National Committee Meeting – 5 January 2002

Present: Gill Cox, Adrian O’Connor, Jo Mills, Jan Lancaster, Angela Benham, Barrie

Dobson, Andy Bateman

Apologies: Liz Pickles, Colin Knowles, Chris Smart, Humphrey Southall, Linda Goss, Lucy

Thomas, Charlie Fisher, Andy Bullivant

Minutes of Last Meeting Accepted

Matters Arising

Importance of auditing accounts raised.

Concern expressed regarding how many years back it would be necessary to go.

Suggestion strike a bank balance from last financial year.

Decision – Adrian to contact John Whitfield with proposal (if nothing else appropriate in place) that an auditor is found to produce audited accounts from the start of the last financial year: 2000-2001?

Definition of start of financial year to be discussed with auditor/BMC considerations

Money limited to £500

Time span – preferred deadline next NC meeting 6/4/02

Banner

Barrie will get photo of typical Trade Union style banner from Dave Timms & bring it to next NC meeting with costings.

Adrian mentioned Banner shop in Leicester.

Training

Jan will contact Elizabeth Ewing to ascertain whether she wishes to continue in training post.

Tirsuli 2001 Team aware of commitment to offer training. Angela will liaise.

Publicity

Post vacant. Ask for anyone interested thru bulletin. Jan proposed publicity budget £1000 could be distributed to regions to encourage production of publicity information to inform new members of activities. Regional contacts need these items. Concern about local activities working well.

Andy talked of need to build a network with Titch possibly identifying people & sending information to discussion group.

Gill agreed to ring Titch & ask him to let the appropriate person in a region (probably the regional rep. know when someone enquired about Red Rope from that region. We discussed a general forum for theses things but believe no conclusion was reached- confidentiality issue was not resolved.

IT

Thanks & praise expressed to Lucy for the e-mail address innovation (via Dave Jeffries) and for getting AGM minutes posted on website.

Retention of members

Andy suggested need for survey to explore why 100 members have left Red Rope. Consistent questions required said Jan if by post, phone or e-mail.

Could Liz produce names of who dropped out in first year with addresses/tel.nos & e-mails

Jan – will write article for bulletin asking for ideas re. survey questions.

AGM Financial Motions

Some problems re. Charlie’s figures.

Enthusiasm expressed for Jo’s idea of pegging levels to objective notions like poverty level, average national income and higher tax levels but Committee aware that the AGM meeting had asked them to take action.

Decision to do a minimal adjustment now and work towards a more substantial overhaul to be presented at AGM next September 2002.

Figures for trip charges were adjusted upwards (as required by the AGM of
2000) by an amount of 5% to reflect approximately inflation since the last
rate increase. The resulting figures were then rounded to the next 50p or .5p
increment for nightly and mileage charge respectively as required by the
finance motion passed at the 2001 AGM. This resulted in actual trip charge
alterations of between 3.5% and 12.5%. The mileage charge in Band A was
actually rounded down to the next appropriate increment as rounding upwards
produced an unacceptably high percentage charge increase. The rate reduction
was offset by leaving the weekly threshold unaltered.
 
On this basis the following figures were agreed:

Band	Nightly (%)	Transport (%)	Weekly (%)	Monthly	Annually
A	3.5 (6)	1.5 (-11)	70 (0)	303	3640
B	4.0 (3.9)	2.5 (8.70)	110 (22.2)	477	5720
C	5.5 (11.1)	3.0 (3.5)	140 (27.3)	607	7280
D	6.5 (7.4)	4.5 (12.5)	175 (29.6)	758	9100
E	7.5 (4.9)	5.0 (8.7)	210 (23.5)	910	10920
F	9.5 (7.95)	6.0 (5.3)	260 (23.8)	1127	13520
G	11.5 (4.55)	8.0 (6.7)	320 (23.1)	1387	16640
H	14.5 (5.5)	10.0 (8.7)	320+ (23.1)	1387+	16640+

The % figures in brackets refer to the percentage adjustment made to existing rates. The transport charge is pence per mile. All other figures are pounds sterling.

Adrian will sort out the figures so that they can be published in next bulletin – Jan 18 deadline

Meetings Calendar for next three years

Decided that it would be helpful organisationally to have set dates for key meetings.

AGM – last weekend in September 27 –29 September 2002

Suggested Andy Bullivant, Jo Mills & Sunil look into Derbyshire venue. (Liz Butler could be useful contact).

NC Meetings - Early March/April (depending on Easter) 6 April 2002

First weekend July 5-7 July 2002

Mid/End November

National Trips

Arran okay but Arthur asked to avoid the last weekend in September and the previous one if at all possible so as to boost the AGM weekend.

Arthur to be asked to e-mail Adrian a list of the National Trips organised and proposed.

Facilitating Joint Trips

Adrian said there can be quite a lot of overlap of Regions going to specific areas. More joint trips could mean more viable trips & more variety.

Andy suggested there was a four-season bulletin board where regions could post where they were interested in going published in the Bulletin.

Angela agreed to contact hut bookers in the Regions & write an article for the Bulletin so as to try and get the idea of trip bulletin board off the ground.

The Mountains Ventures Letter re: 60 bed residence on market

The club wants to have a hut.

What kind of hut? a) 15 bed, self-contained, realistic?

b) 60 bed, employing staff, visionary, catering for disadvantaged – business?

There was a short discussion of views & visions. Would it be possible to have both?

A hut within a hut?

Decision – Andy Bateman & Andy Bullivant would make enquiries at Mountain Ventures, Llanberis.

Date of Next Meeting Saturday 6 April 2002 in Manchester - Venue to be advised