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Published: 24 August 2012

Created: 24 August 2012

Last Updated: 07 July 2013

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Murray Valley Bushwalkers AGM Aug 23 2012

Location: Thurgoona Community Centre

Present Hans Kaspers, Tony Marsh, Jenny Marsh, Peter Presutti, John Jamison, Nicole Eirth, Claire Sandford, Marijke Korting, Rowena Smith, Neil Brown, Jan Douglas, Cheryl Duncan, David Saxton, Joy Hayden, Neil Offner, Vera McClusky, Anne Hopkins, Marie Rule

Apologies Kay Hardie, Tracey Barkley, Cheryl McCarten, Nicole Stephens, Joy Turner, Sonia Nettelbeck, Neville Nettelbeck, Diane Ryan, Bill Krautz, Sasho Dillo, Michelle Crofts

1. Confirm the minutes of the last AGM and any special general meeting

As this is the first AGM the club has run there are no minutes of a previous AGM to examine. However reference was made to the inaugural public meeting held on July 7 2011 attended by 14 persons and the minutes are available here. 

2. Reports on the activities of the association

Presidents report

Hans welcomed those in attendance referred to the inaugural meeting of the club and the extensive program of activities that have been developed since. The official launch of the club was held in September 18 2012 starting in the Albury Botanical Gardens with a walk along the Murray and up over Nail Can Hill followed by a bbq in Hovell Tree park.  Hans also referred to the clubs constitution which requires that the number of office bearers / committee members is determined by the number of financial members of the club as of Jan 1 of the year in which the agm is to be held.

There were 60 MVB members at that time so we are required to have a committee of 6 persons. At the committee meeting held on Feb 17 2012  it was decided the additional 2 positions on the committee would be designated Website Manager and Publicity and Development Coordinator

Membership / Activities report - Tony Marsh

From a couple of dozen inaugural members in July 2011 the club membership grew rapidly to reach about 75 by the end of the first year. Walking is our core activity mainly because we are a bushwalking club after all and unlike some of our pursuits its something that can be done all year. And anyway hardly a weekend goes by without one and very often two walks hosted predominantly by Hans, but also by Iris Joss from Corryong and other club members. Where would a bushwalking club be without a walks program? Paddling upstream in a barb wire canoe perhaps…. Fortunately not for us!

It must be acknowledged how significant the canoeing program has been for club development. A quick scan through the membership reveals more than half  participated in paddling in the 11/12 daylight saving period. Altogether about 25 canoeing events took place with anything up to 20 participants per event. I would like to acknowledge the role Tracey Barkley played in this outcome and of course to thank the canoe leaders and especially to thank Dave Breedon from Murray River Canoe Hire whose generous support (and membership) of the club is greatly valued.

Abseiling – it was very rewarding to see this program become established in the program of activities we run. Thanks to Neil Brown for his diligence, persistence and professional manner – all hurdles in the way were eventually dealt with and we hope to continue with this activity in 2012/13

Winter evening walks – thanks to Peter Presutti for conducting approximately 6 evening events which were well supported and great fun to participate in – who would have thought so many members would be prepared to walk after dark in the depths of winter?

Social activities – a couple of evenings at the German Austrian club have been successful and well attended.

Snow sports – a few members have enjoyed two winters of MVB skiing activities now – the Kangaroo Hoppet is the highlight and at least 3 club members will be participating on Saturday.

Quite a few of our members hold dual club membership which is something we encourage – why not make the most of what both clubs in Albury Wodonga offer? Marijke recently participated in the Howmans Gap weekend and with her permission we will look at some photos of that weekend.

Geocaching – it’s a bit of a poorly kept secret but we happen to have one of Northeast Victoria’s premier geocaching practitioners in the club – Mick Webster has put out over 70 caches and it adds a lot of interest to the walks that Hans and Peter put on to find them. The club also has a number of our own that we have installed.

Cycling – thanks to Kay for organizing a couple of successful cycling events.

