The Royal British Legion
Cumberland & Westmorland
County Patron: HM Lord Lieutenant Mrs Claire Hensman
County President: Mr N Howard OBE
Treasurer Chairman Membership Support Officer
Lt Col. MR Rowney MBE Mr Tony Crane Clive Sumpter
Mountjoy, Ballplay Road 13 Hawesmead Avenue County Office
Moffat Kendal Eden Rural Foyer
Dumfriesshire Cumbria Old London Road
DG10 9JX LA9 5HB Penrith. CA11 8ET
07912 885250 07739 900650 07805 281168
25 July 2017
Minutes of County Committee Meeting on Saturday 8th July 2017
Present: Mr T Crane (County Chairman), Lt Col M R Rowney (County Treasurer), Clive Sumpter (MSO) Miss E Willacy (Arnside), Mrs M Wadsworth (Carlisle), Mr R Hutchinson (Penrith), Mr D Ballantyne (Carlisle), Mr J Muir (Egremont), Miss J Reay (CFO), R Glenister (Windermere), D Cradduck,
In Attendance: Mr J Henderson (Carlisle)
The Chairman opened the meeting at 10.30 hours with the Exhortation and Silent Tribute.
Apologies for absence were received and accepted from Mr I Fisher (County Vice Chairman & Bransty) J Couling (Carlisle) ), Sqn Ldr G S Cave, M Hawthorn (AM) J Brown (NMC).
Minutes of Previous Meeting Held on 1st April 2017
The Chair read the minutes of the previous County Committee meeting held on 1st April 2017. The minutes would need to be altered as Mr R Glenister was not shown as being present so they will be amended Miss E Willacy proposed they be accepted as a true record this was seconded by J Muir and the meeting passed the motion to accept them as a true record.
Matters Arising
A discussion around membership was initiated by Miss E Willacy and the fact that The Royal British legion (RBL) has lost over 22,000 members over the last year must be a cause for concern. A discussion was held around how we as a County can encourage and keep new members. MSO C Sumpter reported that as the MSO he has recently conducted a survey of all remembrance activities at the request of HQ and reported that in general attendance numbers were up and the role of the RBL was well supported by all public offices such as the Police etc. so this would show that the possibility of increasing membership existed. There was a feeling that we should do something as a County to recruit new members and as numbers were up it would be an ideal opportunity to get the name of the RBL out at that time. C Sumpter suggested a pocket sized card with information such as the general RBL phone number included the Lions Head Logo included and some information about Cumbria County. This idea was passed and C Sumpter will make some enquiries around this for the next meeting. In general those present were a little concerned over the RBL position with regards to membership and the County Chair will find out more information on the RBL stance.
Mr Tony Parrini Carlisle branch had asked for a matter to be discussed by the meeting and has sent a brief synopsis of that matter in that he and other branch members wanted to have the matter of Branch Welfare money discussed and wanted the branch to adopt the item adopted as a conference motion for the Annual Conference. This involved a request that branches be able to hold and allocate a higher amount of welfare money than they currently do or are able to award. The matter was discussed and the meeting felt that we would need to ask the Welfare department for its input as it may be that there are strict rules around this type of suggestion. The Chairman Mr T Crane will contact C Knowles to discuss and feedback to the next meeting.
Correspondence
The MSO reported that he had some correspondence re Branch Community Support BCS and the fact that we as a County needed to form a Sub Committee/Working Group to run and encourage Branches onto BCS. The MSO and County Chair Mr T Crane have agreed to be members of the group and branches have been encouraged to put members forward for the group. He also reported on the fact that he was seeking branch nominations for festival Of Remembrance Tickets, March past Tickets and Afternoon Performance Tickets.
Chairman’s Report
The Chair T Crane advised the committee that he has today accepted the resignation of Lt Col M Rowney the current Treasurer Lt Col M Rowney was so concerned about what he feels is a lack of support that he has decided on Doctors advice to offer his resignation as the County Treasurer. He has kindly agreed to serve as a member of the Events Committee and he is still willing to take a look at Branch accounts as he is still registered as a county IE. The Chair Tony Crane reluctantly accepted Lt Col Rowney’s resignation. Mr John Muir proposed that the County offer a vote of Thanks to Lt Col Rowney. This was endorsed by the Chairman and the Committee and passed unanimously.
Treasurer’s Report
Lt Col M Rowney presented the quarterly almonisation figures available and could only report on CA postcodes as that was all that was reported in the figures. The MSO agreed to contact finance re whether this skews the County figures and will report to the next meeting. Lt Col Rowney has produced all the necessary paperwork for the counties 10% contribution to the almonisation report from the Trust Fund. MSO will send of paperwork for this contribution.
The County finances have proved difficult for the treasurer to reconcile due to a LOMAS accounting around the closure of the Kells branch and the banking of their financial holding. This issue was causing him major stress and he has been trying to reconcile this issue for some months without any help from the LOMAS helpdesk. This will continue to be looked into after the meeting. (Updated 18th July now LOMAS issue is sorted and the County accounts are reconciled as correct)
Proposed by: C Sumpter Seconded by T Crane (Carried).
Community Fund-Raising Officer’s Update
J Reay reported to the committee that as a County we stand at £618,625.83 well up on our poppy appeal target from last year and we are only £5,000 from all time highest figure with many towns such as Carlisle eating there previous years figures (over £102,000). Once again the Isle of Man have won the poppy trophy but this year many places have beaten there previous records. There are lots of events scheduled for 2017s Poppy Appeal and 2017s Poppy launch will be held a lakes school. The PAO worked with a group of people from Impact international and a group of students from the Lakes School who designed a Poppy Arch made of Cardboard that poppies can be attached to with small messages of remembrance. Once again Croppers are heavily involved with the appeal and have agreed to produce 5 professional archways for placing around the county and at Poppy Launch but many towns and villages have expressed a desire to have a Poppy Arch for their town etc. This years Poppy seminar will be held on the 9th July at the National Memorial Arboretum and several representatives from the County will be there. This years City Launch will be held at Carlisle with many events such as abseiling to take part in and Judith Reay has made some fantastic links with local reservist group who are eager to take part. There is also the possibility of a Cumbria Poppy Run that is in the talk’s stage at present.
MSOs Report
Mr Sumpter started by thanking everybody for making him feel so welcome and that everyone had been very helpful since he started his new role. We have some correspondence around GP 90 and as a plan Mr Sumpter will attempt to visit as many branches as possible in the coming months to discuss GP90 BCS and Office 365. As MSO I see these issues as a priority and will be pushing them to branches. I have begun talking to individual branches and making contacts and will be looking at membership numbers and branch membership over the coming months. ii have found that some branches do seem to be very close to having not enough members to make them viable and will be talking to those branches about possibly moving to sub branch status. Other than that I have no real report as I have only been in post for such a short period of time and will hopefully have more to report at the next meeting
Branch Community Support (BCS)
The uptake for this particular project has been woeful in the County, despite numerous attempts on my part and cascades of Emails sent out to Branches extolling the virtues of BCS. To date only one branch in the county has signed up for it and one branch are deciding at their branch meeting next week. That leaves 21 branches to take on BCS. As a parting shot, may I ask you to do your best to persuade these branches to adopt the scheme, more of which you’ll hear from the Area Manager, I’m sure.
AOB:
No Matters discussed
Meeting Closed
There being no further business to discuss the meeting was closed by the County Chairman at 11 45hours. He stated that the next meeting will be at the same venue from 10.30 hours on Saturday 7 OCT 2017. There will be a branch officers meeting following that meeting.
County Chairman ……Tony Crane…. Signed Date:
