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AGM 2011
 

The 33rd Annual General Meeting of the Club was held at Lovatt House, Loughborough, the former goods offices of the Great Central Railway, on Saturday 21st May 2011, commencing at 2:00 p.m.

MEMBERS IN ATTENDANCE
The 35 members attending were David Bickell, Maurice and Hilary Blencowe, Adrian Bonelle, David Brace, Barry Bubb, Jonathan Dawson, John Gibberd, Stephen Gray, Nick Hartshorne, Neil and Lisa Hebborn, Bob Hipgrave, Paul Hudson, Mark Jones, Graham Lambert, Richard Lewis, Katy Marchant, Richard and Yvonne Martin, Chris Parker, Gordon and Elaine Pirie, Geoff and Rosemary Sargeant, John Simmons, Jeff Smith, Christine Stalham, David Taylor, Tony Thompson, Fred and Marion Thornton, Jeff Vinter, Pete Walker and Nigel Willis.

APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE
Apologies were received from Paul Atterbury, Jane Ellis, N.J. Hill, Tony Jervis, Rupert Nicholson, Martin Phelan, Ralph Rawlinson, David Shepherd and Ivor Sutton. See Appendix 1 for the letters received from David Shepherd (President) and Paul Atterbury (Vice President). No reply had been received from Bill Pertwee.

CHAIRMAN'S ADDRESS
Richard Martin reported that he had enjoyed his time as Chairman. He had met a lot of the club’s members, which he would probably not have done otherwise, and had enjoyed walks during AGM weekends all over the country. He had tried to make the AGM meetings more enjoyable by holding them in places of railway interest, which he hoped would continue in future. He always held the meetings at locations easily accessible by public transport, even if not always near main line railway stations. He had made some good friendships through Railway Ramblers, and would continue to lead walks for the Southern Area. This last year had seen three different editors of the club’s magazine, which must have been a record. He hoped the new editor would stay in the job for a long time and stamp his mark on the club’s magazine. Finally, he expressed his gratitude to all the club members who made an effort and did something for the club, whether it was leading a walk or serving on the committee; their efforts made the club the success it is. He closed by extending his best wishes to the new Chairman for the future.

MINUTES OF THIRTY SECOND AGM
These had been circulated to all members in the club’s magazine and published on the club’s website. A motion to accept the Minutes as an accurate record was proposed by Graham Lambert, seconded by David Bickell and passed unanimously.

MATTERS ARISING FROM THE MINUTES
There were no matters arising that would not be covered under other Agenda items, and Jeff Vinter confirmed that he had dealt with other appropriate matters.

REPORTS FROM ELECTED OFFICERS
Reports from the following officers were presented to the meeting.

Vice Chairman
Gordon Pirie reported that he had been concerned for some time about the position of Vice Chairman in the club. In other groups, the Vice Chairman automatically became Chairman after a year, and he thought that the Vice Chairman in RR should have a similar learning and supporting role for 1 or 2 years before ‘stepping up’. He also noted that the club had been beset recently by complaints which had led to friction and even resignations, both within the committee and the membership. He felt that this situation should be thoroughly discussed, with a view to developing a standard method of handling and resolving such matters.

One of the complaints had involved the magazine. An idea to reduce the strain on our hard-working editor, Jonathan Dawson, had been suggested; namely, to appoint a few sub-editors to deal with topics such as area programmes, photographs and maps. This was likely to improve the magazine from the points of view of topic balance, accuracy and interest. He felt sure that he was not alone in saying that the club had a superb magazine which members enjoyed reading, and he thought members should ensure that it continued to include walk reports from home and abroad, area programmes and railway stories. These approaches were likely to lead, after discussion, to a universally acceptable magazine for every member to enjoy.

Finally, he felt that the AGM was the place to sort out problems, rather than having endless communications via telephone and e-mail. An AGM was more likely to come to the right answers more easily and quickly. In addition, the ‘Any Other Business’ section ought to be used to solve members’ queries and suggestions, which have previously been sent to the secretary for inclusion at the AGM.