Membership process – we have invested heavily in technology with the website and membership procedures and it appears to be paying dividends. For example about 90% of all recent membership renewals were completed using the Paypal facility that is accessible from the website. The resounding success of the "founding member" innovation suggested by David Gordon should also be recorded - an extraordinary number of 16 members have chosen this option and their contribution is recorded on the founding members page on the website. This has resulted in a signficant boost to the clubs funds at a critical time in club development. The website continues to be heavily used – Tony to demo stats of usage

Blogs are the newest part of the website – don’t be afraid to voice your opinion on activities and the club in general – if adding a blog post is a bit daunting just send an email to blog@mvb.org.au and I will do the rest!

Tony referred to the Risk Management strategies and policies in place and indicated where they could be accessed on the clubs website. The acquisition of a Spot emergency alert device was discussed and Peter undertook to write an article explaining its usage for the website. Tony also spoke about the upcoming leadership skills training weekend to be run by volunteers from the VNPA and encouraged members to participate

3. Receive the association's financial statements

The financial statements must give a true and fair view of the association's affairs and must include an income and expenditure statement and a balance sheet that sets out the sources of income and expenses, assets and liabilities.

Profit and Loss Statement for the period 01/07/2011 to 30/6/2012

 Trial Balance Sheet as at August 28 2012

A motion was put by Tony and seconded by Jan that the treasurers report be accepted as a true and accurate record of the clubs financial position as at Aug 23 2012 – the motion was carried

 

3 Elect office bearers and ordinary members of the committee

The following were elected unopposed for the 6 positions on the committee for the 2012/2013 year.

President Tony Marsh

Secretary Tracey Barkley

Treasurer Peter Presutti

Event coordinator Hans Kaspers

Website manager Neil Brown

Publicity and Development Coordinator Nicole Stephens

There being no other business of which notice has been given to members to conduct Tony introduced the Guest Speaker Anthea Packer Ranger in Charge of Parklands Albury Wodonga

Anthea showed a presentation and talked about the amazing range of projects completed and in progress and the land managers and groups that PAW have engaged in their 15 year history.

Tony thanked Anthea for her informative talk and slideshow and presented her with a symbol of our club’s gratitude as a thank you. The meeting closed at 9pm and a light supper was enjoyed by those who stayed on.

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Published: 08 September 2014

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Murray Valley Bushwalkers AGM #3 Aug 10 2014

Location: Thurgoona Community Centre

This was the AGM held in the best traditions of an outdoors sporting club - it was held outdoors!

Guest speaker Mick Webster wisely chose to take a rain check on his presentation on Conservation Volunteering. There was no solar panel on the roof of the bus stop to power up our computer and projector!

Present Tracey Barkley, Neil Brown, Michelle Crofts, Jan Douglas, Sasho Dillow, Tony Jelbart, Hans Kaspers, Tony Marsh, Cheryl McCarten, Ross Mitchell, Peter Presutti, Marie Rule, Dianne Ryan, Ro Smith, Chris Squire, Lin Starke, Mick Webster, Brad Nilbert

Apologies Jenny Marsh, Marijke Korting, Kaye Hardie, Annette Ash, Margaret Coulston, Jeff and Cheryl McKimm

Agenda

1. Confirm the minutes of the last AGM and any special general meeting

 Confirmed Tony Marsh seconded Hans Kaspers
The minutes are available here.

2. Receive the association's financial statements

The financial statements must give a true and fair view of the association's affairs and must include an income and expenditure statement and a balance sheet that sets out the sources of income and expenses, assets and liabilities.

Profit and Loss Statement as at June 2014

Trial Balance Sheet as at June 2014

A motion was put by Peter Presutti and seconded by Hans Kaspers that the treasurers report be accepted as a true and accurate record of the clubs financial position as at July 5 2013

3. Reports on the activities of the association

Presidents report Jan Douglas

1. In the last 12 months the club has received funding from a number of grants. Many thanks to Tony for the great job he has done in applying for these.
   
   • The club now has 2 pairs of snowshoes for members to use.
   • Also funding to assist with travel expenses for snow based activities.
   • Other assets include:
   • 2 Spot devices
   • GPS
   • Mobile phone
   • 3 first aid kits
   • All for members use
2. The club has been busy yet again with a wide variety of activities, with canoeing still being by far the most popular. I would like to thank all the leaders who have put activities on during the year; we wouldn’t have a club without them.
3. Thanks to the outgoing committee members Lena acting as Treasurer with Peter’s help and assistance; and Neil for his work helping look after the website.
4. Special thanks must go to Tony. Not only for assisting me but other committee members. Tony has served 3 years on the executive, as per the constitution now has to stand down. All his work has been greatly appreciated.
5. Thank you to all the committee for their work and support during the year.

