Executive Committee Summary and Back to Business - August 2021

At the August Executive Committe meeting, much activity took place -

• Peter Scatchard has negotiated that East & West Vale + Abingdon branches, though not merging, will be coordinating their efforts particularly in planning terms via a new Vale Strategy Committee, chaired by Peter
• Swindon Branch has the agreement of Rob Whittle to be co-opted to its Management Committee, he will stand for election to Chairman at its next AGM
• The Trust's finances are healthy, with a surplus of £5,000 in July
• Fundraising - Marsha Miles Consultancy is submitting a number of funding bids and are looking for 'small' projects to form the basis for further bids. All ideas welcome; please send them to your Branch Chair
• The Engineering team is growing in numbers & expertise in preparation for an expected large increase in activity springing from the M4 crossing news
• Activity on Planning, headed by Rod Hacker, remains intense, mainly in the Swindon area but plenty elsewhere along the line
• All Branch Chairs reported activity in their areas - see the Branch entries elsewhere on the website
• Boats - in the last month, Dragonfly earned £522 in fares and The Mary Archard on her first outing of the year earned £162 for the boats account which, thanks to earlier earnings less some expenditure was able to transfer £750 across to central Trust funds.
• Comms - Chris has acquired the services of Jon Leake to assist with our Instagram & Twitter accounts. Also, the revived Visitor Centre has raised just over £900 so far this year, almost entirely from book sales
• Maintenance & Sustainability - much activity in general, particularly assessing a long-standing leak at Rushey Platt and devising an eco-friendly solution to safeguard the towpath along much of that section. Work is in progress to persuade Swindon Borough Council, who own that stretch, to bring it up to standard.