Secretary
Before giving his report, Graham Lambert asked the meeting to indulge him in a little nostalgia as this was his last AGM as Secretary. He then read a few amusing paragraphs from A Walk Along the Tracks by former member Hunter Davies, which described his attendance at the club’s 2nd AGM in 1980. Amazingly, some of the members mentioned were in attendance today. Graham then carried on to report that the year’s activities could be summarised under four headings, but generally were to help the smooth running of the club:

  • Administration. He had reviewed and renewed the club’s Indemnity Insurance, and dealt with the AGM arrangements, including the AGM walks and venue.
  • Communication. He had dealt with correspondence and phone calls from members during the year.
  • Committee Matters. He had recruited a new editor for the magazine.
  • Requests for Support. He had received and responded to requests for financial or other support, both from the CEO of Sustrans and a local group concerned about a new landowner closing 2 miles of former railway between Corpusty and Melton Constable in Norfolk. (This was not and never had been an official railway path.)

Graham had enjoyed working on the members’ behalf for the past six years, but now felt that it was time to pass the baton on to a successor.

Treasurer
Marion Thornton presented the Railway Ramblers’ accounts for 2010 (see Appendix 2), copies having been distributed to those present. In summary, the club had once again produced a surplus, this year amounting to £179.65, as a result of which the General Fund stood at £11,489.31. The Footpath Fund stood at £5,966.64. Subscriptions were less than in 2009 because there were fewer new members, but more income had been received from renewals. Donations had remained almost static.

The costs of the magazine had increased because the club had ordered more copies with more pages. The distribution costs were also higher because they included postage paid in January and December 2010 (i.e. for 5 issues instead of the usual 4), while the larger magazines had pushed postage into the more expensive ‘large letter’ rate.

Area expenses had been claimed by the Chilterns, Eastern, Midlands, North Western, Southern, Welsh and Yorkshire groups – all within the £2.50 per member capitation rate, as agreed. As this had now increased to £3.50 per member, Marion expected a small total increase in area expenses during 2011. She considered it likely that there would be an excess of expenditure over income in 2011, but in view of the club’s significant reserves did not recommend an increase in subscriptions. Income into the Footpath Fund had remained constant, the donations being from members who chose to add a little to their subscription.

She thanked members for their support and co-operation throughout the year, and especially Nick Hartshorne for acting as Independent Accounts Examiner. There were no questions, but Nick drew attention to four large donations, namely £50 from both of D. Egginson and G.. Singleton, and two from Mrs V. Barron totalling £260. It was agreed that the Chairman should write to each and thank them for their generosity.

Marion concluded by proposing the accounts for adoption. This was seconded by Mark Jones and carried unanimously.

Membership Secretary
Membership Secretary. Pete Walker distributed a report to the meeting (see Appendix 3) and suggested that, over the past three years, the increase and subsequent decrease in members was largely the result of the ‘Julia Bradbury Factor’, i.e. her ‘Railway Walks’ TV series which encouraged people to join who later dropped out as their interest waned. As agreed at the previous AGM, the Chairman had written to a sample of lapsed new members to ascertain their reasons for not renewing, but the responses did not reveal any trends or exceptional reasons. Pete concluded that the lapses were definitely not the result of anything that the club was or was not doing. He concluded by proposing his report for adoption. This was seconded by Fred Thornton and approved unanimously.

Magazine Editor
David Brace reported that, during 2010, he had produced 4 quarterly issues of ‘Railway Ramblings’, two with 48 pages and two with 60 pages of content. He endeavoured to provide a mix of news, articles, letters and pictures together with walks programmes and write-ups of walks undertaken in different areas around the country. He also endeavoured to publish everything that was submitted, even if some material had to be held over due to lack of space. Some articles and letters were published relating to overseas railways, particularly France, Spain and the USA.

Following last year’s AGM, David undertook to carry out a survey of members to try to establish what they wanted from their magazine. He had previously been led to believe (rightly or wrongly) that a minority, possibly as low as 20%, took part in walks and that, for the remaining 80%, the magazine was all that they received for their subscription. The object therefore should have been to provide a balanced, illustrated magazine for all readers that gave a mix of education, history and entertainment, and perhaps less of the future walks programme. How wrong he proved to be from the results sent in by about 130 members out of a total of 750.

The survey was sent out in electronic or hard copy format and replies were accepted in the same formats. It was inevitable perhaps, in hindsight, that the vociferous minority who had very set views on the purpose of the magazine should have dominated the responses. Whilst some questions were provocative to elicit confirmation of a view (such as whether the magazine should only be issued in electronic form), the overall parochial view that no changes should be made to form, size and content was sad. Despite the articles and lively correspondence on overseas railways, an overwhelming majority wanted to see nothing foreign.

