AGM Minutes, Thursday 5th February 2015

Minutes for CUHWC AGM, 05/02/15

Chair: Thomas Leach

Secretary: Laurent Michaux

1. Apologies for Absence

Valery Ashton, Jade Cuttle

2. Presidential Report

Trips

·        12 trips since the last AGM - no day trip last Lent, and lose 1 due to early AGM.

·        Mystery/Threlkeld – Signup before this committee year. Film crew caused some issues, otherwise fine.

·        Cwm Dyli – Traditionally snowy weather, all went fine.

·        Bryn Golau – nothing to report; I didn’t actually go on Mystery/Threlkeld.

·        Roaches Day Trip – lovely walk in stunning weather along the Roaches, got lost finding Fish and Chips on the way home.

·        Patterdale trip – nothing to report, no scrambling course this year for financial reasons (no BMC money).

·        Summer – trips to the Alps, Cape Wrath Trail, and Glencoe organized (semi-)independently of the club.

·        Edale – Full again this year with significant waiting list at signup, although people dropped out and even those towards the bottom of the reserve list did have an opportunity to go. Again difficulties with late walks back (blame Andrew and I).

·        Glenridding – good new bunkhouse, very spacious and good value. Limited to 30 beds (no one permitted on the floor), although we could use the Striding Edge Hostel next door on another occasion. First aid needed after Karol fell and cut his head; otherwise went smoothly.

·        Caseg Fraith – again good weather, some went climbing on Sunday. CUMC joined us on Saturday night, somehow managed to fit 52 people in the hut for dinner.

·        Dartmoor – good new bunkhouse, relatively basic but very good value. Friendly owners too. Some issues re two members poorly filling in a route card, leading to worry when they didn’t come back, although thankfully they managed to call the hut. Also – a very long drive there!

o   It was commented that the goggles were not suitable for chopping wood, Tom said he will look into it.

o   Tom was also happy that people read his emails and took down the numbers to call when they were going to be late back.

·        Seathwaite – miserable weather, but quite a few new members came along.

·        Capel Curig – very oversubscribed, but TAL managed to find another bunkhouse at very short notice, so almost all the people on the reserve list got a space. Some issues re puncture – the next Meets Sec and Treasurer can have fun dealing with that – and also the key got left behind, waiting back to hear from the club about that.

o   Tom A remarked that the extra bunkhouse was very comfortable!

·        Trips generally oversubscribed, although not quite as bad as in the past. Michaelmas trips tended to fill at ~7.20, Caseg Fraith obviously very bad this year.

Trip Statistics

·        214 different people came on a trip in the last 14 trips (although helped by 96 people coming on anniversary trip many who were inactive members)

o   Joe said “That’s the same number as the number of wainwrights. So we could have literally put a members on each wainwright”

·        Keen members are Marcus, who has been on 11/14 last trips.

o   Last year none 11/13, TAL 10/13.

·        New active members, 4 or more in last 14 and none before that: Jade 9/14, Charlotte Z 5/14, Yining N 5/14, Ben B 5/14, Camilla P 4/14, Adrien L 4/14, David H 4/14, Zekong C 4/14

·        Edale 26% retention rate (same as last year) – 12 new members came back. 49 ‘new’ members on Edale. Elizabeth B did not come :(

Membership

·        Currently 106 members, 38 Undergrads (49%), 39 Postgraduate (51%), 27 Unknown

·        Last year 129 members, 41 Undergrads (44%), 52 postgraduate (56%), 36 Unknown

·        78% of members are CU students

·        6 Toms (5.7% of club)

·        46% Female, 54% Male balance

·        Popular colleges are 11 Churchill, 9 Pembroke, 8 Fitzwilliam, 6 Johns, 6 Girton

·        2 people on course membership, ends this year

·        14 people came on club socials but not trips – can discuss this later.

Transport

·        Not a lot of change from last year really …

·        Minibuses - we can no longer hire them as per last year (Phil?)

·        Used MPV's and more cars instead which has worked ok and not too much more expensive. Drivers prefer them too. Also more room for kit.

·        Generally good for drivers, although some issues on Glenridding (probably due to going there in June).

·        Successfully use of CUSU MPV for Day Trip – worth doing again. Also good interest-free loan – full payment only needs sending 6 months after use.

Courses

·        No scrambling course this year, in part due to lack of BMC funding for the year before, although would be good to do one this year with new funding situation.

·        (Basic) navigation course on Caseg Fraith (Glyn Calland) – good, but perhaps set at too low a level. Always tricky to pitch these things right. Issue worth noting with bunkhouse – need to try and book a bigger one with courses in mind, as otherwise too many presigns.

·        REC 4 First Aid – 5 CUHWC members participated. More REC courses lined up this term.

Kit

·        Both the Cwm Dyli vacation trip and the Capel Curig trip had ‘full’ winter conditions. With the former, ice axes (and to a lesser extent crampons) were needed for walks on higher ground, which did pose some challenges in terms of the numbers of crampons/ice axes available as always. Felt it was managed better this year.

·        Some issues with missing club kit as always, although seems to have got better since last year. Reintroducing check-out system seems to be working, although always tricky with the rush to head off on Sunday.

