Volunteering

We are always looking for people to help out at the club (both on and off the committee) and to help with related causes.

There are plenty of non-committee jobs that need to be done to keep the club running. Time commitment ranges from 5 minutes to a few hours a week, either as a one-off or on a regular basis.

When you join the club, we ask you to indicate areas where you may be able to help with the running of the club. If you would like to help, please contact us!

This page provides information on some of the volunteering activities that can help support the club:
• 2022 Priorities
• Help with the club van (driving, cleaning or maintenance)
• Help out on club nights (door greeters, give a presentation, help in the gear room…)
• Leading club trips
• Support or run instruction courses
• Become an emergency contact
• Writing for the newsletter
• Become a Committee member
• Hold a specific volunteer role
• And more!


2022 priorities – Can you help out with any of these?


Help with the club van

Time commitment: A couple of hours, when it suits you (either one-off or regularly)

Driving

The club owns a van which is used for trips, but we need drivers, at least two per vehicle for longer trips.

If you…

  • have a drivers licence
  • are comfortable driving a medium sized van and
  • would like to help out the club by driving on club trips

Please check out the driver protocols and email the driver vetting form to the Transport Officer.

Cleaning and Maintenance

Please contact the Transport Officer if you can give time to clean the club van or can take it to the mechanic, either as a one-off or on a regular basis.


Help out on Club Nights

Time commitment: Between 30 min and 1 hour, on Wednesday evenings (either one-off or regularly)

Help out on the Door

We are always looking for experienced members to help out on club nights to:

  • meet and greet new people at the club room entrance
  • explain how the club runs and
  • introduce people to other club members.

Please contact the Promotions Officer if you are interested in helping out, either as a one-off or on a regular basis.

Give a Presentation

We are always interested to hear from people who would like to give a presentation at club night.

The aim of the presentations are to:

  • give people an appreciation of the types of trips the club runs
  • educate people about the outdoors and
  • inspire people to get out and see different places.

The slideshows can feature trips in NZ or overseas or any other outdoor related topic of interest such as Search and Rescue and the role of the Federated Mountain Clubs.  They should be 30 – 45 mins long.

If you are interested in doing slideshows for the club contact the Social Convenor with your topic and a preferred date.

Help out with Club Gear

Every Wednesday evening for 30 mins a volunteer staffs the gear locker to oversee the checking out and returning of club gear.

If you can help giving out club gear once or twice a month or if you can help with occasional gear stock takes and maintenance work, get in touch with the Gear Custodian.


Lead a Trip

Time commitment: About 1h prep before each trip (either one-off or regularly)

The club runs several trips every weekend. Information about leading trips is available here.

We always need help with running trips. Ways to help out with trip leading include:

  • offer to lead trips where we have “Leader required” on the existing schedule or where a weekend on the existing schedule has a gap
  • send in ideas for future trip schedules
  • attend trip planning meetings; these are advertised on the Forum
  • learn to lead a trip by offering to organise and advertise a trip for a trip leader
  • offer to lead a trip and ask someone else to organise and advertise the trip on your behalf (especially suitable for trip leaders who do not reside in Wellington)

If you would like to help out with any of the above please email the Chief Guide.


Support or run instruction courses

Time commitment: From 1h if coordinating up to a full evening/day/weekend if instructing (either one-off or regularly)

We are always looking for volunteers to help organising training courses for club members.

  • Become an club instructor: If you have skills you want to share you can run a course (e.g. map and compass, river safety, bushcraft, leading tramps…). Your role will be to prepare and deliver the training. A range of supporting material are available to support instructors on specific topics.
  • Liaise with a provider to organise a course: if you don’t have the skills or if the activity is high risk, the club can pair you up with a club instructor or contract an external provider (e.g. packrafting, avalanche awareness, canyoning). Your role will be to help organise logistics for the course (e.g. location, equipment, fees etc).

