NEWSLETTER no 68

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

WEDNESDAY, Feb 13th 12.30

The Horse and Farrier, Threlkeld Horse & Farrier Inn

Threlkeld, Nr. Keswick, CA 12 4Sg

Once again we return to the Horse & Farrier in Threlkeld, the venue for all of our Annual General Meetings, chosen because it is relatively easily accessible from most parts of the county. From the south use the A591 through and Grasmere, avoiding Keswick by driving through St John’s in the Vale, joining the A66 close to Threlkeld. Or use the M6 to Junction 40 then follow the A66 west towards Keswick, turning right into Threlkeld. From the North use either the M6 as previously given or the A595 to road, branching off at Bothel for Keswick to join the A66 on the Keswick by-pass, then heading east to Threlkeld. SatNav - CA12 4SQ

Please note the later start time for the AGM to allow for an exec committee meeting from 12 – 12.30. A general meeting will follow the AGM.

A bright New Year’s Day in South Cumbria Spending New Year at Grange over Sands we joined the many families climbing Hampsfell on New Year’s Day for a clear view from the estuary in the South, West to Black Combe, North to the Langdale fells, with Scafell and Helvellyn behind the Coniston Fells,then round via the Howgills to Ingleborough. A lot of view for minimal effort.

Minutes of the Emergency Annual General Meeting held Wednesday, 9th May 2018 at Crooklands Inn, Crooklands

Present: Alastair Yates; Tom Fraser; Dick Chalmers; Helen Marrs; David Cornwall; Win Cornwall; David Found; Hilary Gee; Roger Long; John Sandford; Rosemary Spence; Peter Sunter; John Rimmer (NW REM); Deanna Selby (FRMA Secretary).

Apologies: Margaret Bennett; Christopher Chleboun; Peter Ellis; Mike Hodgkinson; James Horrocks; Gordon Hutchinson; Rick Preston; Ged Reay; Charles Shaw.

The President, Alastair Yates, opened the meeting at 12.25pm, welcoming those present and introducing John Rimmer, the new North-west Regional Executive Member.

Minutes of the AGM 2017: The meeting agreed the minutes were a true record with nothing arising and a copy was signed by the President.

Secretary’s Report: The report had been sent to members in the newsletter which advertised the AGM. The report was accepted.

Treasurer’s Report: The accounts were tabled showing a small surplus of income over expenditure for the year. The main expenses were meal subsidies. There were three new members who joined during the year. The treasurer was thanked for his work and asked to check if future reports in advance of meetings might be in a universally readable format.

Election of Officers: Helen Marrs was installed as President and took the chair of the meeting. Peter Sunter was elected Vice-president (Proposed: Tom Fraser; seconded David Cornwall) Tom Fraser was elected Treasurer (Proposed: Helen Marrs; seconded Roger Long) Dick Chalmers was elected Secretary (Proposed: David Found; seconded Win Cornwall) Helen Marrs agreed to continue as Newsletter Editor, but indicated she hoped a successor might be found soon.

A break for lunch was taken at 12.50pm.

Election of Committee Members: John Sandford (Proposed: Dick Chalmers; seconded Tom Fraser) David Cornwall (Proposed: Peter Sunter; seconded Dick Chalmers) David Found (Proposed: Peter Sunter; seconded John Sandford) Alastair Yates (Proposed:Helen Marrs; seconded Dick Chalmers)

Election of Representatives to the FRMA September 2018 General Meeting: The meeting agreed Peter Sunter and Dick Chalmers to represent Cumbria RMA.

The Election of Representatives to the 2019 FRMA AGM was deferred.

The new President thanked her predecessor and the officers for their work and closed the meeting at 1.27pm, moving immediately to an Ordinary General Meeting.

Minutes of the Ordinary General Meeting held Wednesday, 28 November 2018 at the Manor House, St. Bees.

Present: Helen Marrs; Peter Sunter; Tom Fraser; Dick Chalmers; Alastair Yates; David Cornwall; David Found; John Sandford; Roger Long; Alan Francis; one carer.

Apologies: Christopher Chleboun; Win Cornwall; Hilary Gee; Gordon Hutchinson; Ged Reay; Richard Preston; Deanna Selby (FRMA Secretary).

President’s Business: none

Minutes of the meeting held 26 Sept 2018: these were accepted as a true record.

Matters Arising: I. A GDPR statement issued by Rednal has clarified the RMA’s position. There is nothing to worry about. II. Neil Duncan-Jordan’s speech at the FRMA AGM has led to him and all NPC representatives being barred currently from Rednal. Given that many RMAs have close links and/or affiliations to NPC, a resolution to this situation is awaited. III. Tom Fraser’s intention to stand down from the FRMA Executive Committee has been deferred for a year.

