Secretary’s Report For 2000

1) During the year we have:

• Held 20 walks including evening walks
• Held 12 group meetings
• Had 2 weekends away
• Had a Christmas walk plus Dinner
• Organised the 12^th Durham Dales Challenge
• Manned a check point on the Kent Millennium Hundred
• Took part in the national Rights of Way Condition survey
• Published four editions of Footnotes
• Gained sponsorship from the Newcastle Building Society towards the DDC.
• Received a donation of walker tallies.

2) There were no visiting speakers or events at group meetings

3) 115 different people have joined in a walk or attended a group

meeting exactly the same as 1999!

4) The maximum attendance was 30 for a meeting and 28 on a

walk in Thrunton Woods in February lead by Bob & Pat.

The average attendance was 24 for a meeting and 14 for a walk, both down on 1999.

5) In May 2000 there were 220 LDWA members in our area,

which covers, Northumberland, Durham and the former

Tyne & Wear. This was 9 less than in May 1999.

6) Matters dealt with by the Secretary during the year were:

· Letter from David Hammond regarding the future of the Cumbria Group.

· Survey from Greater Manchester PTE regarding multi user paths.

· Loaned clippers to Sussex Group

· Discussed walks with Darlington Borough Council

· Considered a donation to the Burly Bridge Association

· Replied to the national committee regarding an annual Local group meeting

· General publicity of our events via libraries, newspapers and radio.

· Sending out 50 information packs to people inquiring about the group

We have continued our membership of:

· Youth Hostels Association

· Northern Federation of Sport and Recreation.

Issues For The Future

We need to finalise our move to better meeting accommodation, which we hope will be from August 2001. Only Frank Baggaley has come up with options for a new location and one is being pursued. Once the move is completed we need to agree and develop a format for our meetings.

This year saw a noticeable lull in the numbers of inquiries and walkers between July and November. The number of inquiries seemed to pick up when I circulated a new poster through group members and around Durham.

Posters and press releases are sent every eight months to newspapers, radio stations, libraries and Youth Hostels, but there seems to be a need to back this up with more frequent posters.

group members can help by taking posters the their workplace,

sport centres and tourist information centres universities,

Hospitals etc.

This year has seen the advertising of our Web Site; our first inquiries by e-mail and the circulation of walk programmes electronically.

Note:

A new web site is being set-up in 2001 by Ken Murray and we hope that it will be running by August. And will linked to the main LDWA

site. The site is still under construction but you look at it

(www.onetel.net.uk/~kenmurray) please e-mail me with your

comments.(good or bad)kmurray500@yahoo.co.uk