·        New kit has included waterproofs and headtorches, perhaps look into buying new sleeping bags (Andy?)

Socials

·        Excellent range and number of socials this year (formals at Homerton, Clare, Girton, Trinity; swap with CUEX/CUMC, SPRI museum tour, Sports Quiz, and lunches at Botanic Gardens and occasional pubs.

·        No weekly lunches since October, due to low attendance and difficulty finding a permanent venue. However, occasional things do tend to be more popular, including pub lunches.

·        Pub meets are still well attended – guess about 10-15 on average, with some >20

·        Other standard events – Garden Party at Pembroke (thanks to Marcus, Jade and Dr Hickson), informal overnight punting arranged after; Christmas Curry

3. Accounts

Overview

Last year it was necessary to build up the balance in the bank account following the minibus accident. This year the aim has been to keep the bank balance at a more steady level. Trip fees have varied throughout the year but now seem to have stabilised at £40.

The accounts are still kept using GNUCash, and this made it very easy to fill in the accounts summary form at the end of the financial year. I would like to thank Phil for his help during the year.

In order to reduce the amount of cash I was handling (we received over £800 for the Edale trip), and to move with the times, the decision was made not to accept cash at sign-up. The ability to pay by online transfer was introduced and this has proved popular, with Marcus and Dr. Fox amongst those who have made the transfer on the spot outside St Johns. A few people without British bank accounts still pay by cash, but this is more manageable than before. If they could get British bank accounts and pay by transfer it would please me even more.

Socials

In line with the Procters’ advice, we have tried to minimise any losses on socials. I think we have managed this reasonably successfully, with the main losses being the garden party and the annual dinner. Pre-payment for formals has been enforced which has eradicated any loss from expecting people to turn up on the night with payment. The next committee should continue this.

The accounts summary shows that socials have been subsidised by £101.34 this financial year. At face value this figure is higher than that which we should be aiming for, but is actually due to a number of artefacts:

1.   A £22.00 cheque someone on the committee is yet to pass on to me

2.   Payment for Queens Formal (Feb 2014) was over two financial years In real terms, socials (mainly Garden party and 2014 annual dinner) have been subsidised ∼ £36

Questions

·    Are all of our members now on yearly membership?

No, still two left ending this year. Yearly membership is the only type of membership now offered.

·    The figure for membership income indicates that we have 102 members (£1530 / 15), yet at the bottom it says this totalled 93 members.

Good spot. This is a mistake. 102 membership payments have been made in the past financial year. Note that this may not quite equate to 102 members as it would be possible to pay membership twice in a financial year. I’m not going to go through the accounts and look to see if this is the case.

·    Can we explain the apparent drop in number of members this year compared with last?

The accounts from the 2013 - 2014 financial year indicate that 137 membership payments were made. Perhaps the trips this year were smaller, or more of the longer-term members went on the trips. I’m probably not the best person to be answering this question. I don’t think it poses a problem for the club, as many of the trips have been over subscribed by a considerable margin. People are still keen to go hill-walking.

·    How much do we now pay to the BMC for member affiliation?

Payment for the first 20 members is a lump sum of £175.00 (£8.75 per member). £8.75 per member thereafter. Non student members are £11.75

·    What were the BMC grants actually for? Were they for particular courses? Did we receive any money for Freshers’ Fair flyers, like we have in the past?

£130 website and flyers £105 equipment
£200 navigation course

·      Why has administration expenditure increased by -£400 from last year? Is this due to a restructuring of the accounts?

The administration category on the accounts form also include miscellaneous items. It is also important to consider the ad­ministrative income. Some items such as the committee hoodies, went through the accounts (in and out) as administration. It could be argued they should have gone through as clothing, but they differ from the other stash we sell. The selling of other stash is a continuous event over several years whereas the committee hoodies are a discrete event each year.

An anonymous duffer made a £50 donation to the AGTF (initially paid into our account, then transferred to the AGTF) which went through as misc (administration).

Expenses this year:

30.00 Freshers Fair fee

69.50 Freshers Fair printing

59.25 Food and drink for squash

75.00 Room hire for freshers squash

It should be noted that the club generally struggles to find rooms which we can use. Apart from the freshers squash, room hire does not represent a good use of club money.

Some of this could be classed as publicity but at current there is not a publicity account in the accounts, whereas there is a section for publicity on the form provided by the procters. Perhaps next year we should class some expenditure as publicity in the accounts.

·    We appear to have made some profit on clothing or is this something buried in the ‘account summary’ document that I can’t spot?

No - I am not sure how you came to this conclusion. Perhaps you can rephrase the question with some explanation?

·    What would ‘publicity’ cover? I know we have £0.00 on it anyway, but surely the Freshers’ Fair banner should be listed as publicity expenditure? How were the Freshers’ Fair flyers paid for?

I had classed the freshers fair banner as equipment, as it going to remain a club asset for use at future freshers fairs. It could have been classed as publicity.

·    More a point rather than a query, but the Freshers’ Squash didn’t really make a loss, since the aim (I think) was to pay for that from Edale income, which we did, with -£50 to spare, as I expect you already know, but it may be worth clarifying explicitly.

I presume you are talking about the Oct 2013 Freshers squash. That is in the 2013 - 2014 financial year - not whilst I was treasurer.