Secretary’s Business: i. The FRMA Officer elections have resulted in all those standing for re-election being returned unopposed. The single Vice-presidential candidate, David Mehaffey of Northern Ireland RMA, is elected. It was noted in one RMA there was a misunderstanding with election to FRMA and RMA being confused. The secretary asked the meeting to confirm Cumbria’s nomination of John Rimmer (Cheshire RMA) to continue as North-west Regional Executive Member. II. Setting the venues for the 2019 meetings. This is postponed to the next meeting to allow suggestions to reach David Cornwall who will look at possible activities to supplement the formal meeting. III. As an interim measure it was confirmed that the next meeting, the AGM, will be at the Horse and Farrier, Threlkeld and the May meeting at the Strickland Arms, Sizergh.

Treasurer’s Business: A report was tabled and commented on by the treasurer who expected some reserves to be spent to cover the cost of the final meeting of the year. He reassured the meeting this was not a problem and reserves would be in the region of £1000 at the closure of the accounting period.

NW Regional Update: none

Any Other Business (i) The meeting agreed the secretary should respond to the FRMA request for views on the Governance proposals issued earlier. The view is that the current structure should be maintained (proposed: Dick Chalmers; seconded: Peter Sunter). This was passed. (ii) Proposed: David Found; seconded: David Cornwall that ‘on future meeting dates the Executive Committee meet at 12 noon and the General Meeting follow at 12.30pm’. This was passed. (iii) Since the last newsletter it has emerged that a single document rather than separate ones for officer and executive committee elections is preferred. The secretary will use this form in the forthcoming RMA elections rather than the forms indicated in the last newsletter. (iv) It was pointed out to the meeting there is a firm supplying printers free if one contracts to buy ink cartridges. Since the newsletter editor no longer needs a replacement printer this will not require investigation. (v) Following a brief mention of the FRMA sub-committee looking at the possibility of diary provision David Cornwall proposed and Tom Fraser seconded that ‘the NASUWT diary is never discussed again in meetings’. This was passed.

The meeting closed at 1.45pm.

Future meetings

Please come with suggestions for future meetings, venues and places to visit. We need to keep in mind that some of our members will have to travel for more than an hour as we move about the county. The last meeting at St Bees was a challenge for several of us but it was good that a member and wife who had not previously been to a RMA meeting were able this time to get there by bus. Also for our 2 winter meetings we have short hours of daylight for travel. We have fixed our May meeting for May 22nd at The Strickland Arms near Sizergh, South of

Cumbria Retired Members’ Association – accounts summary for 2018.

Please see below for a summary of Cumbria RMA’s accounts for 2018. The full accounts will be presented at the AGM and can be e-mailed to members on request to the Treasurer or Secretary.

Your annual subscription is still set at £22 and is split between NASUWT, which retains £8 per member and £14 which goes to the Retired Members. The latter is subdivided so that for 2018 £9-50 per member was available to be spent locally by Cumbria RMA, with a £4-50 precept going to the FRMA.

For the first time when not purchasing IT equipment for the newsletter, Cumbria RMA generated a deficit: exactly £132. This was largely due to 2 unplanned expenditures during the year: mailing the AGM paperwork (c. £100) after a computer glitch led to the postponing of the AGM. It may be necessary in future to use the services of the Post Office for AGM notification. An extra committee meeting, (£53-90) was held to fulfil the terms of the constitution. It is planned in future to hold a brief committee meeting before the start of General Meetings.

Given the deficit, it will be necessary to set a tighter budget at the AGM, especially in view of the fact that the FRMA is proposing to increase its precept to £5-50 from 2020. (This has to be with the agreement of RMAs at a FRMA General Meeting). It is hoped that this will be accompanied by an overdue Retired Member subscription rate increase – this has been unchanged since 2008, but is in the gift of NASUWT; costs for all are increasing.

Our local spending is done via our Unity Trust Bank current account; when a cheque is paid out, a claim is made to the Rednal Finance Department, who should then top up the current account to its maintained amount of £223-65. (This is an increase of £28-35 from the 2017 amount). We have made 5 claims during the year, after each of our 4 General meetings plus the 1 Committee meeting. A balance sheet is sent by the Rednal Finance Dept. at the end of the year, which has to be signed by 2 officers other than the Treasurer and returned to Rednal as proof that all is above board.