For those areas with an active walks programme there was a clear message that very detailed instructions should be printed even if it resulted in less content devoted to other aspects. Indeed, one respondent made it clear that he had no interest in any articles at all let alone the witterings of the editor! David was also saddened that his style of editorship did not appeal to some members.

Despite this, he was prepared to continue and to gradually try to align the content with members’ wishes but, through the national committee, he became aware of more vitriolic comments with very negative views about the design and style of the questionnaire. However, these views were not sent to him personally as a committee member. He took the job on after a particularly difficult work period leading to redundancy and was still recovering from stress. Regardless of that, he did not believe that the club’s officers should be subjected to such treatment and consequently decided to stand down. He is still a member of RR and still participates in local area walks, also helping to lead a few.

Now the dust had settled and he had reviewed the issues, he still had quite strong views about RR, its management overall and the specific issues around the magazine. These were:

  • The editor must be given more freedom to develop his/her own style and not be bound by precedent.
  • The views of the vociferous minority must be more carefully balanced against those of the silent majority.
  • To ease the Editor’s workload, greater standardisation of format for the walks programme and walk reports is essential. The Editor should not need to rewrite or précis contributions to the extent currently necessary.
  • The editorial deadlines should be honoured or bettered.
  • The present structure of RR is not amenable to an open discussion on issues.
  • Committee discussions by email are no substitute for real meetings.
  • The split between the national organisation and area groups mitigates against consensus decision-making as the two groups meet only at the AGM, if then.
  • The national committee needs effective representation from the areas.

Despite all this, David wished the new editor, Jonathan Dawson, every success in his new role. He also thanked Jeff Vinter for stepping in to produce the most recent magazine. Jeff had broken many of the rules that he was trying not to break, but appeared to have got away with it!

David’s report was seconded by Yvonne Martin and approved unanimously.

Magazine Distribution Officer
Rupert Nicholson reported that the last year had been a busy one for him as the Magazine Distribution Officer, and he acknowledged the help of local member Phil Chadwick who gallantly helped with the stuffing and mailing. As last year, he and Phil had aimed to have the magazine on members’ doormats fairly promptly. In the process, it was interesting to note how far and wide geographically members were spread, a few, it seemed, living in former railway stations themselves. Rupert was putting his name forward to continue but had decided to step down from the role during the course of the year, so he invited a new pair of hands to take on the job with the offer of distance-training. He had held the role for six years now and had seen the membership more or less double. He closed by inviting members to consider whether they could take over, the main requisite being a patient wife or husband who didn’t mind one room being taken over by magazines and envelopes once a quarter – though not taken over to a great degree!

Webmaster
Jeff Vinter distributed a report to the members present (see Appendix 4) and summarised the main points as follows:

  • He had increased the content of the website by about 25% and expected to do the same again during 2011.
  • The number of visitors was holding up well at around 1,200 to 1,400 per month.
  • The website’s costs were very modest at about £80 per year.

He had answered all email enquiries from the website, which currently required 30-60 minutes per day (and sometimes more), and completed Vinter’s Railway Gazetteer for The History Press, which was published in April and should produce more new members in due course. One problem in the near future was the anticipated exhaustion of website addresses in September 2011, which was likely to cause increased costs as telecommunications and Internet companies passed on their re-development costs to consumers. The club could even lose its free web-hosting package if BT decided that such products were now unaffordable.

Jeff had also investigated a number of issues that arose partly from suggestions made via David Brace’s recent questionnaire. His responses were as follows:

  • Listings of Disused Railway Structures. These had been removed from the magazine and would appear eventually on the website, as part of the gazetteer.
  • Walks Template. This had been added to a new Walks page in both Word and PDF format, and hopefully would help walk leaders to standardise the details that they supplied to the editor.
  • Area Walks Programmes. These would not be published on the website for a variety of reasons, the most significant being that (a) they contained members’ personal data and dates of absence from their homes, and (b) landowners granted access to their land on the understanding that the club’s walks were for members only and not advertised to the public.
  • Online Magazines. The quarterly magazine would not be published on the website since it too contained much personal data, but at least one past issue would have this information removed and be published as an example of what members could expect for their subscription.

Jeff referred members briefly to the various statistics in his report, and emphasised the need to protect members’ privacy on the website (a view supported by Fred Thornton). His report was seconded by David Taylor and approved unanimously.

