June 17th 2019

 Cumberland and Westmorland Royal British Legion

County Meeting Minutes 15^th June 2019 at Penrith RBL Clubhouse

In Attendance:

I Fisher (County Vice Chairman Acting County Chairman), C Sumpter (County MSO) M Wadsworth, Carlisle . P Holden, L Harrison, (Appleby Branch) E Willacy, (Arnside Branch).N Cross (Sedbergh Branch), G Edwards Egremont Branch, N Meredith Area Manager, C Knowles Area AITL, D Capstick Langdales Branch Rep, N Cross Acting County Vice Chairman, R Swindale Chairman keswick Branch, R Glenister Windermere Branch County WM

Apologies for Absence

J Train (Kendal Branch), D Ballantyne, Carlisle Branch J Couling, Carlisle and Stanwix Branch, J Henderson Carlisle Branch, D Cradduck Bransty Branch, R Eglin Bransty Branch, B Pease Brampton Branch, J Reay CFR K Rishworth Egremont Chairman.

10 35 Acting Chair Mr Ian Fisher asked the meeting to stand for the Exortation and declared the meeting open .

Minutes of the County Committee meeting April 13th 2019

The Chairman asked if anyone had any matters to raise from the emailed April 2019 Meeting minutes. Ian Fisher raised the matter that in the April minutes it stated that both, County Chairman and County Vice Chairman’s post would be up for re-election at the County AGM in December but pointed out that it would in fact only be the County Chairman position for election as he had been elected to serve as the County Vice Chairman for 3 years in 2018. No other matters were raised and the minutes were amended and accepted as a true reflection unanimously

Correspondence

No new major correspondence had been received at the time of the meeting for reporting

Acting County Chairs report

Acting Chairman I Fisher reported that he had attended National Conference and raised the matter of the proposal that was put forward at the last AC from Carlisle branch around the increase in expenditure on Welfare Cases at Branch level being raised form its current £20 to a higher figure. The information on this and guidelines will be released sometime this year and it was agreed that branches would need to wait for those guidelines.

Mr Fisher reported that it was raised at Conference around the costs incurred by TRBL in administrating accounts that were not completed at Branch Level on time this figure was over £50,000 min lost money due to having to administer this issue. He urged all branches in Cumberland and Westmorland to get their returns in on time and if so before the cut of date to allow any alterations to be made.

He reiterated that Conference had been informative and a well run event.

Area Manager N Meredith Update.

The AM reported that the D Day celebrations were fantastic and the Media Coverage was really good and she praised all the people involved in what was a fantastic event with lots of really positive feedback all round. They are organising a reunion of all the Northern Veterans that attended the event at the Newcastle Pop in and hope that all those involved will attend. Training had been held at the Newcastle Office around Social Isolation, Safeguarding, Welfare and BCS and some very positive comments had come from the recent training and that further training will be held in Cumbria in due course.

The first Northern Newsletter had been released and a copy will be sent to the MSO for distribution to the County. The AM reported that the Northern Advice and Information and Welfare teams were extremely busy helping Veterans and their beneficiaries and case numbers remain high.

County Treasurer’s Report

Read by the MSO, The County Treasurer has reported that names of signatories on the County Account have still to be changed and the first step would be to get up to date Bank Statements and a list of payments to be claimed by Haigh House following the period of Administration for Cumberland and Westmorland County as these would need ratifying and paying. New Cheque signatories will be needed and once clarification of the change of treasurer is received from the Bank NatWest then this will be sorted. The County Treasurer is to attend the Treasurers Course booked for 3^rd and 4^th of August at Penrith.

Anyone who is willing to become a new Cheque signatory should let the MSO know.

Membership Support Officers Report

Please see Attached - click on link

Judith Reay Community Fund Raiser – Report

CFR Report is attached - click on link

AOB

N Cross raised a question around the Op Banner ceremony for GSM holders at the National Arboretum and asked if anyone else had encountered issues whilst trying to register as he had. MSO agreed to look at the RBL link and report back to him.

G Edwards Egremont asked the question if anything has been decided around the 100^th celebrations of the RBL planned for 2021 as no news has appeared yet and he feels that we should be planning for the celebrations. N Meredith Am assured him that planning was in place at HQ and an update to the celebrations will be coming out soon.

G Edwards invited the Committee to attend the Egremont New Standard Dedication to be held on 14^th September at Egremont and this is designed to coincide with the celebrations for the Egremont branch reaching their 75^th anniversary.

C Sumpter MSO informed the meeting that a new County Youth Officer for the South of the County has been found and Mr Myles Ripley (Sedbergh Branch) will take on the role as soon as practicable

C Sumpter MSO has agreed to take on the role of CTO temporarily until the three people who have volunteered for the role can be trained but the next CTO course may well not be until next year 2020 and C Sumpter will discuss this matter with N Meredith AM as this was initially hoped to be a short term appointment.

C Sumpter MSO asked if anyone had any suggestions around venues for this meeting and the possibility of moving the meeting around the County was discussed and members have been asked to consider options before the next meeting in August

MSO had received an application from Keswick Branch to nominate a member for a Gold Badge this was passed unanimously following said members years of loyal and dedicated service to the Branch.

Mr R Glenister reported to the mtg that on his recent trip to New Zealand he had taken part in an act of remembrance for the fallen of the Country and had signed the book of Condolence on behalf of the Cumberland and Westmorland County.

It is with sadness that we have received a letter of Resignation from the County Committee from E Willacy, reluctantly the Chair has accepted the resignation but would like to put on record his thanks to E Willacy for her many years of loyal and dedicated service to the County Committee a statement echoed by all those in attendance

Meeting Closed 12.05pm
DATE OF NEXT COUNTY MEETING is 17^th August 2019 again to be held at the RBL Clubhouse Penrith