Report of March 2018 VoBR Trust Board Meeting
Hello Everyone
This is the first blog about the activities of the Trust Board of the Vale of Berkeley Railway Charitable Trust. The intention is to fill a hole in how we as a railway communicate with people out there who are interested in our progress to reopen the Sharpness Branch Line by explaining regularly the Trust Board's activities, its thinking and what it has decided recently.
Everyone knows that we are now a charity which has freed us up to get on with building the railway and the job of the Trust Board is to get on with sorting out the organisational issues that we need to deal with, if we are to have an operating railway. We still hope this can be achieved by 2020 so there is a lot to do.
In 2018, it is all about MONEY, MONEY, MONEY and how we get it! Yes, there are many other things we have to keep an eye on but we are now focussing firmly on how to raise probably £200K which is the guestimate for what it will cost to provide the basic infrastructure to run a steam service form Oldminster to Berkeley.
So at March's meeting, Paul Richardson, who has been researching what are the most effective methods of fund-raising, presented his Fund Raising Strategy. The Board agreed a two pronged approach, based on research of a number of heritage railway practices and in particular on the A1 Trust who own 'Tornado'. This group is arguably the most effective fund raiser today, so let's follow the best!
The plan is to have a Founders Club, where we invite people to make a one-off donation of £1000 to become a founder member for life. The second is a Covenanters Club, for people who would rather donate a regular monthly sum of their choosing. There will, of course, be rewards for each people donating and we are thinking through the best way of doing this. This will only succeed if, from our members or elsewhere, we are able to find people who are willing to get out there and find donors and supporters so the race is on to get this up and moving as fast as we can.
Other Matters: We have been approached by 2 groups at the Long Marston rail storage site to see if
we can accommodate vehicles on the VoBR. One owns single unit 'Bubble Car' No W55025 and the other owns a GWR 1930s carriage, Collett corridor composite No 4777. Both these vehicles need quite a lot of work still but will also, we think, appeal to volunteers at the shed as restoration projects. We have been to see the vehicles, both owners have said they are happy to sign a written Restoration and Use Agreement with us and we are now working through the details. More on this later.
Health and Safety: we are verfy fortunate to have Graham Wiltshire on the Board as he is so knowledgeable and tenacious in his bid to make us all as safe as possible in our working practices and protect us from any litigation that may occur as result of accidents. We are all insured, of course, but Graham conscientiously reports all hazards and 'Near Misses' that could, had things been different, resulted in danger to life and limb. He is also excellent at educating us of dangers we may be unaware of. There is a 'near miss' book in the foyer at the shed which should be used if ever a member sees anything happen that they think is dangerous.
Network Rail: we are now ready for a start on Oldminster Sidings but Robin Payne is still pursuing that elusive lease. NR say they want to give us a 99 year lease but it is a slow process. Basically, NR send Robin questions, which he then answers, there is a pause and then they send another one with more questions and so it goes on. As a result, it is impossible to actually calculate how long this will take! He reckons we are about 10% of the way along the line.
Commercial and Marketing: We agreed that we desperately need more support to get our sales activities up and running more productively. We get donations from many people and these do need to be converted into cash to help the fund-raising effort. In particular we get quite a bit of second hand model railway stuff and we would love someone to volunteer to manage this side of things. We want to set up an e-bay shop but that needs a small team to run and we also need to ensure that we can staff our sales stand as it travels round various gala and fiesta events this year. If you feel you can help in any of these, please let us know.
Minutes from the March Board meeting are available on request from Graham Sturgess. Due to the new GDPR data protection legislation (which we have also been discussing), please send any request to valeofberkeleyrailway@gmail.com and it will be forwarded to him.
The next Board Meeting is Saturday 21st April.
Howard Parker, chair VoBRCT.
This is the first blog about the activities of the Trust Board of the Vale of Berkeley Railway Charitable Trust. The intention is to fill a hole in how we as a railway communicate with people out there who are interested in our progress to reopen the Sharpness Branch Line by explaining regularly the Trust Board's activities, its thinking and what it has decided recently.
Everyone knows that we are now a charity which has freed us up to get on with building the railway and the job of the Trust Board is to get on with sorting out the organisational issues that we need to deal with, if we are to have an operating railway. We still hope this can be achieved by 2020 so there is a lot to do.
In 2018, it is all about MONEY, MONEY, MONEY and how we get it! Yes, there are many other things we have to keep an eye on but we are now focussing firmly on how to raise probably £200K which is the guestimate for what it will cost to provide the basic infrastructure to run a steam service form Oldminster to Berkeley.
So at March's meeting, Paul Richardson, who has been researching what are the most effective methods of fund-raising, presented his Fund Raising Strategy. The Board agreed a two pronged approach, based on research of a number of heritage railway practices and in particular on the A1 Trust who own 'Tornado'. This group is arguably the most effective fund raiser today, so let's follow the best!
The plan is to have a Founders Club, where we invite people to make a one-off donation of £1000 to become a founder member for life. The second is a Covenanters Club, for people who would rather donate a regular monthly sum of their choosing. There will, of course, be rewards for each people donating and we are thinking through the best way of doing this. This will only succeed if, from our members or elsewhere, we are able to find people who are willing to get out there and find donors and supporters so the race is on to get this up and moving as fast as we can.
Other Matters: We have been approached by 2 groups at the Long Marston rail storage site to see if
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| W55025 at Long Marston. It has gained the name of Pandora! |
Health and Safety: we are verfy fortunate to have Graham Wiltshire on the Board as he is so knowledgeable and tenacious in his bid to make us all as safe as possible in our working practices and protect us from any litigation that may occur as result of accidents. We are all insured, of course, but Graham conscientiously reports all hazards and 'Near Misses' that could, had things been different, resulted in danger to life and limb. He is also excellent at educating us of dangers we may be unaware of. There is a 'near miss' book in the foyer at the shed which should be used if ever a member sees anything happen that they think is dangerous.
Network Rail: we are now ready for a start on Oldminster Sidings but Robin Payne is still pursuing that elusive lease. NR say they want to give us a 99 year lease but it is a slow process. Basically, NR send Robin questions, which he then answers, there is a pause and then they send another one with more questions and so it goes on. As a result, it is impossible to actually calculate how long this will take! He reckons we are about 10% of the way along the line.
Commercial and Marketing: We agreed that we desperately need more support to get our sales activities up and running more productively. We get donations from many people and these do need to be converted into cash to help the fund-raising effort. In particular we get quite a bit of second hand model railway stuff and we would love someone to volunteer to manage this side of things. We want to set up an e-bay shop but that needs a small team to run and we also need to ensure that we can staff our sales stand as it travels round various gala and fiesta events this year. If you feel you can help in any of these, please let us know.
Minutes from the March Board meeting are available on request from Graham Sturgess. Due to the new GDPR data protection legislation (which we have also been discussing), please send any request to valeofberkeleyrailway@gmail.com and it will be forwarded to him.
The next Board Meeting is Saturday 21st April.
Howard Parker, chair VoBRCT.
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