SUBSCRIPTION AND CAPITATION RATES
In view of the club’s strong financial position the Treasurer proposed that the subscription and capitation rates remain unchanged at £8.00 for Household membership, with the multiples for Overseas and Group rates continuing at 1.5 and 3 times respectively. This was seconded by Richard Lewis and carried unanimously.

APPOINTMENT OF AUDITOR
Nick Hartshorne indicated that he was willing to continue. His offer was seconded by Geoff Sargeant and carried unanimously.

FOOTPATH FUND
The Committee had no recommendations for this year’s AGM. Suggestions for future consideration were further stretches of the former Somerset & Dorset Railway, the Bridport branch and the Hincaster Trailway.

REPORTS FROM AREA GROUPS
Several area organisers were present at the meeting, with others having submitted written reports in advance.

Chilterns
Geoff Sargeant reported that, since the last AGM and with the contributions of several members, the Chilterns Area had maintained an active programme from August, much of it straying into the adjoining Eastern, Midlands and Greater London areas. This included rambles following the Alexandra Palace branch, Harpenden to Luton, the Nickey line to Hemel Hempstead, the Brill Tramway, Hatfield to St. Albans, the Blackwater Valley line to Maldon, the Buntingford branch, the west end of the Flitch Way, and the junction complex on the Great Central Railway at Woodford Halse. The area also enjoyed organised visits to St. Pancras station and a garden railway in action at Bishops Stortford. Walks of aquatic interest were organised along the course of the Fleet River, the Paddington and Slough branches of the Grand Union Canal, the London end of the New River, and the Northern Outfall Sewer (including the Olympic developments at Stratford and the old dock entrances near Beckton). For all of this, Geoff extended thanks to Phil Wood, Dave Scott, Mick Boggis, Steven Ruff, and Roger Cleaver. The support on walks averaged about ten members but varied widely, from a near-record low of two up to about sixty (including several other groups).

Eastern
The Secretary read out Phil Wood’s report, which listed the walks undertaken during the year as Lavenham to Sudbury via Long Melford, part of the Wivenhoe to Brightlingsea branch, Witham to Maldon, the Buntingford branch and Felsted to Braintree. He had also again run his popular annual film show just after Christmas.

Midlands, East & West
No report had been received

Midlands, South
Barry Bubb reported that the South Midlands Area had organised three walks and one train ride during the year and, additionally, he had participated in two Southern Area walks. He announced that he would be standing down at the end of September this year, his last organised walk being on 17 September. He had taken this decision for personal reasons after 22 years as Area Organiser. He would continue his membership of the Club and hoped to join other areas’ walks when possible.

Nosrth East
The Secretary read out Ian Black’s report, in which he referred to the area’s contribution in finding the venue for the previous AGM and arranging the associated AGM walks. These comprised a 5 mile circular walk of Durham on Saturday morning, which included visits to the former stations at Gilesgate, now a Travelodge where several members stayed over the weekend, and Elvet. On the Sunday, the area arranged a 9 mile linear walk from Middleton-on-Tees along the trackbed of the former Tees Valley branch, finishing at Barnard Castle, while on Monday it led a 9 mile double circular walk from Ramshaw, on the former Haggerleaze branch and the former Bishop Auckland to Barnard Castle line. A picture of the group, taken on Sunday on the Lune Viaduct, featured on the cover of the Autumn 2010 edition of ‘Railway Ramblings’.

North West
Mark Jones reported that the North West group had had another successful year in 2010 with increasing numbers attending walks and many new friendships being formed. Close to home, members enjoyed walks on the Lancashire coast at Glasson Dock and Knott End, as well as a fascinating day on the Peak Line including rare access to the private stretch east of Bakewell. Further afield, members enjoyed a week in Norfolk, plus shorter breaks based in Castle Douglas (south west Scotland) and Barmouth (mid Wales). Mark thanked all those who had supported the group’s events over the year, especially the walk leaders Bernard Parkinson, Fred Thornton, Brian Slater and Chris Parker, as well as Phillip Earnshaw for his tireless devotion to the cause.

