A year ago, we were in the middle of a month-long national lockdown when we held our first ever virtual AGM.

We restarted our Walks Programme on 2 December 2020 only to close it down just a few days into our Festival of Winter Walks on 26 December.

Optimistically we prepared our March to June 2021 Walks programme, even though we were still in lockdown. Frances worked her magic again to produce an interesting newsletter including booking forms for events that we had no idea if they would happen. Ramblers kept us on hold until 24 March when they announced that we could restart on 29 March. The committee felt this was too short notice and decided to opt for a restart date of 14 April. This gave time for Walk Leaders to prepare and allowed for booking to take place. We had a very successful restart averaging 15 walkers over 23 walks in the first four weeks.

We reviewed the Booking Procedure for the July to October 2021 Walks Programme. Walkers were keen to return to turn-up-on-the-day but 80% of Walk Leaders wanted to retain a booking system. For the November 2021 to February 2022 Walks Programme, we gave Walk Leaders the option of no booking system. About 40% of walks are now on this basis and we hope that as confidence increases booking procedures will become a thing of the past.

Our thoughts then turned to our Social Programme. It was 19 July before all restrictions were lifted. With a great deal of determination from Margaret B and her team and a degree of flexibility from members it was third time lucky for Norfolk. A shuffle of months allowed us to complete three very enjoyable Coach Walks and the Social Committee ran a very successful Skittles Evening in October. Our Autumn holiday to Evia was bumped yet again but something to look forward to in 2022.

Finally, at this AGM, we celebrated Haslemere Ramblers 50th Anniversary, the forerunner of Godalming & Haslemere Ramblers. Richard, an inaugural member, cut our celebration cake and we distributed a booklet of Richard’s reminiscences of the early days of this Ramblers group.

The last to restart were the Footpath Work Parties. With all restrictions lifted we were able to restart in August. We are very pleased to have welcomed a number of new volunteers.

During the year our Footpath Secretaries completed a mountain of work on Ramblers Don’t Lose Your Way project in our 13 Parishes. Seven paths were identified that justify further research.

After 17 years in the role, Cynthia stood down as Membership Secretary. We are indebted to her for her commitment to the Group. Her hard work, dedication and enthusiasm is a great example for other Ramblers volunteers to follow.

We move into 2022 with a new Chairman and a new optimism that the worst of this pandemic is behind us.

Margaret France, Outgoing Chair