If you are interested in helping with training, either to coordinate or run a course, please email the Chief Guide to discuss options


Become an Emergency Contact

Time commitment: Likely 5min! (either one-off or regularly)

Every overnight trip has an emergency contact person who is on the end of a phone. They hold the trip leaders intentions sheet and a list of people on the trip, and are there to facilitate communications between the trip members, emergency services, family/friends and club officers should things not go according to plan. Trip leaders must call the contact person when an overdue party is out, and send a courtesy text or call after the trip when everything runs as planned.

If things go well, as they usually do, the volunteer’s responsibility only consist in receiving trip intentions and a courtesy text/call.

If you are not out tramping, you can help by becoming Emergency Contact for a weekend by emailing the Emergency Contact Coordinator.


Write for the Newsletter

Time commitment: About 20 min (either one-off or regularly)

Newsletters include:

  • Stories of recent club adventures and trips
  • Committee updates.

If you’d like to contribute an article to the Newsletter please email the Newsletter Editor.

The Club publishes an annual journal and always needs interesting articles. Please write something and Journal Editor.


Become a Committee Member

Time commitment: Varies with the role (on-going)

We are looking for new people to step up, as a number of committee positions will become available later this year. Processing new memberships, organising speakers for club nights, keeping our finances tidy, coordinating transport for club trips, and more… there is something for everyone!

Do you want to…
– help run the club and enable over 600 members to enjoy the outdoors?
– bring new ideas to the table?
– be more connected with the tramping community and club members?
– gain leadership experience and skills that will benefit you professionally?

Most committee positions do not require specific skills or tramping experience. If you are motivated and interested in contributing, there is a role waiting for you! The Committee meets once a month and welcome new members around the table. Handover and support will be provided to individuals joining the committee. For more information check the Committee page and contact the Secretary.

Informal support for a Committee Member

If you are interested in learning more about what the Committee is doing and supporting its work, there are opportunities to be paired up with a Committee member to help with ongoing or ad-hoc tasks. This can also be a good opportunity to test whether you would be interested in taking a Committee role in the future without committing to responsibilities. Some examples include:

  • Finding speakers for club nights, to support the Social Convenor
  • Coordinating vehicles for club trips once or twice a month, to help the Transport Officer
  • Sending trip ideas and helping put together the new trip schedule, to support the Chief Guide
  • Ongoing assistance with refunds or checking trip fees, to help the Treasurer


Hold a specific volunteer role

Time commitment: Approx 30 min a week. Varies with the role (on-going)

There are a range of on-going opportunities to support the club. Key volunteer roles include:

  • Gear custodian – Every Wednesday evening for 30 mins the volunteer is available at the gear room to oversee the checking out and returning of club gear. If you are interested in this role on an ongoing basis, if you can help giving out club gear once or twice a month or if you can help with occasional gear stock takes and maintenance work, get in touch with the Gear Custodian.
  • Emergency contact coordinator – The volunteer coordinate the emergency contact roster. They also coordinate trip leaders and emergency contacts weekly to ensure there is someone on-call every weekend in case there is an issue on a club trip.
  • Newsletter editor – The volunteer proofreads and publishes trip reports on the website, supports the publication of the monthly newsletter etc
  • Trip Monies – The volunteer checks that people have paid their trip fees.
  • Maintenance coordinator – The volunteer helps coordinate maintenance at the Mountain House Shelter, which WTMC is responsible for through a DOC agreement. This involves liaising with volunteers to organise at least one maintenance/inspection trip every year + report to DOC on progress once a year. Email the Chief Guide to discuss.
  • Dehydrator ‘Monitor’ – We are looking for someone to get a little system set up for hiring out our new club dehydrator, kindly donated by one of our members. Probably needs some simple instructions for using it, bringing it back clean and a roster for people to book it. Email if you can take on this task.

For more information check the Committee webpage and contact the Secretary.


Search and Rescue (SAR)

Experienced club members contribute to SAR by undertaking training and searching for missing and injured trampers.
Find out more about SAR.


And More!