Scotland
The Secretary read out Tony Jervis’s report which revealed that, despite the continued lack of an organiser prepared to arrange a programme of walks, there were at least ten rambles along old railways in Scotland during 2010. Proposed walks were now called by individual members who had a free day available and were willing to use it for a walk. These were often put forward at relatively short notice, and sometimes with minimal details for other interested members to travel to join in the walk, or return home afterwards. The concentration of members in the central belt had meant that most walks had taken place in that relatively well-populated area, but there had also been visits to rural Ayrshire, Perthshire and northern Argyll. A similar situation was applying in 2011, sometimes resulting in virtually identical walks taking place less than a week or two apart, but led by different members.

Southern
Graham Lambert reported that the Southern Area was very active and fortunate in having several walk leaders. An annual planning meeting in February ensured that a walk per month was arranged, and the group now had a programme organised until June 2012. Walks in 2010 included the annual ‘Capital Bash’ in January (covering the Bricklayers Arms branch), Basingstoke to Alton, Mill Hill East to Bushey Heath, a minibus tour of the Abbotsbury and Bridport branches, Guildford to Cranleigh, Swindon Town to Cricklade, Shanklin to Ventnor, Romsey to Stockbridge, and Henfield to Shoreham-by-Sea. Unfortunately, heavy snow in December put paid to a Winchester Great Western walk and social event.

South West
Jeff Vinter reported that the South Western Area had been moribund during 2010, although the Southern Area had run several walks in the region, and sent copies of its newsletter to all members living there. Recently, Jeff had volunteered to revive the area from July 2012, when he would have fulfilled his obligations as a walk leader for the Southern group. He planned to arrange about 4 walks per year, all during the (supposedly) better weather, and had been encouraged by the response so far from local members, some of whom were already delivering on promises to assist him. He hoped to run the group on a co-operative basis and saw his role as an ‘expediter’ who could provide advice and resources. He was particularly grateful to Mark Jones, who had offered to lead one walk per year in the region when visiting his mother, who lives in Somerset. With assistance from Phil Earnshaw and others, Mark would also be one of a team running a week’s worth of railway walks in north Somerset between 1 and 8 April 2012. Details of this and other events (all in the planning stage) had been published on the Message Board attached to the club’s website.

Wales
Chris Parker reported that he had accepted the invitation to become Area Contact for Wales in October 2010, having delayed this until he was set up online at home. The main club activity in Wales during the year was when the North West and Yorkshire groups met for an extended weekend based at Barmouth. In October, Chris also contributed to a repeat of a previous walk covering sections of the Mawddwy Railway and its feeder, the Hendre Ddu Tramway. This was of note in that 16 members from no less than 7 of the club's areas (but no-one from Wales itself!) took part. Otherwise, Chris had reconnoitred the Plynlimon and Hafan Tramway, the Tylwch to Marteg section of the Mid Wales Railway, and, just on the English side of the border, the Gobowen to Nantmawr line, all of which had since been included in the 2011 programme. Chris remained very conscious that little support for these walks was coming from within Wales, but he had maintained contact with the Welsh Railways Research Circle and, at the very end of the year, obtained a current list of RR members living in Wales with a view to increasing the indigenous active membership; he had since pursued this with some success. He concluded by saying that he should have rather more to report next year.

Yorkshire
The Chairman read out a report from Jane Ellis, in which she stated that, in addition to the group’s regular day walks, members had joined the North West branch and friends from other parts of the country for three very good trips away, and were really favoured with the weather on each occasion. A springtime week exploring the many closed lines in the flat lands of Norfolk was much enjoyed, while a Snowdonia trip provided very different landscapes and something quite unusual for the mountains – several days of cloudless skies and amazingly warm weather for October. The area’s Galloway trip was also a real eye-opener, covering an area not too well known but with a wealth of railway remains – in particular, members would not forget the spectacular Big Water of Fleet Viaduct. A few members stayed on for the week there and spent a glorious day taking the early ferry from Stranraer to Belfast, then riding up the Irish coast on a ‘Thumper’ to Carrickfergus to visit the old gasworks museum, where they were made very welcome.

Looking back over the year, the sun shone on most of the group’s walks, and a really fine summer’s day saw them at the seaside, walking the Butlins’ Holiday Camp branch at Filey. Viaducts had featured in profusion – walking across the huge example at Tadcaster was a first for the group, as was a visit to the viaduct crossing the River Trent at Torksey, although this was not quite so easily accessible.

