chair’s Report

Helen read her report commenting that her first year had seen her enjoy a lot of walks and good company. Our programme has continued to offer a great range of walks and she thanked all our leaders who have done a great job. All our usual social events have gone ahead with help from the committee and our members. Particular thanks were given to Kate Roffey for organising the walk for the London Blind Ramblers; to Judith Mills for stepping in to organise ESW holidays and to Karen Frost for taking on responsibility for the ESW Facebook page. With Chris Myers having actively taken on the role of publicity officer and getting our name out there, she hoped that membership numbers will see an upturn.

Helen spoke about the need to fill 2 roles: a replacement for Ron Wellbrook as walks co-ordinator and Brian Smith as Webmaster. She thanked Brian for all his work over many years and Deb Skinner who has agreed to take over as Webmaster.

6.      Treasurer’s report

Stuart England stated that the accounts were posted on the website and that in summary our funds stand at a healthy £8,200 carried forward, compared to £5,900 last year.

He wanted to thank a number of people who have helped with the finances:-

• First of all Karen Holdsworth for all her help when handing over the accounts and the extra detail she provided. Karen applied for additional funding in her final year as treasurer which has come through in his first year in post and has boosted our funds.
• Barbara Bulman for keeping track of the expenses of Ken’s Krew and also those members of Ken’s Krew who forgo their expenses and donate them to the kissing gate fund. £126 this year.
• Angie, Roger May and Helen McDonnell for their tracking of income for social events. Those events generated £160 for the social fund. Also an extra mention to Roger for running a raffle raising £236 for the Kissing Gate fund.
• Judith Mills for her spreadsheets and the tracking of holiday receipts and expenses. We received £210 from RWH thanks to members who register ESW when they book a holiday. He made a plea for anyone going on a RW holiday to do the same.
• Nigel Poulter who generated £250 by inserting adverts into our Walks Programme.
• Finally, he thanked Robert Coupland for stepping up to be our Independent Examiner. Robert worked with amazing speed and the accounts to Ramblers were submitted within 3 days of the year end.

A question was asked about whether Surrey County Council (SCC) was holding any ESW funds for the purchase of kissing gates. It was confirmed that the answer to this was no but there is a stock of kissing gates at SCC that ESW have purchased previously. No gate purchases have been made during the current year.

 Lisa Dunning said that she was aware of some paths in her area which would benefit from gates and would check these out.  Helen McDonnell asked that members should speak to one of the footpath secretaries if they are aware of footpaths which would benefit from gates or other work to improve access.

Adoption of the Treasurer’s report and Accounts was proposed by Nigel Poulter and seconded by Pamela Cunniffe

7.      Officer’s reports and matters arising

Membership secretary

Tricia Ross spoke about the reduction in the number of members over the last year as outlined in her report and advised that as of yesterday East Surrey Walkers now had 438 members. The group continues to attract new members but each year there are leavers who for whatever reason choose not to rejoin, most commonly due to health or lack of time to walk. Tricia outlined that it may be relevant that new Ramblers members are no longer allocated to their nearest group by default. They must choose a group. If they do not do so and live in the Surrey area they are allocated to Surrey area. This stems from GDP requirements. The number of members in Surrey area has more than doubled over the year to 968 suggesting that more new members are not choosing a group.

Tricia spoke about some of the initiatives that have been directed towards attracting new members during the year. At the hobby fair in Warlingham there was a lot of interest on the day but the outcome was unknown.  Notices have been put up on parish notice boards etc. but unfortunately have not remained in place for long.  A concerted effort has been made to get articles and advertising into local newspapers and magazines and on line, with some success.   Chris Myers has recently taken on the role of publicity officer for the group. New flyers are being printed and Helen McDonnell said she planned to take some of these to the New Year’s lunch to distribute to members.

Tricia was asked whether walk leaders still take email addresses from new walkers joining walks. Tricia replied that most walk leaders do and if details are passed on to her she sends out information to follow up. Quite often a response is received and some individuals are tempted to join up.

Bridget Parry-Jones mentioned that Kent groups had found that some individuals who were not Ramblers members were repeatedly turning up for walks and asked whether this would be spotted if it occurred in our area. Tricia confirmed that as we take details of who turns up for our walks this would be identified and she was unaware of any issues.

Walks Co-ordinator

Helen McDonnell said that she had been asked to speak about the walk’s co-ordinator’s report as Ron Wellbrook had been unable to attend the meeting.

No-one had come forward to take on the walk co-ordinator role despite the requests that have been made over the last year.  Having previously undertaken the role Helen said that she found it difficult to understand the reason why and appealed again for a volunteer.

