2013 has gotten off to a great start with the passing of the Constitutional amendments at the EGM on January 16. Thanks to everyone who attended the meeting thereby ensuring we had a quorum. It is gratifying to know that there is support out there in membership land for what the committee is trying to achieve for the Club. Thanks also to all the prospective members who turned up to find out about us and stuck around when they discovered there was no slideshow or other entertainment.
We are holding our annual new members night on February 20. If you are able to help out contact our new Promotions Officer David Heffernan . It’s great to have David in this role and I hope you will all get in behind him and help make his job fun and plain sailing. Particularly at this time of year we get lots of potential new members turning up on Wednesday nights. Every Wednesday night is an opportunity for us to make visitors feel welcome and to demonstrate what we are all about. Please make an effort to chat to any new people and ensure they know how to find the way to the trip sheet board, the website and the pub. Not necessarily in that order.
With Jenny unable to make Wednesday nights for the foreseeable future we are trialling a roster system with different people taking the lead to cover the Club nights. Sue Walsh has kindly agreed to co-ordinate this side of the Social Convenor role and she is doing a great job. Please talk to Sue if you can do a few Wednesday nights, or just help out with the tea making, setting out of chairs etc if you are at the Clubrooms and need a break from charming potential members. We are looking at getting a slideshow roster up on the website so people can see well in advance what entertainment is coming up and arrange their social lives accordingly. The other benefit is that you can book to give a slideshow or offer to organise some other form of entertainment yourself without us having to ask you.
Over the Christmas break we had our first PLB call out and rescue response. While the system worked we are taking the opportunity to review our PLB policy and procedures. Expect to hear more about this in a subsequent newsletter.
At this is the time of year, the Committee is doing two things, preparing the annual report for the 2012 year and thinking about what the strategic priorities should be for the coming year. Yes really. It’s early days but our focus could be on:
1. Stream-lining trip running procedures. Organising trips is our core business and it’s important to keep our processes efficient and convenient for members without compromising safety. If you have ideas on how we can organise trips better, we’d love to hear from you especially if you are prepared to help implement them.
2. Stream-lining volunteering and communication across the various media (social, print, word-of mouth). For example, finding a way round those endless group emails asking people to sign up as a club contact person, a Wednesday night door person or a gear person. Everyone needs to know what is going on and how they can contribute so they can get their excuses worked out early.
3. Skills based training. Amanda is standing down as Chief Guide at the AGM (April 10) to focus on training initiatives. The opportunity to learn new skills may help you get more out of your tramping. There will also be opportunities to give something back to the club by passing your skills on to others through instruction. As well as formal courses we will be looking to run more flora and fauna appreciation trips, navigation/off track trips, fancy dress or themed based trips for those who need to learn how to dress better and have more fun. Also anecdotal evidence suggests there may well be a few members out there who would benefit from learning how to cook. Also it would be great to organise some track marking or hut maintenance trips in partnership with DoC or other recreational groups so WTMC makes more of a contribution to the local tramping community.
If you have a view about what our priorities should be, or a particular interest in being part of any of these work streams we’d love to hear from you
I would like to thank the Lodge sub-committee for all the hard work they continue to put in to ensuring the Lodge runs smoothly and is well maintained. In particular it is clear that we have been able to make some savings in terms of electricity costs thanks to all the work that has gone into improving the energy efficiency of the Lodge. This is great from both an environmental and a financial perspective.
If you have any Club related news that you want publicised remember you can always email Sarah at . All the best for 2013.