NMC Committee Minutes

Tuesday 10th March 2015

Attending

John Dalrymple (JD), Adrian Wilson (AW), Ian Birtwistle (IB), Andrew Shanks (AS), Alastair Boardman (AB), Ed Sciberras (ES), Pete Hubbard(PH), Steve Blake (StB), Peter Flegg (PF)

1 Apologies

David Angel (DA), Dan Leadbitter (DL), Sonia Byers (SnB), Sarah Follman (SF), John Spencer(JS)

2 Approval of Minutes of last meeting

Corrections noted to minutes:

• Misspellings

• Formatting irregularities

Minutes approved JD, StB

3 Action Points and Matters Arising

• StB met with two representatives of the landowner, Lillburn Estates, to discuss matters relating to Bowden Doors

◦ The landowner's greatest concern was a prior incident where the gate to Back Bowden Doors had been blocked by a parked car.

◦ NMC representatives agreed the situation with the wall collapse

◦ NMC and the landowner agreed the following:

▪ The NMC would provide new signage for the gates at Bowden Doors and Back Bowden Doors that would specifically mention parking issues specific to the sites.

▪ StB would do more stabilisation work on rubble at Bowden

▪ NMC allayed landowner's concerns about SSSI responsibilities

◦ StB returned to Bowden Doors on Saturday and dismantled the residual wall back to the escarpment.

• The estate manager, Tony, from Lillburn Estates and a waller have inspected the collapsed wall and propose replacing it with a fence

◦ StB will advise on the best positioning of the fence

• Signs will be produced for Bowden Doors, Back Bowden Doors and Kyloe Out – IB to provide information to JD, JD to approach BMC for signs

◦ The proposed signs will bear the logos of the BMC and the NMC

◦ StB suggested that any stile could have a sign that it was part funded by the NMC and dedicated to someone like Tony.

◦ The issues that affect these crags are to be publicised on the internet as well.

• Issues of conflicts with deer-stalkers at Kyloe were discussed

◦ With the information we have, the best we can do is to ensure climbers will be aware that deer stalking may occur and to watch for signs

• StB raised the issue of expenses for his work on the collapsed wall at Bowden Doors – all expense claims will be handled by ED.

• AW has produced an online membership application form

◦ 3 applications for prospective membership and 3 for full membership have been made

◦ The new online form is to be maintained in parallel to the existing form in pdf format with preference given to the online form.

◦ AW is now taking fees pro-rata from members who join part way through the year

• Progress on northumberlandclimbing was discussed

◦ JD thinks the project would benefit from better thumbnails and IB recommended using issuu

◦ IB has been investigating various uses of issuu, currently using it for County Climber back issues

◦ JD has uploaded one pdf. John Mountain has been proofreading 3 others.

◦ JD will investigate John Mountain's computer needs for his proofreading role

• IB volunteered to replace John Earl as signatory on the NMC bank account

◦ It was proposed to investigate the feasibility of continually updating the signatories so that the current treasurer and current president would be signatories

• StB reported on the investigation into the feasibility of route setting training

◦ The route setter's association typically charges £200 per head with the possibility of bulk discounts for courses costing more than £600

◦ It was decided that the use the club would get from having route setting training would not justify the cost.

4 Membership

• This year has seen 105 renewals, 90 by go cardless.

• The BMC fees have been paid

• Prospective applications have been received from Gilbert Roberts and Jamie Heweson

• AW has compiled the list of all lapsed members

5 Meets

• The Wednesday meets list was approved

• IB proposed approaching the walls to see how they could make club nights work more smoothly for next year

• AW expressed concern about the number of NMC members who had attended the non-Hadrian Leisure meets

◦ It was agreed to keep the current schedule for next year

• AW proposed hosting a film night, to be combined with a members' forum

• PH volunteered to run a Navigation Skills course for the club

◦ Details are to be worked out by email

• JD will circulate a list of weekend meets for feedback

• IB proposed encouraging the wider membership to suggest and organise meets

◦ AW proposed putting this idea to the membership at the film night

◦ StB suggested that experienced members could mentor first-time meet leaders.

• A slideshow is to be held at Hadrian Leisure on the 25th of March, with ES to publicise

• IB proposed organising meets for different activities – eg walking, mountain biking

◦ ES will organise an NMC pub meet, to be publicised in the newsletter

6 Correspondence

• PF raised the issue of the vote on the rule changes being cast while the AGM was not quorate

◦ AS to recheck recording of AGM and determine if a repeat vote was cast after the latecomers turned up. There is no record of such.

◦ The consensus is to re-take the vote with the members to be polled by email, AW to organise.

• A prospective member, Igor has approached IB seeking sponsorship for an expedition

◦ IB has replied, advising Igor that he would consult the committee and directing him to the BMC's expedition fund.

◦ It was generally agreed that this was not within the scope of the club's activities and IB will reply to that effect and remind him again of the BMC's expedition fund.

• IB has been contacted by Finn McCann, speedwing alpinist, who has offered his services as a speaker.

◦ IB will forward his details to ES.

• ED and John Vaughan attended the BMC meeting

◦ A festival of climbing and walking is being organised to be held in Wooler on the 5th of July to coincide with the Chevy Chase Fell-running event and Wooler outdoor week. This conflicts with our annual dinner, we plan to publicise both.

◦ Mark Anstiss is organising a cleanup of Crag Lough

◦ The issues at Bowden and Kyloe were brought up

◦ The BMC replaced their insurance underwriters following some problems last year.

7 Communications

• JS is still working on the County Climber

8 AOB

• AW raised the issue of communication for bad weather options on Wednesday night meets

◦ In the past JD has commonly arrived at crags early and informed other members of the weather – he has indicated that this year he will still be doing this.

◦ It was generally agreed that Climb Newcastle would be the default bad weather fallback.

• StB, JD and Bob Smith have been running an ad-hoc stabilisation program for some time

◦ StB proposes conducting trials to determine the most appropriate stablising material for Northumberland sandstone

◦ ED and StB will make enquiries with people outside the club who have knowledge of rock stabilisation.

◦ StB will contact Dan Middleton, BMC technical officer, to find out if BMC support is available.

10 Date of Next Meeting

Tuesday 14th of April