A new type of excursion was not a railway trackbed walk as such, but a day looking at the complex system of junctions, all currently in use, around South Milford. In the same area, the group’s Christmas walk covered part of the East Coast Main Line diversion, and participants were lucky to be accompanied by the project designer, RR member John Meredith, who told them about this major engineering task.

Members were fortunate that the severe winter weather did not affect any of the area’s walks, but the same could not be said for the indoor Video Day! A snowball had broken the window of the room in York booked for this event, and with no heating available members had to contend with an icy northerly blast as an accompaniment to the day’s films.

Tony Thompson added that he had joined walks from several areas and felt it was essential that these continue to be fully detailed in the magazine. He thanked all walk leaders for their continued efforts in making the club what it is today.

MEMBERS' MOTIONS
No members' motions had been received.

ELECTION OF OFFICERS
The Secretary announced that he and the Chairman were not seeking re-election but the other officers had indicated their willingness to do so. Mark Jones put himself forward for Secretary but there were no volunteers for Chairman. At this stage, Jeff Vinter took the floor and gave an emotional summary of what the committee needed to do to actively drive the club forward. The club’s ‘modus operandi’ and its mission should be revisited. He finished by offering himself for Chairman for two years on the strict understanding that the Vice Chairman would take a pro-active role and be prepared to put him- or herself forward as Chairman in two years time.

Mark Jones offered himself as Vice Chairman on this basis but this would create a problem as he had also volunteered for Secretary. Nick Hartshorne said he would be prepared to become Secretary, but not until January 2011, following his retirement.

The following were then proposed:

  • Chairman: Jeff Vinter, proposed by Neil Hebborn, seconded by Nigel Willis and carried unanimously.
  • Vice Chairman: Mark Jones, proposed by Tony Thompson, seconded by Pete Walker and carried unanimously.
  • Treasurer: Marion Thornton, proposed by Graham Lambert, seconded by Richard Lewis and carried unanimously.
  • Secretary: Mark Jones until 31 December 2011 and Nick Hartshorne from 1 January 2012, proposed by John Gibberd, seconded by Paul Hudson and carried unanimously.
  • Editor: Jonathan Dawson, proposed by Fred Thornton, seconded by Christine Stalham and carried unanimously.
  • Membership Secretary, Magazine Distribution Officer and Webmaster: Pete Walker, Rupert Nicholson and Jeff Vinter respectively were to continue in post and these were approved unanimously.
DATE AND VENUE OF NEXT AGM
As per the Constitution, the 2012 AGM would be held on the Saturday prior to the Spring Bank Holiday weekend, which translated into Saturday 19th May 2012. The committee had not put forward a location, but Cardiff, or possibly Shrewsbury or Newport, were suggested for the incoming committee to consider.

ANY OTHER BUSINESS
Various members made brief contributions:

  • David Taylor stated that ours was a friendly club and it should remain that way – any complaints should be made directly to the person concerned.
  • Rosemary Sargeant congratulated the committee on an excellent choice of venue.
  • Tony Thompson stated that the club’s activities should centre around providing walks, providing information about walks, and campaigning for better railway paths.
  • Paul Hudson gave a vote of thanks to the outgoing and incoming committee.
  • Jeff Vinter proposed that Barry Bubb should be awarded for his 22 years as South Midlands walks organiser, with the new committee to decide an appropriate gesture.

Graham Lambert then reported that Sustrans had contacted the club for a donation, as part of an appeal by its CEO. (This appeal had been launched following the announcement that the grant-awarding body, Cycling England, was to be abolished.) After much discussion, it was proposed by Tony Thompson and seconded by Fred Thornton that the club should donate £2,000 to specific scheme(s) agreed by the committee, provided that they were based on railway paths. This was carried unanimously.

Nigel Willis updated members on the arrangements for the walks that he had arranged on Sunday and Monday, and Graham Lambert thanked him for planning and leading these.

The meeting closed at 4.40 p.m.

APPENDIX 1 – LETTERS FROM HONORARY OFFICERS

Letter received from David Shepherd:

Dear Graham
 
Thank you for your letter regarding your AGM on 21 May. I feel guilty as I don’t take an active part in what you do, but if you are willing to have me as a ‘sleeping’ president that is fine by me.
 
Kind regards,
 
David

Letter received from Paul Atterbury:

Dear Graham,
 
Thank you for your letter and I shall be delighted to remain Vice President and hope to do so for many years. I cannot make the AGM this year – please give my apologies – but I do hope to attend at some point – and join a ramble. The combination of ‘Antiques Roadshow’ and researching and writing more railway books seems to fill my time. I am always expecting things to slow down, but not this year.
 
