NMC Committee Minutes Tuesday 10th February 2015 Attending John Dalrymple (JD), Adrian Wilson (AW), Ian Birtwistle (IB), Andrew Shanks (AS), Alastair Boardman (AB), John Spencer(JS), Ed Sciberras (ES), Sonia Byers (SnB), Pete Hubbard(PH), Sarah Follman (SF), Steve Blake (StB)
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Apologies David Angel (DA), Peter Flegg (PF), Dan Leadbitter (DL)
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Approval of Minutes of last meeting Corrections noted to minutes: •
Date of this meeting
Minutes approved JD, AW
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Action Points and Matters Arising •
The role and function of the committee were explained to new members.
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The low attendance at the AGM was discussed ◦
SnB noted that it was not clear to new members that all members were invited to the AGM, and it was agreed to do more to publicise this next year
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The possibility of combining the AGM with another event such as a talk or a slideshow was raised
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The possibility of a revised, more informal format with small group discussion was raised
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AW proposed running a members' forum with the alternative format suggested for the AGM in the immediate future ▪
Burnside classrooms and back rooms of pubs are to be explored as venues
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AW volunteered to organise
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Meet Schedule •
It was proposed that the NMC track attendance at Wednesday night meets for the coming year and cross-reference the attendance with the weather
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The NMC will hold one Wednesday night meet at Kyloe Out rather than two
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The NMC will hold one Wednesday night meet at Bowden rather than two
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A second Wednesday night meet at Peel Crag will be added
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A Wednesday night might at Scugdale will be organised, and the possibility of holding the meet in conjunction with the CMC will be explored
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The NMC will hold additional weekend meets in Northumberland, including one in conjunction with the University club
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ED will take responsibility for arranging winter meets and informing PF
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ED plans to arrange a winter skills course
Communications •
IB is creating a new Facebook group, NMC Chat, to be a more interactive forum than the primary NMC Facebook page
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NMC forums are to be closed down
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IB is looking at bespoke calendar options to replace the calendar linked to the old forums ◦
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IB is investigating alternative means of providing downloads
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Promotion of meets is to move to Facebook
Correspondence •
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Facebook's calendar option, which doesn't require Facebook membership to view is the most promising
PF has asked for information for the handbook
Membership •
26 full members left last year and the replacement rate is lower
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AW proposed dividing responsibility for encouraging prospective conversion among the committee
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IB, AB, StB, JD, ES and JS have volunteered to contact prospectives
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AW will develop pruned list of most likely prospects
AW proposes a streamlined path to full membership to be offered to prospective members who are known to the committee as safe climbers after 6 months.
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Services to Members. •
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Hadrian Leisure are satisfied with the current arrangement for the NMC to use the Burnside Facility and AW is to propose a continuation of the arrangement to them. ◦
Hadrian Leisure's primary interest is to cover the cost of the route setting that the NMC want to use the Burnside facility
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Between 16 and 20 NMC members come to Burnside each week.
The possibility of having NMC members trained in route setting and contributing to the route setting at Burnside is to be explored ◦
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StB will investigate the practicality of this
AOB •
JD raised the point that the existing online guide will need to be upgraded in the near future to accommodate StB's new pdf guidebook supplements ◦
The possibility of having a dynamic website allowing feedback on grades was discussed. It was generally agreed that we would need to be cautious of the maintenance commitment, being aware of other local sites that had tried similar endeavours
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JD and StB will experiment with layouts
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StB explained the strategy of making free pdfs available initially to publicise newly developed local crags and to maintain a competitive position against Rockfax
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Five guide supplements currently exist
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ED suggested incorporating those into our meet rotation
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An alternative of organising a Saturday meet to one of the new venues was proposed as they are primarily bouldering venues
StB proposed obtaining an additional copy of the editing software used for the guides for the use of John Mountain who is currently assisting. ▪
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IB will investigate the possibility of using an online suite that has recently become freely available
SnB proposed having an outdoor first aid course and a navigation course ◦
JD has been repeatedly trying to organise an Outdoor First Aid course with Al Horsfield -alternatives will be investigated
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JD proposed contacting Colin Matheson to run a navigation course
AW will organise a learn to lead course
Date of Next Meeting Tuesday 10th of February