Welcome to the November President Column. The Club continues to do well with a busy schedule of trips and other activities.
75th Anniversary Celebrations
In early November, we celebrated the Club’s 75th anniversary with a dinner, easy tramp and then a BBQ. The entire weekend was a resounding success and was well attended with old and new members. We had children attending along with people in their 80s and all ages in between. There was a real sense of positivity and pride in the Club. Over the weekend we had speeches from Amelia talking about the Family group, Jan and Mike talking about the Lodge and Sue giving a historic perspective of the Club. We had other people standing up to tell us their tales about various aspects of the Club. We heard quite a lot about the ‘matrimonial’ aspect of the WTMC from some of the older members.
The Club has faced many challenges over the years and some of these were talked about during the weekend – this gives me confidence and reassurance that we can face the current challenges successfully.
Thanks to Meredith, Sue and Fiona and others who put in a huge amount of work in the organising and smooth running of the anniversary celebrations.
Committee
The Committee and Lodge Committee continue to work hard behind the scenes with the running of the Club. At the moment, the Committee and Lodge Committee are trying to deal with the issue of the voluntary receivership of Ruapehu Alpine Lifts (RAL). This is a very difficult situation with no certainty of what will actually happen with RAL. Obviously the Lodge is heavily dependent on the Ruapehu mountainside infrastructure. If there is no RAL or similar organisation this will have a hugely detrimental affect on the Lodge and also the Club. In a normal year our Lodge on Ruapehu is very well utilised and brings in a substantial amount of money for the Club. The Lodge Committee is continuing to monitor the situation so we can do the best for the Lodge and the Club.
The committee is also hoping to introduce a new membership database system and is reviewing our privacy practices and also reviewing our alpine trips.
Volunteers
Our Club requires lots of people to help out and we are always on the look-out for new people willing to help. We are looking for people to help with hosting meetings, to help in the gear room, being the emergency contact person and leading trips. It is also not too early to start to think about serving on the Committee or Lodge Committee next year. All clubs though-out the country struggle to find volunteers and generally we are lucky that people are willing to help out. However, we always need more volunteers. If you would like more information please get in touch.
FMC Expedition Scholarship Training Grant
Recently one of our very active Club members, Sarah, was awarded a FMC scholarship. Sarah was awarded the Simon Bell Memorial Expedition Scholarship which will help her fund a mission to Rakiura’s Tin Range and Gog and Magog area. This is excellent news for Sarah and recognises her huge commitment to the Club, the outdoors and to improving her outdoor skills. It was a privilege to be able to help Sarah with her application and I was so pleased that she was awarded this grant. There is more information about FMC grants on their website : https://fmc.org.nz/scholarship/. I will looking forward to hearing from Sarah in due course about her adventures on Rakiura.
FMC Grant
The Club was also recently awarded a $1000 grant towards the costs of running an outdoor first-aid course. We have nine Club members signed-up for this course which is important for keeping our people safe while in the outdoors.
Upcoming Trips
We have the usual full schedule of trips coming up in the coming weeks. I’m taking an easy trip to our hut, Paua hut, in the Orongorongo valley for maintenance. There are also some more challenging tramps such as the Northern Crossing in the Tararua range. There is a tubing trip taking place in December and for the first time in many years we are running a Club post-Christmas tramp with Monique leading a mini S-K in the Tararua range. Please sign up for trips via our website : https://wtmc.org.nz/trips/.
Thanks for your support of the Club and I hope to see you in the hills or at a meeting. If you have any comments or questions please get in touch.
Tony
President@wtmc.org.nz