Committee meeting synopsis

Meeting date: 8 January, 2018

Our first meeting of the year looked back over 2017, approving our Annual Return (pdf) to National WaW, but also looked forward to 2018.

We were pleased with how our New Year’s Day walk had gone, and are looking forward to our future programme. Our next walk proper is on Easter Monday, 2 April, but we have no fewer than 3 events before that. We will have a stand at the Model Railway Exhibition in Dereham Memorial Hall on 24 February, and are participating in the MIND & Wellbeing Roadshow (also in the Memorial Hall) on 2 March, which will include a short walk as an active demonstration of how walking can be good for your health. The latter is aimed at attendees at the Roadshow, but if others are interested in a 2 mile walk that afternoon, they are welcome to contact us for details.

At Easter, we are planning another event for children (and their families) on Saturday 31 March: this will be publicised here once we have sorted out the arrangements. Then it will be the walk noted above. Further walks are planned for the Bank Holidays on 28 May and 27 August. In addition, we are planning a walk as part of our Annual Public Meeting in June, and something on a Sunday in October; we are also exploring the idea of a town walk, looking at the industrial archaeological sites in the town (or where they used to be) - all being worked on at present.

We have been pleased that some 21 businesses in the town are now displaying our ‘sticker’, proclaiming that Walkers are Welcome on their premises - and we will be asking more during the coming months. A press release was issued in December featuring this, but was sadly published as a letter only, and not until into 2018, so rather lost the point of publicising our 1 January walk.

Perhaps the biggest news is that our new Walks pack is expected any day from the printer - 3000 sets of 14 walks. It will take us a day or two to get them packed into bags, then we will be taking them to the Library (and other outlets), as well as having them on our Published Walks page. We are hoping to get some publicity when they are launched, but please spread the word - as before, the packs are free!