Membership Secretary's Role.
What does Penrith Ramblers' group membership secretary do? At the AGM, where he does appear, either the Chairman or Secretary are in charge of proceedings and able to display their skills. All the membership secretary does is give his report, which is basically to state the latest membership figures, which is no big deal. He may have led 4 or even 5 walks per session in the past and been Programme Secretary, before the present and prevoius incumbents but what does he do now? In the following few paragraphs he hopes to enlighten you.

Database upkeep.

The database is kept in two formats. The first is held on computer using Excel. The second is a continuation from the days of the previous two membership secretaries, (who had the role of Secretary too!) and consists of a set of cards containing membership details - one card for each member. (The cards are convenient if somebody rings up for information and the computer is switched off.) Both databses contain names, addresses and membership numbers. Telephone numbers and e-mail addresses are also listed if members have volunteered this information. This is more likely with newer members. Membership changes continuosly, with new members joining, some members leaving and several members forgetting to pay their subscriptions in time! For this reason, the membership secretary receives data on membership approximalely once a month from Brenda Iles (Carlisle Group), who receives the data from Ramblers for the whole area, She splits it up and forwards the relevant section to each Group in the area. The data relates to new members. payment pending members, lapsed members and resigned members. Changes of addresses, telephone numbers and e-mail addresses are also included. The membership secretary has to respond to this information by updating both databases, every month. The e-mail list, which is kept on 'Outlook Express', may also need updating. He is not responsible for sending out reminders to payment pending members. That is the job of Head Office, though a discrete reminder to those behind with their subscription is not unkown.

Sending 'Welcome' package to new members.

Every time a new member joins the group, the membership secretary sends a 'Welcome' pack to him/her. If the new member has joined Ramblers directly and has not received information previously, (as a 'prospective' member), then a full information pack is sent, including updated * versions of the present walks' programme (and the next walks' programme, if available) together with the latest newsletter and a 'Personal Emergency' card, which the mountain rescue teams recommend we all carry in our rucksacks. If the new member has already received information about the group from the membership secretary, then this information is not duplicated. However, an updated version of the walks' programme is still sent, as it could be well over a month since the original contact was made. It takes time for an applicant joining the group to be notified by Ramblers that his/her application has been processed. It takes even longer for the membership secretary to be notified, especially if one of those in the chain of distribution is on holiday, so new applicants should bear this in mind, when waiting to receive hard copy of the walks' programme from the membership secretary. (Remember this information is on the group's website, if you need to refer to it.) (The new incentive to encourage members to pay by Direct debit by giving a reduction in the first year's membership subscription, should reduce the time it takes to notify these people that they are new members of Ramblers. Before October 2010, those paying by Direct Debit' were given a month's free membership and it is understood that this was done by allowing a month to pass before taking their money. Only then could they and membership secretaries be notified.) * Updating the Walks programme is usually done by hand but if there are a lot of changes, a printed version taken from off the group's website is sent instead. (This facility is of course available to anyone, who has a desire to use it.)

Sending information to 'prospective' members.

People who are considering joining the Ramblers are allowed to partake in one or two walks first before deciding to join or not. You can get information about the group from its website but you can also get it by contacting the membership secretary. If you do this, you will be sent a 'Welcome' pack, which includes copies of the walks' programme (updated if necessary), an application form to join Ramblers and a personal letter, giving information on the walks, where we meet, contacting leaders and what to do, if you don't live close to Penrith, etc.

The Mail shot, every four months.

