Minutes of the Newark Ramblers Committee Meeting held at Oscar's Inn, Baldertongate on Tuesday 15th September 2026

Present Alan Burrell Chair
Janet Palmer Treasurer
Chris Small Membership Secretary
Stephen Swanwick Assistant Walks Coordinator
Jacqui Anderson Social Secretary
Peter Robinson Committee Member
Adele Burrell Committee Member
David Reynolds In attendance



1. Apologies

Brigid Murphy, David Johnson, Caroline Lee.

2. Minutes of last meeting – matters arising not covered elsewhere on the agenda

The Sports Day organised by Jim Baker in August was well attended and enjoyed by all. All other action points have been completed.

3. 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 Viking Way walks have been organised by Dave Roberts.

Chris reported stable membership numbers. The group does keep attracting new members, as existing members drop out.

Jacqui reported that the planned Isle of Man holiday has had three people drop out. She could check availability if anyone else wanted to go, and deposits needed to be paid soon.

4. Correspondence

Brigid had been in correspondence with a member, Vinny, regarding walking the West Highland Way.
Brigid advised that this could not be an official Ramblers walk but gave support and advice to the member. The Committee all agreed with Brigid’s response.

5. Health and Safety

Steve informed the Committee that an accident report had been submitted by a Walk Leader after taking ill whilst leading a walk. The walk leader has made a full recovery.

6. AGM

Brigid has provided a draft plan for the 2026 AGM, with dates, deadlines and action points.

Action points:
Alan has confirmed he will contact Nick regarding producing a slideshow of photographs.
Caroline has asked for walk leaders to put on pre-AGM walks. Steve has offered to do a 5 mile walk to Beacon Hill.
Brigid will advise Area of the AGM details.
Alan is willing to accompany Brigid to meet the verger on 17th or 20th November to discuss any final meeting room arrangements.

7. First Aid Training

Janet had emailed Southwell Ramblers and not received a reply. Their phone number was also unavailable.
Paid courses are very expensive.
St. John’s Nottinghamshire offer a bookable free course, but need 3 dates, a venue and number of people attending, so this option may be challenging to arrange.
Jacqui has done a free course with the Red Cross through the Co-op Health Walks Organisation, and Peter added that Wellbeing walks leaders could access the free course if they had completed one wellbeing walk.
Alan suggested that ramblers could be offered information on free online courses provided by St. John’s and Red Cross that they could access as individuals.

Action points:
Janet to find out about free courses on offer in October, as a first step.
Janet to investigate the Co-op option.
Brigid will then send out a group email with this information.

8. AOB

Alan advised the meeting on the current status of the Governance Review. Following a rejection of last year’s proposals by the General Council, further proposals have now been put forward by the board. Alan has responded on behalf of the Newark Group along the lines that these amended proposals have not been developed fully with appropriate costs/benefits and therefore would not be acceptable to us. We await a response from the Board to feedback given across the organisation.

9. Date of next meeting

The next meeting will be the AGM, on Sunday 22nd November, in the Thomas Magnus room, Newark Parish Church.