NMC Committee Minutes Tuesday 2nd February 2016 Attending Andrew Shanks (AS), Adrian Wilson (AW), Ian Birtwistle (IB), John Dalrymple (JD), Steve Blake (StB), John Spencer(JS), David Angel (DA), Sonia Byers(SnB), Ed Sciberras (ES), Alastair Boardman (AB), Joe Rudin (JR), Joe McCarty(JMcC),
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Apologies Pete Hubbard (PH), Eva Diran (ED), Craig Harrison (CH), Felix Larrieu(FL), Radeck Florczak (RF)
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Approval of Minutes of last meeting Approved by JS, seconded AW AGM minutes approved in principle
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Action Points and Matters Arising •
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JD reported on progress on NorthumberlandClimbing website – he has been developing the infrastructure for the site ◦
The current road block is developing a comprehensive system for representing all possible grades a route can have
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The full grade design will be completed offline
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JD to complete basic site maintenance by the end of February
The issue of negotiating access rights to another club's hut was raised ◦
StB thinks this is an interesting idea, but anticipates a large burden associated with attempting to gain hut access rights
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AW believes other clubs are likely to welcome the prospect of more hut use, and suggests Cleveland as a prime candidate to approach
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JS proposed using free entry to NMC organised talks as an incentive to partner clubs
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Joe Spoor is to make inquiries and determine what is practical
Meets •
JS reported that the winter skills meet was well attended
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The most recent winter meet was successful
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StB proposed recruiting volunteers to run an overseas meet in the next newsletter ◦
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AW stressed the need to emphasise the responsibility that individual members would bear both for climbing and travel organisation
JMcC proposed a sunny sport climbing trip
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StB proposed making more use of the upstairs room in the Cumberland arms for social events such as quizzes and slideshows and volunteered to host a quiz following the next committee meeting
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StB expects members could use Facebook to organise ad-hoc get-togethers
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StB has been in touch with John Griffith regarding a talk, and has proposed approaching Berghaus for sponsorship
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JS has reached out to Mark Savage to determine if Mark will do a talk for the NMC
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ES to investigate the feasibility of hiring a university lecture hall
Communications •
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The signs for the Back Bowden gate have been produced ◦
JV will get back to the BMC and request “No Dry-Tooling” signs
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11 further crag care signs are on order
AW raised the issue of NMC chat being clogged by people buying and selling second hand gear ◦
A gear-trading channel was proposed
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For now, we will be deleting trading posts from non-NMC members and monitoring the situation to see if further action is needed.
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JS has received positive feedback on County Climber from Mike Arnold
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AW has edited most of the easily updated parts of the handbook on the assumption that a printed handbook will be produced ◦
The provisional Wednesday night meets list consists of the same crags in the same order as last year, with the addition of Shaftoe as the last venue on the 28th of September, date-shifted to begin with Wolf Crag on the 30th of March
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The Langdale weekend meets are to be advertised in the handbook
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The new committee members are to be added to the committee list
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StB is to review the discounts available to NMC members
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IB is to review the club communication channels
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ES is to review the library content
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JS proposed putting summer weekend meets on the agenda for the next committee meeting
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The club meal is to take place on the weekend from the 8 th to the 12th of July
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Membership cards with a space for a date stamp will be produced
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JS is assisting StB in producing the new guidebook
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StB proposed assembling a guidebook working group and recruiting photographers etc for the guidebook project through the newsletter ◦
StB is to be the point of contact for any volunteers for the guidebook project
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JS presented options for re-organising County Climber ◦
Continue with County Climber as a quarterly or less-frequent magazine available for viewing online and download as pdf, and publish a quarterly newsletter to publicise upcoming events and post notices
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Have an NMC blog, possibly curated by the magazine editor, backed up with a quarterly newsletter
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Move towards producing an annual County Climber that can be printed and sold, inspired by the journals produced by the larger clubs ▪
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JS will survey other clubs to find out what they do
StB proposes two County Climbers a year and a newsletter every two months ▪
AW recommends that newsletters be produced as the need arises rather than on a regular schedule
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Going forward, JS will produce the content for newsletters and IB and AW will assist with Mailchimp
AoB •
RF sent a message bringing the committee's attention to a Nordic walking course run out of Sunderland, IB will clarify what he expects
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CH is to be encouraged to advertise his proposed mountain biking meet on Facebook
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JMcC offered to organise a North Wales meet, to coordinate with AW regarding booking a hut
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AB will be organising a Peak meet
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A Google spreadsheet is to be used for co-ordinating meets
Next Meeting •
15th of March 2016