Getting printed pages for mailing of Walks' Programme, Newletter, etc. Most of the information, which needs to be printed for the mailing is sent by e-mail by the Programme Secretary and the Newsletter Editor to Peter Jones, the Area Secretary, who prints out the required number of copies requested. As the Area Secretary lives in Kendal, the Penrith membership secretary has taken on the task of picking up the printing not only for the Penrith Group but that of the Carlisle and West Cunbria groups too. He has done this because, he has a bigger work load than the other two groups and needs to get started quickly. The other groups then come to Penrith to get their printing, saving time and fuel by not having to go to Kendal. The picture shows the disparity in the size of mailing for the Penrith (P), Carlisle (C) and West Cumbria (WC) groups for July 2010. The three separate stacks contain both the print-out on A4 paper and the address labels for members in each group. (Note: the Penrith group's printing also includes extra packages of A5 leaflets supplied by the Chairman.) The difference in material is due to the higher number of members in the Penrith Group compared with either of the other groups and the higher number of sheets sent out to each member of the Penrith group in this mailing compared to the other groups. Penrith's mailing was especially large in July 2010, because each envelope contained 5 sheets dealing with the AGM in November. To be fair, the Carlisle Group will have their large mailing just before their AGM in the New Year but content in each envelope will still be less than those for Penrith at that time, if past figures are anything to go by. Checking and up-dating the databases. Besides the printing, the packages also contain address labels provided by the Ramblers. These labels act as a temporary reference for updating the membership lists. Obviously it is necessary to carry out a check of the two databases before the labels are used for their proper purpose and this usually leads to having to make a number of updates. If a name appears in the database and there is no matching label, it could mean a member has left the group or has changed address without informing Ramblers or there could be an error. A hand addressed envelope with the mailing is sent to those people without labels.The membership secretary includes a slip saying there was no label and why this may have occured. An extra label probably means a new member has joined the group but official notification has yet to be received. Checking all the labels against the names on the database and making changes can take several hours. Collating and inserting sheets into stamped addressed envelopes. First the sheets are set out around a table. In July 2010, there were 11 separate piles, each containing about 300 similar sheets. At other times of the year, there are usually 7 or 8 sheets per envelope and two sets of piles can be arranged round the table. Some piles, such as those dealing with the walks' programme have many more sheets than this. The extra sheets are needed later for sending to new and 'prospective' members over the next four months and for delivery to the library, tourist information centre, etc. Also some ramblers in other groups receive our walks programme and newsletter but don't receive the Area Newsletter as they get this from their own group. The picture shows the separate piles before collating has started. It has been calculated that walking round the table once covers about 22 feet and so doing this 300 times covers 6600 feet, which is more than a mile. Unfortunately it takes a lot longer than the time to simply walk this distance to do the collating. Having listened to Sarah Walker on Radio 3 for two hours in the morning and a further two hours of discussion on Radio 4 in the afternoon, it took a total of four hours. Of course, being more nimble fingered would reduce this time. The worrying thing is the wear to the carpet! After collating the sheets into about 300 separate sets, each set is folded and placed into an envelope, taking care to prevent the A5 sheets getting out of line. Except for a few 'special' envelopes, with extra content, all the other envelopes weigh less than 100 grammes and can be posted using a second class stamp. Once the envelopes are filled, the labels and stamps are stuck to the envelopes, remembering to leave any 'special' envelopes unstamped. Thankfully both the stamps and the labels are self adhesive. Extra envelopes are addressed by hand to those Ramblers' members outside the group, who often come and even lead on some of our walks. To these extra envelopes only the walks' programme, newsletter and other relevant content are added. Only when the content of each envelope is thought to be correct are they sealed. However, mistakes do happen. One can comfort oneself with the idea stated by Edward John Phelps, that 'the man who makes no mistakes does not usually make anything'. Posting the mail. A set of boxes is kept to hold the envelopes for posting. Each will usually take 100 envelopes with a squeeze. In July 2010, each box could only take 75 of the fatter envelopes, so 4 boxes were needed. Posting this amount of mail can be a problem and generally requires two people. There is too much mail to put into one postbox and leave some room for other people, even a tall postbox, unless it was the one in Morrisons, now unavailable because of the fire there. Hence the mail is spread between two or even three postboxes in the locality of the membership secretary. Post offices in the centre of Penrith will take all the mail but having to carry the mail from the car takes two journeys by two people and when the car may be parked a hundred or more yards away, this is not very convenient, especially as the Post Offices are usually busy and queuing is necessary. (Note: posting the mail was not a problem until the closing of the Post Office at the BP Station on Scotland Road - A6 north out of Penrith, where parking was close and easy.) The last job, when dealing with the mailshot is to deliver sets of the walks programme to the Tourist Information Centre, the Library and Penrith Outdoor Pursuits, who sponsor the 'Personal Emergency' card. You have to time your visits as both the Tourist Information Centre and the Library do not open until 10 a.m. Posting the copies for the library before this time has been done by putting them in a large envelope, with its content written on the outside and placing the envelope in the box for receiving returned books parked at the library's entrance. The whole process of doing the mailing takes one person about 15 hours, without breaks. Trying to reduce this time by having two people doing the collation is only going to save a couple of hours in the worst case and less than this otherwise. Replacing pairs of A5 sheets by single A4 sheets will save time, not just because there will be fewer sheets but, when a set of A4 and A5 sheets are handled, the A5 sheets tend to fall out of place. However, there will be a good reason for having separate pairs of A5 sheets and this could make combining them on A4 sheets a no-no. A team of people working in parallel could work. Two would do collating, one could stick labels and stamps onto envelopes and one could fold the sets of collated sheets and put them in envelopes. The membership secretary would still have to update the database and prepare for the special cases before getting the team to meet at a specific time. So far he has failed to get one person to help, so getting three plus himself, all at the same time is very unlikely.

For the three years up to 2010, membership secretaries have been working at a disadvantage as they have been unable to get accurate up-to-date information on the membership of their groups and this has led to errors for which the secretaries are not responsible. The reason is due to problems computerising the database of the entire Ramblers membership at Head Office using insufficient skilled staff. IT experts have now been hired and, according to Head Office, these problems are now being sorted out. We hope so. Even now the only way a complete database can be checked is by using the limited information on address labels. Once these have been used that information is split up and dispersed around the country - a very temporary reference indeed! Please remember the membership secretary does this work voluntarily. Some members get very hot under the collar, when there is an error or they do not receive their copy of the walks' programme. If the latter happens, it could even be the Post Office which is at fault. Also, ask yourself, if you have changed your address and not told Head Office. You may have told the membership secretary and he will have changed the database he runs. Unfortunately, with over 300 addresses, this membership secretary has difficulty remembering which addresses in the Penrith database might differ from those held by Head Office and so errors can occur. Remember, if your circumstances or those of your partner change, please tell Head office, who will pass on this information to the group's membership secretary in the usual way. If you wish to speed up having this information on the group's database, you can tell the membership secretary too but make sure you also tell Ramblers at Head Office. It is not the membership secretary's role to do this for you. 'Ramblers' postal address, telephone number and an e-mail link are all on the 'Contacts' page. Dated September 2010.