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
- 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
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Thank you to all the committee for their work and support during the year.
Events report - Tony Marsh
- 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