* However, for this year the anomaly reported last year has continued: there is an apparent discrepancy between our Imprest and actual deficits: the error made by the Finance Dept. when processing Imprest claims was repeated, resulting in an extra £40 being retained in the current account (plus the £19-50 from 2017). Thus we now have £283-15 in the current account, but our actual available funds are the same. See full accounts for details

Balance of income & expenditure for 2018:

Income: Income from paying members (71 x £14) £994-00 Voluntary HLM contributions (6 x £10) £60-00 Income for 2018 £1054-00

Expenditure: Subscription transfers to FRMA (71 x £4-50) £319-50 Meal subsidies £537-75 Committee meeting (meal subsidy) £53-90 H Marrs Newsletter expenses £131-46 RM Chalmers Secretary expenses £108-73 T Fraser Treasurer expenses (2017-18) £34-66 Travel expenses 0 Expenditure in 2018 £1186-00

Balance: Income £1054-00 Expenditure £1186-00 Balance +/- -£132-00

Balance of Imprest statement: Cumbria RMA Imprest reserves on 31/12/2018 £905-70 Cumbria RMA Imprest reserves on 01/01/2018 £1106-05 Plus Imprest transfer for 2018 maintained amount £28-35 2018 deficit shown on Imprest statement -£172-00 Plus extra income in current account from Imprest £40-00 (Actual deficit) -£132-00

Total available funds: Cumbria RMA Imprest reserves on 31/12/18 £905-70 Current account balance on 31/12/18 £283-15 Total available end of year funds £1188-85

Tom Fraser, Cumbria RMA Treasurer, Jan. 3 2019.

Secretary’s Report for 2018

Our numbers have remained at 79 with any losses balanced by new members joining and the pattern of meetings has remained the same, although there was an Emergency Annual General Meeting due to the problems with notifying members of the scheduled AGM. The July ‘Pastyfest’ was again affected by it coinciding with holiday commitments and doubt over the availability of food. Unfortunately, those members returning home by rail suffered from train cancellation.

Recommendations from members saw new venues tried in Armathwaite and St. Bees with the main consideration, as always, to try and hold meetings in places which would encourage nearby members to attend. It is pleasing that this worked. In the future it is hoped our meetings can include visits to places of interest suggested by members and, to this end, one of the executive committee has volunteered to co-ordinate any ideas put forward.

Cumbria RMA is the smallest RMA in the country, following the amalgamation of Bexley & Bromley RMA with London RMA, but attendances at our meetings of about a dozen members represents a good turnout. Hopefully, and I repeat the appeal from last year, some of those who have attended or joined recently will consider the need for succession in committee posts. In May NASUWT issued a revised RMA constitution which forced change. Counting all those members present as the committee of the day had to be abandoned and an executive committee elected at the Emergency AGM. This body met and agreed that future elections for officers and executive committee members should, as far as possible, follow the pattern used by the Cumbria working members’ federation. A further result is that executive committee meetings will precede ordinary meetings with the latter moving to a 12.30pm starting time.

The FRMA AGM and General Meetings in March and September have had two Cumbria representatives on each occasion in addition to Tom Fraser as an FRMA Officer.

A rather “solid” newsletter this time with all the necessary AGM documents, instead of the recommended “light diverting read”

We have been asked to clarify the procedures for electing FRMA officers. I give an outline below.

Election of FRMA officers.

Vice President Secretary Treasure Development Officer

These positions are open for election annually. New nominations are to be sent to the FRMA secretary by any RMA committee by the first Friday in November. Should there be more than one candidate for any position a ballot of all members is required. Nominees will be notified in time to allow them to prepare election addresses to be sent out with the ballot papers. The election is organised by the NASUWT, normally being completed around the middle of December. The new officers take up their positions at the FRMA AGM in early March. No election is necessary for any position if there is only one nominee. Should there be no nominations the current holder remains in post.

Elections for Regional Executive Members take place a little later. Nominations go in in December . Nominations come from the committees of the RMA s covered by each Region’s Executive member. Thereafter the procedure is the same. Should you require further clarification of this process, please contact Dick who will be happy to let you have full details.

Dates for meetings this Year

These dates are fixed but the venue for the later ones is still to be decided at the general meeting on Feb 13th.

May 22nd Strickland Arms, Levens July 19th Pastyfest at the Prince of Wales, Foxfield September 18th TBA November 27th TBA February 26th 2020 AGM at the Horse and Farrier, Threlkeld.

CUMBRIA RMA OFFICERS 2018 -2019

President Helen Marrs  0161 6528891  [email protected] 45, Middlegate, OL8 3AG

Vice-president Peter Sunter 12, Orchard St. Carlisle CA1 2JL  01228 401249  [email protected]

Secretary: Dick Chalmers 3, Ingleborough Park Drive, Ingleton, Carnforth N. Yorks LA6 3AJ  015242 41443  [email protected]

Treasurer: Tom Fraser The Crest , Haggs Lane, Cartmel, Cumbria LA11 6HD  015395 36324  [email protected]

Newsletter Ed: Helen Marrs  0161 6528891  [email protected]