Spring is in the air, and we have lots of people getting away on club trips, which is fantastic. It seems that trip sheets are filling up as fast as they go up on the board! There are still a few trips on the Spring Schedule which need leaders, if you would like to see these trips run, all volunteers to lead these trips (or any extra trips!) are gratefully accepted, Paul or Craig would love to hear from you. Speaking of Craig, he is leaving us in November to work in Canada, and Melissa Hewson will be taking over from him as Assistant Chief Guide. Craig has done a great job as ACG, and we will miss him. Good luck in the Great White North mate, and hope to see you again in a year or 2!
Personal Locator Beacons featured in my last column, the club has purchased 3 of these, and we are just working out the final details of how these will be made available to club members, and we hope to have them in the gear room for Labour Weekend.
Trips that take a club PLB will be required to provide full intentions sheets to the weekend contact person, even though this is a current requirement, not all trip leaders are providing these details at present. I think it is important to remember why we collect this information, which would be vitally important to SAR in the (unlikely) event of an emergency. Trip leaders have reported having trouble getting some punters to provide details of an emergency contact, please remember we collect this info so that we can contact your loved ones if something happens and your trip is delayed. Please provide this information to your trip leader when requested.
Recently, I met with our webmaster, Shane Connolly. Our excellent website is the way that most people first find out about our great club, and Shane has done a fantastic job for a number of years now keeping the site going. Shane is now working with Dave Bergin on a few more improvements, but has asked for suggestions on what changes club members would like to see. You can add your suggestions at https://www.wtmc.org.nz/craig/wiki/pmwiki.php and follow the How Could We Improve The Clubs Website link? Or you can email .
Receiving the clubs annual journal is one of the highlights of the year for many members, I am sure, but this years journal is in doubt as the editors have not received enough contributions to date to make publication worthwhile. If you have been thinking about writing something for the journal, or would like to, please email Jackie on with your article. The deadline is the end of October.
You can always contact me on , or I am usually around on club nights
Darren Hammond