Helen said that she had confirmed prior to the meeting that 36 walk leaders had now completed the Rambler’s on-line training modules or confirmed that they met the walk leader experience requirements. She advised that she planned to send out a reminder about this requirement. About 45 walk leaders are thought to be active leaders, some of whom lead only specific types of walks such as fast fitness and ambles. The ESW list of leaders contains a much greater number of walk leaders but many no longer lead walks.

Tricia Ross commented that the group has gained 2 or 3 new leaders since the new training requirement in July so its introduction does not seem to be deterring members from becoming leaders. Helen McDonnell said that she had done the on-line training herself so that she can offer encouragement to others.

Karen Holdsworth asked if walk leader self certification was likely to be an annual requirement. Tricia Ross replied that this is not currently the case and the Ramblers have indicated that some kind of renewal will be required after 3 years but details are not yet known.

It was commented that some walk leaders lead but never join other walks in the programme. It would nice if everyone supported the walks of others as well as leading.

It was mentioned that ESW had put on more walks this year than last year and that overall the ESW programme has a good range of walks.

A question was asked about whether any information is available on the age of walkers undertaking our group walks. Tricia Ross replied that there is no reliable data.

Social Events

Helen McDonnell thanked everyone who had been involved in putting on, or helping with or at the various social events that have taken place during the year. The next event is the New Year’s lunch on 18^th January, which she thanked Angie for organising.

Local Footpath Secretaries

Tony Pearson asked that members read the footpath secretaries report on the website, if they had not done so already.

He outlined the 5 way split of Tandridge District between the 6 footpath secretaries,
Ray O’ Leary, Sharon Blake and Richard Aust, Roger May, Richard Mascall and himself as set out in their combined report. He spoke about some of the actions they have been taking to ensure that the footpath system in the area covered by ESW is fit for us and others to use. Surrey County Council (SCC) has a statutory duty to consult with them and get their views about matters affecting footpaths.

Footpath problems are reported to SCC on the CAMs reporting system but it will often take some time before they are passed down to volunteers to action.

The bi-annual check of the status and condition of the footpaths in our area, as carried out by Richard Mascall’s team, shows the standard of paths in ESW’s area is similar to that reported by other areas in Surrey.

Roger May spoke about the role of volunteer path wardens. These are trained volunteers who the footpath secretaries can call upon to assist them in resolving straightforward footpath problems. 10 members have volunteered to be path wardens and more would be welcome. Something will be put on the website about the role, or anyone interested can contact a footpath secretary.

Nick Withers asked a question about whether a path used as a path for 20 years becomes a public path. Tony Pearson replied that if a statement of deposit has not already been submitted an application can be made for it to become a public path. This may require supporting evidence.

Ken’s Crew

Helen McDonnell said it had been another busy year for Ken’s Krew. As Barbara was unable to attend Helen read out Barbara’s report on all the work that Ken’s Krew has carried out. If members have any questions Barbara has invited them to contact her at her work party email address given at the end of her report on the website.

8.      Report on Surrey Area

Helen McDonnell reported on the Surrey area matters that have recently been discussed:-

• Walking on MOD land
• Walk leader training
• The Surrey Rights of Way Improvement Plan
• The Surrey AGM – Surrey area would like more local group members to become involved and to attend the area AGM meeting.

9.      Election of Officers

 The following candidate was proposed for election to the committee by Nigel Poulter and seconded by Anne le-Petit.

The following members of the committee were available for re-election and were proposed by Vivien Moyle and seconded by Karen Holdsworth, apart from Roger May who was proposed by Brian Smith and seconded by Pamela Cunniffe.

10.  Any Other Business

Tony Pearson asked for a separate AGM agenda item for “Holidays” in future years in recognition of the input that individuals put in to organise these for the group. This was agreed. A round of applause was proposed for Helen Whitely and this was given in appreciation of all the holidays and activities that she had organised before she stepped down.

Viv Moyle thanked Nigel Poulter for the amount of work he does in connection with producing the walks programme each quarter.

Brian Smith asked if it is necessary to keep producing the A5 PDF booklet of the walks programme each quarter as it takes a lot of time. Some discussion followed as the booklet currently contains adverts which are giving an income of £250 per year. Stuart England offered to contact the advertisers to explore whether they would be able and willing to advertise on our website instead.

Helen McDonnell undertook to put a notice out to find out how many members are printing out the booklet and will also speak with Deb Skinner who has kindly agreed to take on the role of webmaster for the group, to replace Brian.