The Royal British Legion
Cumberland & Westmorland
14th July 2018
MINUTES OF THE CUMBERLAND AND WESTMORLAND COUNTY MEETING SATURDAY THE 14th July 2018 AT PENRITH RBL CLUBHOUSE.
Attendance JH, MW, DB, MR, EW, NM, RG, RH, IF, TC, CS
Apols JC, CFR, NMC,
PLEASE NOTE THESE MINUTES HAVE BEEN PRODUCED IN LINE WITH THE NEW GDPR GUIDLINES
10 35 Meeting opened by TC.
1036 Exultation and Kohima.
Minutes of the last meeting held in April were read and accepted as a true reflection. Proposed by MW Seconded by IF Carried by unanimous vote.
Matters Arising Nil
At this point The Chairman asked if the new Area manager NM would like to say anything.
NM told the group that she was very grateful for being invited to the meeting and informed us all about some of the meetings she has been having with the NMC and others. NM informed the group that a new Welfare Officer for South Cumbria has been employed and is now in post. NM informed us that CK is going to be putting on some new Case Worker training for volunteers and dates have yet to be verified but it will be in mid August in Cumbria. She has been having meetings around BCS the, Thank You campaign etc.
Questions
I believe you have come from another charity? “yes I was working with the Duke of Edinburgh’s award and have lots of experience in working with charities and Armed Forces”.
The Chair then asked members present to introduce themselves to the Area manager
CORRESPONDENCE
MSO spoke about the new “Thank You campaign and the date of the new launch of the initiative and he has some activity packs and info to send out once the initiative is launched. A brief discussion was had around Thank You and School Packs.
CHAIRMANS REPORT
The Chairman told the meeting he had nothing to report at this time due to only getting back on his feet after his recent illness. He assured us that he was back now and able to resume his duties as County Chairman. He informed the mtg that he was disappointed at not attending the last meeting due to illness as it was the first meeting he had missed in 18 years.
TREASURERS ACCOUNT.
The Treasurer informed us about the bank accounts and current holdings and a list is attached. The budget 2017/18 has finally been paid and the monies are now in the account. He has once again not been able to reconcile the accounts due to a discrepancy of reconciled and unreconciled accounts. There is a deficit of £2,750 00 and the new Treasurer will need to resolve this issue. The treasurer has tried on many occasions to close of the year end accounts and this has not been possible.
Unfortunately he now feels that he can no longer carry on as Treasurer and will be formally tendering his resignation forthwith.
MR would like to formally request that the sum of £2000 is voted upon to be given to the sub committee of the Sands Centre event to be held on sat 10th November and a bid to the HQ has been made to include this money in our budget request.
The accounts remain unsigned for the last year’s accounts still and that the new treasurer is going to have to get this sorted with accounts.
The vote was proposed by MR and Seconded by IF and carried unanimously
MR Treasurer also informed the meeting that the C and W holding branch BR1455 has an amount of money in a BFI account. He can not recollect how long ago this branch was closed or that there was an amount of money in a BFI so we as a County have asked for the sum of £9500 to be transferred into the County Welfare Account
At this point the Chairman officially thanked MR for his many years of dedicated service as the County Treasurer and all agreed that he will be very much missed.
PAOs REPORT
Please see the attached report for JR report as she is not able to attend today.
MSOs REPORT
MSO CS Started by giving a report on the Standard Bearers Competition that had been held for the first time in many years the week prior to this meeting. It was a very successful day with 4 competitors and it had been attended by the Deputy Lt and VIPs from membership and the County
The competition was won by the Bransty Branch representative and he won the competition by 20 clear points from his nearest rival.
MSO has had a request from Cockermouth Branch to possible close in the coming months but they are due to have a meeting soon to discuss this matter and at this point this is for information only. Keswick have applied to become a sub branch of Penrith and both Committee s have agreed however MSO reports that sub branch option is now not available and Keswick will have to come under the new County Branch amalgamation scheme or the new County Supported Branches Scheme. Once the MSO is up to date with both he will suggest the best option in regards to this branch.
MSO had been invited to the laying up ceremony for Hawkshead Branch but had been unable to attend due to the SB comp being on the same day but he has been informed that all went well. Also the County had agreed for the EX Chairman of Hawkshead branch to be presented with a Gold badge for his years of service to the Legion and this had been done on the same day as the laying up of Hawkshead Standard.
The new system around Festival of Remembrance ticketing had been sent out to branches and opened for members on 23rd July 2018 on a first come first served basis. DB asked a question as to Civilian attendees to the FOR around if they were subject to the same screening process as RBL members and he was assured that they were.
AOB
The Chair reinforced the rule around sending any AOB items to MSO before the next meeting.
IF Bransty Branch posed a question around County Committee make up and how we can get new members on the County Committee. TC explained that once upon a time the County was broken down into 6 areas and each area provided County Committee attendees. MSO asked at the time if we could make the Branch Seminars and County Committee meeting could be made more corporate by holding it at a specific corporate venue. Where we could do things like marching in the Standard etc. The AGM this year is being held in Penrith and our Guest Speaker is the Deputy Head of Membership and those present decided not to change the venue. There were no other suggestions from the meeting as to how the Committee could be improved. There was some discussion about marching in the Standard and how we can do that at Penrith
CS Discussed with the committee that the Current Chairman’s role is up for re-election this year and some paperwork is available today for attendees to nominate a new County Chairman and any branches who would like to nominate a new Chair should in the first instance contact the MSO.
There is also some information to take away today on the County Supported Branches initiatives and I am taking applications from County Branches to get support from the County Supported Branches Initiative.
CS discussed the next meeting in October on the 13th as it is a County Meeting followed by a Branch Seminar and this meeting would be about Branch Community Support. Applications to send members of Branches to the County Seminar should be sent to the MSO in the first instance. The Ranch Seminar will start at 1300 hrs.
MSO is to take over the treasurer’s role and as such a proposal was put that CS be added to the account and the new mandate be signed and sent to the bank to add him as a signatory. It was also proposed that the account correspondence address would need to be changed.
Proposed TC Sec IF carried.
There being no other business TC closed the meeting at 1134
