Last month I said I’d be reporting back on any special projects to be undertaken this financial year. At this stage we are putting a bit of extra energy into three areas:
- Membership acquisition
- Lifting usage of the club Lodge
- Improving the club website
These three areas are interrelated. Ideally we want to replace departing members so membership is stable plus it’s useful to attract fresh faces with new ideas, experience and skills. In terms of the lodge, we need to be financially self sustaining in an environment characterised by rising costs and continuous maintenance demands. Plus the lodge is such a great place it would be dumb not to use it as much as possible. A more user-friendly website will complement these initiatives.
Membership Acquisition
A quick scan of the club night attendance data indicates new people come on Wednesday nights but we aren’t great at converting them into members. Now some of these people probably aren’t interested in tramping, but it takes quite a bit of effort to actually turn up on a Wednesday night so I think we can safely assume that most of them did not call in accidentally and therefore have at least a passing interest in us.
With this in mind we have launched a charm offensive. Yep, we are trying to be a little bit more welcoming towards the Wednesday night virgins, those who are relatively new and those returning after a long absence. It can be a bit daunting encountering a hall full of strangers particularly if everyone is busy talking to somebody else and you are unfamiliar with our protocols. It is easy for the rest of us to forget what it is like to be new. To help ease the transition from outsider to insider we are returning to having two people at the door to meet and greet and we would love regular Wednesday nighters to chat with new people and help them sign up for trips.
You will also notice that Donna has been introducing some of the regular members at the start of each meeting to give people an idea of who is who. We could wear name tags but that would be pretty uncool. We think it is important to foster a club culture of being friendly, welcoming and fun without being naff. If you have time to help on the door or any good ideas for picking up new members please chat with, or email Megan at or Helen at
The other way you can help is talk to people you go on trips with about joining the club, how they found out about us, what they like or dislike. Any feedback would really help us and sometimes just minor changes can make a big difference.
As well as compulsory smiles on a Wednesday we are thinking about some more targeted measures for attracting new members. Maybe you would like to join MAG (the Membership Acquisition Group). The plan is for MAG people to catch up at a pub or café from time to time to partake of some refreshments while working on ideas for attracting new members. If you are interested have a chat to Helen, Megan or myself.
Lodge
I’m not going to detail our plans for the Lodge as they are well documented elsewhere in this newsletter. Suffice to say I hope that all of you will do your bit to ensure anyone you know who goes skiing knows about our Lodge and how to book it.
Club Website
We have been working on the club website behind the scenes for some time now and shortly you will begin to notice some changes. A few of them may even meet with your approval. Web Master Mike and his right hand man Steve now have a sounding board/governance outfit in place to help streamline decision making. Our aim is to make the website user friendly and welcoming for both members and prospective members alike.
Currently we are looking at how members access their part of the site and the design of the front page. Further down the track we have plans to trial easy ways to sign up for trips on-line along with an on-line lodge booking system. Web design is an activity fraught with controversy and challenge, well I hope it is I didn’t jump aboard the Web Master’s ship for a dull life. We may get some stuff wrong or come up with some lame stuff along the way but hey, we can always change it. Got some ideas or some expertise to contribute? Feel free to get in touch at
So hopefully I’ve given you a bit of a heads up about what we are up to and how you can contribute. Don’t forget to get out tramping during winter, there are some great trips on offer, and while you are out there think about what trips you want to see run in spring and summer . Let’s see if we can shock Amanda and Richard by actually volunteering some trip ideas before they come round asking for them. There is not much welcoming, friendly and fun about having to nag people to do stuff.
Speaking of which, we are on the hunt for someone to edit the club journal and for articles to go in it. If you have been on an interesting trip and/or have some good photos winter is a great time to sit down and organise your material and send it to . The journal is a great advertisement for the club and a good reflection of what we get up to in any one year. We want the 2011 journal to be as great as the previous ones. If you think you can help out we’d love to hear from you. Have a word with anyone on the committee.