NMC Committee Minutes

Tuesday 20th May 2014

Attending

John Dalrymple (JD), Adrian Wilson (AW), Peter Flegg (PF), Ian Birtwistle (IB), Andrew Shanks (AS), Alastair Boardman (AB), Ed Sciberras (ES), Eva Diran (ED)

1 Apologies

Ian Ross (IR), David Angel (DA)

2 Approval of Minutes of last meeting

Minutes approved with corrections

3 Action Points and Matters Arising

• 4 people have applied for prospective membership as a result of the get outside meets

• Get outside meets to continue, posibbility of extending to cover arrival of students to be investigated

• IB will continue developing links between NMC and university clubs.

• T shirt and hoodie orders to go through contingent on verifying that the same quality is available in the reduced quantity order

• Provisional quantitites:

XS S M L XL

T-shirt 1 6 12 6 1

Hoodie 1 6 12 6 1

Women's Tee 6 6

• Sale price to be decided once cost price is known for certain

• ED will store T-shirts and hoodies, all members will be responsible for sales

• Action on DA to confirm order

4 Correspondence

• Hadrian Leisure have indicated that they are keen to reset routes but want confirmation that the NMC will be climbing at Burnside next year

◦ There is a possibility to change the arrangements with the fees from a system where money goes to HL and NMC makes up any shortfall to one where the NMC collects money and pays HL a fixed fee.

◦ HL want to explore cross marketing with NMC

◦ HL have limited negotiating room on fees due to being constrained by their PPI arrangement.

◦ Action on AW and ED to meet with HL

▪ Initial NMC proposal – fortnightly NMC use of Burnside, NMC retains the ability to book the conference room, NMC pays HL £80-100 for each session

• PF raised the issue of clarity with what the NMC owes HL

◦ All future invoices must be authorised

◦ ED to be informed of attendance each week in order to authorise invoice

5 Membership

• AW has produced report

• Contribution of PF and JM in chasing up members who missed renewal has paid dividends

• Significant number of new prospective members

• AW will forward all outstanding GoCardless statements to ED

• AW proposed extending GoCardless to cover all payments to the NMC, such as for guidebooks, meets and t-shirts

• Learn to Lead course arranged for the 21st of June

◦ Destination to be a Northumberland crag chosen by instructors based on weather on the day

◦ Individuals will be charged £30 each

◦ John Punshon and Tim Hakim will be instructing, with a 8 student places between them

◦ 4 students have applied so far.

6 Communications

• Working party has yet to meet

• JS is of the opinion that the NMC communications strategy is now fit for purpose

• 123reg payment is in question - *Action on IB to verify payment successful*

7 Guidebooks

• JD reported on meeting with Steve Blake and Chris Graham

◦ The experience of other clubs such as the Fell and Rock suggests that new printed guidebooks are no longer profit-making

◦ The guidebook effort is recast as a strategic project to maintain the NMC's position as the authority on Northumberland climbing.

◦ New guides to be produced as handcrafted pdfs to be distributed for free on the newly developed route website NorthumberlandClimbing.com

▪ As a pilot, the existing online guide attached to the NMC website will be repurposed to distribute these pdfs

▪ Will not compete with existing NMC printed guides

◦ A route database is proposed for a separate section of the NorthumberlandClimbing website, modelled on bleau.info

◦ It may be possible to obtain BMC subsidy to support this effort – the BMC has supported similar efforts elsewhere

◦ The committee approved the purchase of a computer and appropriate software for use in producing guides for a cost of approximately £1500.

▪ Steve Blake will buy the PC and be reimbursed by the club, ED to handle this.

◦ **Action on JD to find the cost of maintaining a regional route database, using Yorkshire Grit as a model**

8 Services

• JS proposes Sandy Crag as a candidate for cleanup

◦ JS has made initial contact with landowner

◦ JS will coordinate

◦ AW has publicised the event

◦ *Action on JS – investigate implications of SSSI status on Sandy Crag*

8 AOB

• Little progress has been made on the BMC festival of walking and climbing, likely to be cancelled due to lack of interest.

• JD has the original document for the Everest Challenge charity event the NMC did with Oxfam in the past and will pass it to JS for inclusion in the County Climber

9 Date of Next Meeting

Tuesday 24th of June