Minutes of the Newark Ramblers Committee Meeting held at Oscar's Inn, Baldertongate on Monday 12 January 2026
Present Alan Burrell Chair
Brigid Murphy Group Secretary
Janet Palmer Group Treasurer
Chris Small Membership Secretary
Caroline Lee Walks Coordinator
Dave Johnson Footpaths Officer
Jacqui Anderson Social Secretary
Peter Robinson Committee Member
Adele Burrell Committee Member
- Apologies
James McGill, Stephen Swanwick.
- Minutes of last meeting – matters arising not covered elsewhere on the agenda
Action points have been completed. James is continuing to research options for setting up a paths maintenance group.
- Reports from Officers
Individual reports from officers had been circulated in advance and gave rise to the following points. [Note: Brigid holds the reports and will supply copies on request.]
The necessary changes have now been made to bank authorisations and Janet is able to make payments.
The walk leader training session will be going ahead on 27 January, led by Caroline and Chris. Three people have confirmed they will be attending and Caroline is waiting to receive confirmation from others. The room holds 12, so there is still space for a few more.
Caroline is comfortable that all currently registered walk leaders who wish to continue will have been certified by the deadline.
If anyone is able to assist with surveys of the Trent Valley Way, Dave is co-ordinating the sections from Fiskerton to Collingham.
Dave recently attended a planning appeal against a solar farm in Kelham. The appeal was lost so the development will now go ahead.
- Correspondence
Caroline has been contacted by a walks coordinator from another group, who has heard that we are putting on a face to face session for the walk leader training. Caroline has told them what we are planning, and that Central Office has provided materials. The meeting agreed that we do not want to extend invitations to our training session beyond our own membership and affiliates, as it will work best in a small group.
- Area AGM 1 February
The Area AGM will be held in Oxton this year, and is being hosted by Mansfield and Sherwood group. Some Newark committee members confirmed that they are planning to attend. We will not be putting on a Newark group walk on 1 February. Brigid will draw attention to the Area AGM and pre-AGM walks in her February walks programme email.
Action point: Brigid to include information on the 1 February Area AGM walks in her next walks programme email.
- Notts Area Guided Walks request
Newark group has in the past contributed to this publication, but didn’t last year. If anyone is willing to include one of their walks in this year’s edition, the form has to be submitted by 2 February.
- AOB
- Brigid has been advised by Central Office on the state of play concerning the problems with The Ramblers app. The external team handling the work have been taken off the project and a new team is hoping to have an update to resolve the issues soon.
- Committee members were asked to consider possible venues for the AGM in November, to be discussed at the next meeting. The library, town hall and Buttermarket rooms may not be available or may be too expensive for a Sunday meeting – room hire would include additional staff costs for Sunday opening.
- There was an incident on one of our group walks recently with someone slipping on mud and sustaining an injury. The correct action was taken and an incident report form submitted to Central Office. The meeting agreed that there was no need for committee also to hold copies of completed incident report forms.
- The maps library has now been handed over to Joyce Martin.
Next meeting: consider options for November AGM venue.
- Date of next meeting
The next meeting will be held on 19 March at 7pm at Oscar’s Inn.
BM
13 Jan. 26