With best wishes,
 
Paul

APPENDIX 2 – ACCOUNTS FOR 2010

The annual accounts will be published in a forthcoming issue of Railway Ramblings and distributed to members.

APPENDIX 3 – MEMBERSHIP SECRETARY'S REPORT

Membership Statistics, 1 January to 31 December 2010

AGM
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
New
36
43
23
48
39
37
57
158
197
106
Lapsed
46
24
38
38
33
45
34
24
55
159
Total
431
450
435
445
451
443
466
600
742
689

Members in Each Area

AGM
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
Chilterns
63
62
58
52
51
51
63
84
104
96
Eastern
39
42
40
43
43
41
39
50
60
53
East Midlands
30
32
33
32
29
31
34
41
47
42
West Midlands
43
42
40
38
40
34
34
40
48
50
South Midlands
12
12
10
10
10
8
7
15
24
18
North East
7
8
7
9
10
7
8
11
18
18
North West
35
37
36
37
39
46
50
64
82
75
Scotland
18
21
20
20
21
20
23
27
31
23
Yorkshire
57
59
56
60
63
66
68
73
77
75
Wales
12
11
12
12
9
8
7
11
18
14
Southern
95
89
91
94
94
88
95
132
160
160
South West
17
32
30
36
36
38
35
48
69
62
Overseas
3
3
2
2
6
5
3
4
4
3

New members who indicated where they found out about RR have supplied the following information:

  • Railway Ramblers website: 55
  • Via existing member: 16
  • Along Lost Lines by Paul Atterbury: 6
  • ‘Railway Walks’, BBC4: 5
  • RR stand at Watercress Line, 6 November 2010: 4
  • Disused-Stations.org website: 3
  • Jeff Vinter’s books: 2
  • Old members re-joined: 2
  • ‘Underground News’: 1
  • Leaflet in Leytonstone Library: 1
  • A Walk Along the Tracks by Hunter Davies: 1
  • Branch Line Britain by Paul Atterbury: 1
  • Oakwood Press display at Tintern station: 1

Membership applications submitted on the forms supplied with RR colour leaflets: 8

Lapsed Members 2010

Quarter
Jan-Mar
Apr-Jun
Jul-Sep
Oct-Dec
East Midlands
4
0
2
3
West Midlands
2
1
3
1
South Midlands
4
1
3
0
Eastern
6
2
4
4
Chilterns
10
4
7
3
Southern
15
0
9
3
South West
7
2
6
3
Scotland
4
4
2
1
North West
7
2
4
2
North East
0
2
1
1
Yorkshire
4
1
1
3
Wales
2
1
4
3
Overseas
1
0
0
0
Quarterly Totals
66
20
48
27
Year's Total
159

APPENDIX 4 – WEBMASTER'S REPORT (FULL VERSION)

Generally, the website is holding up well in terms of visitor numbers (ca. 1,200 to 1,400 per month) and remains the club’s largest single source of new recruits. During the year, I increased the number of pages accessible to both non-members and members by approximately 25%. This work provided six extra photo galleries, which are always very popular, plus the 2010 News page. I also installed an online form (to hide my email address and reduce the amount of spam that I receive) and kept the online gazetteer fully up-to-date with details of all new railway path openings.

The website’s costs remain modest at ca. £80 p.a. However, the club should expect these costs to increase when, in 2-4 years’ time, we fill up all of our free web space, after which we will have to start paying. (Extra space is available from www.123-reg.co.uk at a modest price, currently £29.88 p.a. plus VAT, with one-off set-up costs amounting to ca. £25 plus VAT.)

I have also carried out the following promotional activities for the club:

  • Answered all e-mail enquiries, some of which have resulted in new members. Typically, this work takes 30-60 minutes per day, but sometimes much more.
  • Completed Vinter’s Railway Gazetteer for The History Press, which was published in April. This is the hard copy version of the online gazetteer, and hopefully will be a good promotional tool.

On immediate problem is that available web addresses, or URLs, are expected to run out this year, forcing a move to the new Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) which will support trillions rather than billions of addresses. This will require computer operating systems, web browsers and web technology generally to be upgraded, but the companies that carry out this work will pass on the costs to their consumers. BT (which owns Madasafish, which hosts our website) may even decide that free web-hosting packages are unaffordable, and scrap them.

