Lincolnshire LDWA AGM Minutes held on Sunday 23rd April 2023 at Hagworthingham Church Community Hall starting at 13.05pm

Present:, David Oxley, Adrian Brown, Lorna Gregory, Kevin Roach, Paul Hunt, Tony Hand, David Wolsey, Lesley Wolsey, Grahame Fry, Alan Johnson.

• Apologies for absence: Terry Baines, Nigel Bowler, Karen Shaw, Natalie Eastland Stout. Jeremy Stout

• Minutes of the meeting of !st May 2022 were circulated and accepted. Proposed Tony Hand, Seconded  Dave Oxley

Matters Arising

Lesley asked if there had been any further update on the closure of the path at Thorpe le Vale. Alan advised that he had contacted Lincolnshire Count Council who had confirmed that as the path was a permissive path, the landowner had the right to close the path. The landowner had taken the decision to close the path as a result of abuse from either a group of walkers or mountain bikers. Lincs CC had advised to contact BHS who were co-ordinating the approach to try and get the path reopened and Alan advised he had submitted details to BHS but had heard nothing further back. It was believed that for a specific event that if the landowner was approached he may grant access for that event, Should we hold Dave Milne walk in future then it would be worth contacting the landowner to see if he was amenable to the opening of the path for that event.

Dave Oxley asked for views on the changes made to website and Grahame who had raised the issue last year thought it was much improved. 

Whilst we would not be manning a checkpoint in this year’s Hundred we had been approached to offer assistance to the Norfolk and Suffolk Hundred event taking place in 2025 and we had confirmed that we hoped to be able to man a checkpoint during that event.

Officer Reports

Secretary: The Secretaries report was presented by Alan.

The Group has 182 primary members (up from175 last year) with 192 (187) associate members 

Lincolnshire LDWA facebook group has 108 members

Of the primary members 94 (therefore approximately half) lived in an area covered by Gainsborough across to Market Rasen and then the coast as a northern limit, with Lincoln to Skegness as a southern limit. This area had been selected as not only was it where most of the membership resided but it also covered nearly all of the walks programme. There were 46 members below this area and 32 above with a few members being out of county or had not provided a valid address.

Should we extend our walk programme to look at other areas? Lorna advised the the June walk (The Ropsley Raid) would be further south. 

It was still felt that a lot of  members join LDWA to take part in challenge events or to access online information without wishing to participate in group walks. 

Contact had taken place with other groups to see how they had approached reduced numbers on group walks. Some of these groups had introduced shorter walks of approximately 12 miles to help retain some members who could no longer participate in longer walks. These shorter walks were often linked to a social activity (or pub stop) at the end of the walk.

All group walks currently take place on a Sunday and Lesley wondered if switching to a Saturday may bring in additional walkers.

Treasurer: The Treasurers report was presented by Dave Oxley

Treasurer’s report dated 21st April 2023 showed a starting balance of £1675.79 with no income and a single expense of £25 made for the use of the Church Hall for the 2022 AGM. This report therefore showed a closing balance of £1650,79

A statement issued by Virgin Money for Lincolnshire LDWA confirmed an account balance of £1650.79 as at 19th April, 2023

Any future running of the Harvest hobble would consume a significant amount of these funds as we are currently low on certificates, badges etc.

Walks Secretary: The Walks Secretary report was presented by Lorna

Lorna thanked all of those that had led walks over the last year or who would be leading in the coming months.Monthly walks were currently planned through to and including September. Dave Oxley offered to lead a walk in October and Alan in November with Lorna advising she would arrange a Christmas walk along the lines of last year for the December walk

A vote of thanks was given to Lorna for arranging a well thought out and diverse programme.

Election of officers, all returned unopposed. 

Chair: Dave Oxley proposed by Grahame Fry, seconded by Lorna Gregory.

Secretary: Alan Johnson - proposed by Lorna Gregory, seconded by Dave Oxley.

Treasurer: Dave Oxley -  proposed by Lorna Gregory seconded by Alan Johnson

Walks Secretary : Lorna Gregory - proposed by Dave Oxley seconded by Alan Johnson

Ordinary members of Committee - Kevin Roach, TLesley Wolsey and Natalie Eastland Stout all proposed by Lorna Gregory, seconded by Alan Johnson

Any Other Business

A brief discussion took place on running the Harvest Hobble as a challenge event this year but it was felt that due to lack of volunteers we would be unable to do so.Previous events had mainly catered for runners. We could consider running this in future years as a group walk as opposed to a challenge event. It was also noted that many other long standing challenge events were no longer taking place or had moved to private events possibly due to similar difficulties faced by ourselves.

Tony asked if anybody knew if walk leaders over the age of 80 were covered by iLDWA insurance as he had been advised by 2 other groups that over 80’s were not covered. Nobody was aware of such a restriction with Alan offering to follow up and advise.

(Subsequent to the meeting, Alan contacted the LDWA NEC who have confirmed as follows “The LDWA's insurance policies giving public liability cover and professional indemnity cover apply to all members, i.e. they contain no exclusions concerning the age of any member (walk leader or otherwise). Our personal accident policy does not cover members over the age of 75 years” )

A vote of thanks was recorded to Christine for organising the use of the church and tea and cake. A donation was made to the church. It should be noted that we are likely to need to find a new venue for next year as Christine is standing down from her current role within the Church and we would no longer have access to the hall.

The meeting closed at approximately 1.45 pm.