Events report - Tony Marsh

1. Once gain there were well over 100 events available to members over the year across a diverse range of activities led by 17 members of the club who take on the role of leaders for events including:

• Day walking, evening walking, backpack walks, canoeing, cycling, snowshoeing and cross country skiing
• Its worth noting that all of our activities are made available on the clubs website and receive booking inquiries by email.
• We also document participation in events using a spreadsheet maintained on Google Drive which allows all leaders and committee members to know exactly who is out and about and what their emergency contact details are.

And of course nearly all of our events are recorded for posterity by club photographers and gps users. We have just recently surpassed 6000 photos of club events taken over a 3 year period and an ever increasing bank of gps tracks.

Thanks to Mick Webster and Bob Gough who ran navigation training and a GPS workshop for club members both of which were greatly received by participants.

Im proud of the fact that our events are documented and so are repeatable by new leaders and that participation information is accurately recorded. We must be one of few clubs that could provide a full report on the numbers (and names) of participants in all of our activities over the past 3 years.

 
The walking tour of the townships of North East Victoria and the Hume and Hovell track are ongoing objectives along with canoeing extensive sections of the Murray River.

The 2013 and 2014 winter seasons have seen a boost to our snowshoe and cross country ski activities thanks in part to funding received from the Victorian Department of Planning and Community Development.

The meeting expressed its gratitude to the leaders in our club for the incredible number of interesting diverse activities that are offered.
 

Membership report - Tony Marsh

As at the time of the AGM there were 86 currently financial members. Now a month later we have 73 financial members. When applying for the current years insurance the club advised that we have ninety members and as a consequence we paid insurance premiums for 90 members.

It was noted that a proportion of our members belong to more than one bushwalking club and actually pay insurance twice - $15 per member for both clubs.

Tony discussed his thinking about instituting a class of associate memberships for MVB that pay no insurance - but no conclusion was made on this matter.

The committee had a discussion at the last meeting about fee increases to cover the cost of payment if an event arose that a claim was made for. The club pays the first $1,000 of each claim, and it would only require 2 or 3 claims to put the club’s finances under pressure. As a consequence it was decided at the July committee meeting that all memberships would be raised by $5. However at the time of writing this is yet to be implemented.

The subscription management system we have via the website has brought in over $4000 in subscriptions since implementation. It continues to require management and the committee needs to appoint a member to learn the tasks associated.

Website report - Tony Marsh

Our website has been hosted by an organisation called Fluccs for the last 3 years who have offered a free service to community based not for profit organisations. However the site has experienced substantial growth in resources required and this has resulted incurring costs over and above the free services provided. 

A change to a new server in Singapore, providing much more storage space and bandwidth has been implemented. (Digital Ocean) There are still issues to be sorted out as with any provider change, but ultimately the service will be cheaper and more flexible. We thank Fluccs for their generous support of our fledgling club over the last 3 years.

Committee members now have individual gmail addresses which will be independent of website location and provision and will overcome problems surrounding failure of individual committee members internet and/or email access.

The website is overdue for major revamp and I look forward to the opportunity to implement this once I am relieved of responsibilities by new committee members.

Its time for me to stand down from the committee having served as president, secretary and events coordinator as well as establishing and maintaining the clubs website and membership system, writing and publishing bulletins, funding submissions and leading events. Im confident the club is in good hands and that it has a healthy commitment to change in personnel and the way we do things.

4. Election of office bearers and ordinary members of the committee

The following were elected unopposed for the 6 positions on the committee for the 2013/2014 year.

The executive committee comprises President, Secretary, Treasurer and Events co-ordinator.

President Jan Douglas

Secretary Lin Starke

Treasurer Michelle Crofts

Events coordinator Peter Presutti

Cheryl McCarten

Sasho Dillow

The incoming president Jan Douglas thanked the outgoing committee members.
There being no other business of which notice has been given to members to conduct the meeting was closed at 3.30pm

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