The committee has been busy putting together the annual report for the 2011 financial year. I know what you’re thinking – “that sounds incredibly dull, bit of a faux pas her mentioning that when she’s looking for people to join the committee!” Actually it has been surprisingly interesting looking back at what happened in terms of club activity over the last 12 months and thinking about what we need to do better or differently. The information trip leaders pass to our statistics man Steve Kholer plays a vital role in this analysis so thanks to everyone who collects the data and a special thanks to Steve who collates it all and produces cool graphs on demand. Brian Goodwin also supplies key data relating to lodge usage that feeds into our review process. Thanks Brian! While we have our own impressions of what is happening in the club it is always good to see if the data supports those impressions. Reviewing our data also gives us an opportunity to think about whether we are collecting the right data. I hope you will give me the benefit of the doubt and have a read when the annual report including our financial reporting comes to you in the April newsletter. I know you have already marked the AGM in your diaries: April 18.
If you want to be part of the 2012 committee just fill out a nomination form and hand it in to anyone on the committee. There is a form at the back of this newsletter or they are available on Wednesday nights. We have received some nominations but there are plenty of opportunities available, particularly in the areas of social convenor and promotions. If you can think of anyone who might be interested please speak up. Enquiring about a role does not mean that you are obliged to take it on. A full list of nominations will be published in the April newsletter. The list will also go up on the website and at our clubrooms around the same time.
Last week we held our annual new member’s night. The evening was great fun, particularly if you were hanging out at the families desk; they had marshmallows and jellybeans. Big thanks to Megan for organising it and to everyone who ignored the bad weather and came along and helped to make the evening memorable. I expect a fair few of those in attendance to come back on future Wednesdays if only to see how prevalent cross dressing is amongst rank and file members. Please make new people feel at home. If you’re shy a smile, a wink or a wave could work.
You can’t simply join WTMC, you have to do two overnight trips first. Sometimes people ask me why we don’t make it easier to join our club. There are two main reasons. First, we want prospective members to try out tramping with our club before they join to make sure they like tramping, and they like tramping with us. Secondly, we expect members to contribute to the running of the club in whatever way they can. We are a volunteer organisation so we are totally reliant on our members to work together to organise the trips and the club nights.
March is an excellent time to get out in the hills as the weather tends to be mild and settled. I’m not generally a big fan of bland but I like that quality in my weather! Hopefully you have some great trips earmarked for the coming weeks. If there is nothing on the trip schedule that takes your fancy, or your preferred trip is full you can always organise a trip and get it added to the schedule. There are a couple of important provisos though:
1. Your trip idea needs to fit with what is already scheduled for the club on the weekend you have in mind – ideally the same road end or somewhere close by.
2. You need an experienced trip leader and there need to be spare seats in the club vans. With two club vans we are finding that we frequently do have spare capacity.
If you want to run a trip at short notice you need to liaise with Amanda or Richard and if you want transport with Gareth . Likewise if you want to go on a private trip to the same road end that the club vans are heading to or somewhere along the way, it may be possible to hitch a ride in our vans in a “transport only” capacity. Again contact Gareth to see if this is an option.