ST FRANCIS OF ASSISI CATHOLIC RAMBLERS' AGM 2023

 

Meeting held at Mary Moorfields Church hall
Saturday 25th November 2023 at 2:00 pm

 

Fr. Chris opened the meeting thanking everyone for coming and attending the Mass.

  1. ATTENDANCE AND APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE:

Apologies from Kevin MacNamara.  38 Members present.

  1. MINUTES OF THE 2022 ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
    These were agreed by all present.
  2. MATTERS ARISING FROM THE MINUTES:

Subscriptions: John mentioned that more publicity is needed to promote the Club to get more leaders and as printing is costly it would be helpful if members pay the subscription of £10.  There is a bank account set up to make it easy for people to pay by bank transfer. Problem with giving cash to people is that they forget who gave it and when John receives it he doesn’t know who it is from. He said posting money by post is also safe – putting the note inside a card perhaps. An email to go out shortly asking people to pay their subscriptions.

  1. COMMITTEE REPORTS:

Chairman's Report

Fr Chris said he likes his life at St Mary Moorfields, and it hasn’t been as busy as before the pandemic but still busy on some days.

Secretary – Robyn Lynch

I have been the Secretary since about April.  I don’t really have anything to report at present but would like to apologise for my first set of information sent out.  I got my IT man to send the email out and the wrong file had been inserted, I do apologise. 

Fr Chris thanked Robyn for taking on the role.

Treasurer's Report – John Burbage

As we did not pursue the subs from members last year the accounts has fallen down a bit. . Basically the Ramblers insurance, printing of stationery because we need to send out to parishes to get more members.  There are also bank charges.  We have moved to Metro Bank, they do charge unfortunately. We are getting a service and we have to pay for it.  It is a good bank and any problems with Metro you may have heard of it doesn’t affect us. They offer a branch service, so there are people you can go and talk to and are very easy to use.

Other expenses are from Committee, travel refunds etc. 

We were not getting anything from NSI – 45 pence last year.

I tried to contact HF. The shares have probably gone up by £2 or £3. Maurice is down as a contact, and he hasn’t received anything from HF. The value of share service is better than in the banks or building societies. The amount we have in shares is £100 and whether we continue with that project?  Fr Chris said perhaps it’s a decision that could be discussed with the committee.

Fr. Chris asked what the HF is, and Robyn replied that she is a director of HF and the main thing is it’s a Co-operative and owned by its members as it were. John explained that it was an organisation set up for people to go on holidays and they own beautiful properties in popular places for people to stay with full board provided. Robyn mentioned that they do holidays in Jordan and Cuba etc.

Insurance: John explained that we have a good deal with Zurich who have extended the policy and kept the charges down. Charge has gone down from £136 to £102.  It protects the leaders and walkers from any liability in the event that of mistakes like leaving a farmer’s gate open and let cattle out of the field etc.

That’s it really and we need to start collecting the Club subs in order to help publicise the club a bit more.

Fr. Chris thanked John for his hard work for the year.

Walks Programme Co-ordinator  Paul Connolly

Imagin a football team, you are down to 11 players, you have no subs, apprentices just those 11.  What happens when someone gets injured, something else etc.  Basically we need new leaders.  If you see gaps in the programme that means we need new leaders to come up with something.

  • There is help for new leaders. There is an archive of walks and established leaders are happy to go on a walkout and be there for the leader on the actual day too.
  • Questioned as to how many miles should a walk be, Paul answered it should ideally be over 7 miles esp. if we are wanting to attract new members.
  • John mentioned that we have started mid-week short walks once a month and that he has done a few himself.
  • Sheila congratulated the leaders on their hard work of leading and esp. making it a comfortable day out by researching coffee, toilets stops and lunches etc.
  • Paul seconded that by saying he was grateful to the current crop of leaders for what they are contributing and what he hopes they can do going forward. We just need more new leaders please.
  • Someone asked if lunchbreak is necessary as some people are put off by the time taken. Paul replied that it depends on the mileage of the walk and a rest and fuelling may be needed. Maria Vaz mentioned that the Club’s ethos is about having a Sunday lunch and the social aspect of sitting down to eat together.

 

Membership Secretary's Report – Ant Connolly

There has been only about half a dozen new joiners since the last AGM. There are a lot of other Rambling groups and Meetup groups etc. that are drawing in the younger ramblers.  In our efforts to publicise the Club more, John has drafted a letter to the Church administrator and we have printed the club posters for you to hand to the church administrators along with the letter asking if they could kindly put the posters up in the Church.  These were handed out at the meeting and at walks to members.

  1. ELECTION OF COMMITTEE MEMBERS:

Fr. Chris thanked the present committee who will be standing in for another year and a new committee member Norah Malone, was welcomed to join.  She was proposed by Robyn and seconded by Ant.

 

  1. AOB:
  • Club subscription is £10 and payable to John Burbage please. Money can be sent in by cash, cheque or bank transfer.
  • John mentioned that two or three original members of the SFACRC were the founders of the Ramblers Association and he is going to write to the RA to ask if we could put an article/advert in their Walk magazine which comes out monthly.
  • Ann Brooks mentioned about members to not forget to get their discounts in outdoor shops using the prayer card which has ‘Affiliated to Ramblers Association’ on it. She also said that if people had a not so good lunch at a pub that it is not the leader’s fault, who has gone to the trouble of organising the walk and booking the lunch.
  • Chris said he subscribes to a daily news bulletin by email from ICM and Catholic News which has a huge distribution and thousands of people get it every day. He would send something like Saint Francis of Assisi Catholic Ramblers had their Requiem Mass and AGM and give a little story and give the website as a link.
  • David Crundall pointed out that the Club website has http: instead of https: The committee are aware of this and it will be mentioned Tony Finnegan

 

  1. DATE OF AGM 2024:
               Saturday 5th October 2024.  Time to be announced closer to the time.