East Cheshire Ramblers

Monday 23 Nov 26 Cheshire East AGM

Meeting at 19:00

Location Macclesfield Tennis Club

Agenda

Cheshire East Area

Annual General Meeting

Monday, 23rd November, 2026 at  7:00pm

Macclesfield Tennis Club Park Lane SK11 8JR

 Agenda

1       Chairman’s welcome

2       Minutes of Last Year’s AGM and matters arising

3       Report on the work of Cheshire East area since the last AGM

5       Finance  - Treasurer’s report

6       Election of Officers and independent examiner of accounts

7       National Council delegates                                     

8       Discussion of any motions and any changes to the constitution

9       Report on the 2026 General Council

10     Training programme

10     Look back at 2026 walks programme, revue and brief analysis

11     Look forward to 2037 walks programme and holidays

12     Report on the regional hub

13     AOB.

Reports

Minutes

Minutes of Cheshire East AGM 2025

Monday 1st December 2025 at Macclesfield Tennis Club  at 7pm

John Peck, Maggie Swindells, Trevor Park, Steve Butterfield, Margaret Kemble, Jean Handscombe, Steve Hull, Jane Gay, Neil Collie, Anne Ball

Apologies:      Jeannette Clarke, Louise Whittaker

1        Welcome from the Chair

John Peck (Chair) welcomed everyone to the meeting, and everyone introduced themselves.

2        Minutes of last years AGM

The minutes of last year’s AGM were approved.

Matters Arising

Although there was no overall coordinator, 2 footpath meetings had been held. One in February and one in September.

3        Report on the work of Cheshire East Area since the last AGM

• General Council – Our motion about gender neutral language in all documentation was passed.
• North West Regional Support meetings with Diane Simcoe have been attended throughout the year.
• First aid training. 2 sessions organised by East Cheshire and by Congleton. South Cheshire members opted in to either session.
• Maggie reported Walk Leader Training – two events (37 attending overall). The aim was to get everyone registered. It was open to all members. Those who attended preferred working face-to-face as opposed to the online modules
• Footpath work: Good coordination between the 3 groups and with Cheshire East Public Rights of Way (PROW) team, which now also includes the Rangers

4        Finance and Treasurers ' Report:

£2265.60 received from Ramblers. This was paid out in quarterly payments to the three groups as follows: Congleton £317.60. East Cheshire£1248 and South Cheshire £700, leaving a balance of £0.36 in the account.

Michael Dale has agreed to be the Independent Examiner for the next set of accounts.

For the coming year, the area has been allocated £67 from the CH96 group. This is a flexi-group with 61 members

5        Update on Ramblers Governance Review

John provided a detailed report and led a discussion on the progress of the Ramblers' Governance review. Several of us had attended briefing meetings during the last few months.

Brian Holmes from North and Mid Cheshire Ramblers has sent an invite for a meeting to discuss a Cheshire (+) wide hub. It was agreed that the chairs of the 3 groups would attend.

It was proposed, seconded and passed, that there should be a Cheshire East hub. Also, there should be 2 Cheshire hubs, both to correspond to the Highways Authority. The two hubs would cover the local government authorities of Cheshire East and Cheshire West. The reason for this proposal was to align the hubs with the areas of the two Highway Authorities responsible for the rights-of-way network.

It was agreed that Cheshire East will not be sending a representative to the Extraordinary meeting (EGM) on 6^th December due to personal and family commitments.

Below are brief notes of the points made by John in his update and the discussion that followed:

• All members can vote in the election of trustees online.
• The number of trustees has gone from 14 to 12. Of those 12, 6 are elected, 4 appointed by the board and 2 at the AGM (General Council). There was some discussion about how the trustees are elected and by whom. It was agreed that this is still being worked out and had not been finalised yet.
• The General Council in April will probably be the last one – it will be replaced by 6 Annual Gatherings, 1 in Scotland, 1 in Wales and 4 in England. The regional meetings will be held online. There will be 1 place for each group. Agendas will be proposed by groups, and motions will be replaced by formal debate and discussion.
• There will also be a GB wide gathering every 3 years.
• Groups will become the primary unit with direct funding from Ramblers
• They will have: a group lead, a finance lead, an activities lead and others at the discretion of the group.
• No formal AGM is needed but an annual gathering is recommended.
• There are no formal articles or constitutions yet
• Areas will cease to exist in their current form.
  • Area hubs will have no finances. They will coordinate footpath work and training.
  • Hubs to liaise across boundaries.
  • Every Hub to have a lead role

It was suggested and agreed that we continue as we are. However, communication lines need to be clear. Once we have had the meeting in May and agreed the way forward it is probable that the websites and contact numbers on the National Ramblers website will need to be updated.

6        Election of Officers and Independent examiner of accounts

It was proposed, seconded and passed that the officers remain the same and be reviewed at a meeting after General Council. The meeting will be on 11^th May at 7pm.

Chair:   John Peck

Treasurer: Jeanette Clark

Secretary: Steve Butterfield

Auditor:  Michael Dale

7        General Council Delegates:  ( 25^th April)

John Peck

Maggie Swindells

8        Discussion of any motions and changes to the constitution:

There were no suggestions of changes to the constitution or motions for General Council.

9          Any Other Business

Charlie’s email was discussed and noted

Meeting closed at 8:05

Group: East Cheshire Group