David Brace’s recent questionnaire generated several suggestions for the website, and these are my responses:

(1) Listings of Structures. This has been removed from the magazine and will appear instead on the website, as part of the gazetteer, in due course. The hoped-for completion date is 30 June 2012.

(2) Walks Template. This will be added, in both Word and PDF format, to a new walks page on the website. The hoped-for completion date is 30 June 2011. (I implemented this on 9 April 2011.)

(3) Area Walks Programmes. I have been asked to publish area walks programmes on the website, but will not do this for the following reasons:

  • Under this country’s data protection legislation, each area organiser would require permission from every walk leader for their personal details to be published in this way. It is unlikely that all, or even most, walk leaders will consent to this.
  • Even if the walk programmes were encoded and protected by a username and password, the encrypted information could still be broken into by a determined hacker.
  • Publishing walk leaders’ personal details together with the dates when they will be away from their homes is extremely foolish in an age when an address can be obtained from something as simple as a telephone number.
  • Landowners grant access to their land to club members on the basis that the visit is private and not advertised to members of the public via an international medium such as the Internet.
  • No other national club, e.g. the Ramblers’ Association, publishes its programmes in this way.

(4) Online Magazines. I have been asked to publish the club’s magazine on the website. I will not do this because it would destroy a prime reason for people joining the club – namely, the receipt of a quarterly magazine delivered to their home address. [Ancillary reasons for rejecting this proposal will be found in the bullet points under (3) above.] However, I will put at least one old magazine on to the Internet as a sample, but it will be suitably ‘sanitised’ to remove all personal data. The hoped-for completion date is 30 September 2011.

On the plus side, the club’s database system now includes a new field for members’ email addresses, which the Membership Secretary is filling in as members renew. This will give the club the option, within a year, to deliver area newsletters and the magazine electronically. However, no obligation should be placed upon either the club’s editor or area organisers to do this. These officers are volunteers who already give generously of their time and expertise. If a member wants to receive publications electronically and the relevant officer is happy to do this, then fine – but, if the club makes this an obligation, it makes the installation of broadband services a prerequisite of volunteering. It is difficult enough already to get volunteers – let us not make the situation worse.

Finally, I would appeal to members to think their ideas through before putting them to the committee. I have spent a lot of time and effort this year investigating several ideas which, frankly, do not stand up to scrutiny. At the risk of sounding rude, I have better things to do with my time.

Further Information

Key Statistics to 31 December 2010 (with last year’s figures in brackets)

  • Amount of server space available: 100 megabytes (100 megabytes)
  • Amount of server space used: 53 megabytes (86 megabytes)
  • Number of pages accessible to the public: 138 (110)
  • Number of pages accessible to members: 144 (116)
  • Number of visitors to end of year: 101,326 (83,471)
  • Number of visitors this year: 17,855 (24,219) – down 26% (up 29%)
  • Pro rata number of visitors per month: 1,488 (2,018)
  • Pro rata number of visitors per week: 342 (466)
  • Pro rata number of visitors per day: 49 (66)
  • Proportion of new visitors: 86% (86%)
  • Proportion of returning visitors: 14% (14%)
  • Number of in-bound links from other sites:
    • Per www.submitexpress.com: 231 (521)
    • Per www.yahoo.com: 99 (248)
    • Per www.google.co.uk: 129 (136)
    • Per www.online-utility.org: 130 (Nil)
The statistics for in-bound links vary widely, which makes it difficult to judge their accuracy and reliability, but all point to a downward trend which reflects a reduction of the media’s coverage of old railways in 2010. (This could change in 2011, which is the 50th anniversary of Dr. Richard Beeching’s appointment as the first Chairman of the newly formed British Railways Board in 1961.)

Recurring Costs (with last year’s figures in brackets)

  • Website hosting by Madasafish (now a subsidiary of British Telecom): Nil (Nil).
  • Facility from Madasafish to update website from any broadband connection: £20.04 (£19.56) p.a.
  • Message board by Boardhost Inc.: $62.58 ($61.58) p.a. or £40.75 (£39.44) p.a. after currency conversion and bank charges in November 2010.
  • Online form by Mycontactform.com: $29.99 (Nil) p.a. or £19.48 (Nil) p.a. after currency conversion and bank charges in August 2010.