Murray Valley Bushwalkers

Committee Meeting 3

Date: Friday Dec 09 2011

Location: Commercial Club Piano Lounge 6pm

Attendance Hans Kaspers, Tony Marsh, Trish Madden, Peter Presutti

 Minutes of previous meeting August 24

The minutes were reviewed and accepted as a true and accurate record 

Moved: Trish Madden

Seconded: Peter Presutti

The motion was carried

Business Arising from Previous Meeting

1. Department of Sport and Recreation funding submission - is an agenda item for this meeting
2. Club policy re new leaders - is an agenda item for this meeting
3. Research on policies of working with chiltdren in NSW - see this website - volunteers / students working with children need to complete this form In Victoria its different - from 2005 anyone working with children must obtain a WCC - The Working with Children Act 2005 requires that people who work or volunteer in certain child-related work apply for, and pass, a WWC Check.  - more info here
4. Disclosure of personal health risks by MVB participants - this is an agenda item for this meeting

 Correspondence 

In

1. Various email communications with Gail at the Confederation of Bushwalking Clubs NSW Office re insurance policies – these policies are now accessible on the MVB website
2. Mathew Rogers of Kell and Moore re potential liability of landowners for abseiling activities at Tabletop Mountain
3. Sport and Rec NSW SportShorts newsletter
4. Ray Barber – book on Victorian waterfalls
5. ABC Communities registration
6. Southern Cross Community Connect registration
7. Hume building society - confirmation of bank statements to be delivered electronically
8. Communities.nsw.gov.au – Sport and Rec funding submission returned in pdf format now available on the website for perusal

Out:

1. Newsletter Number 1 to all members, various emails to Gail at Confed re affiliation and insurance
2. Mathew Rogers of Kell and Moore re potential liability of landowners at Tabletop Mountain attaching insurance policies
3. Weekly MVB program updates by email to members
4. Numerous email exchanges with member Neil Brown re abseiling arrangements
5. Numerous email sent to new members upon joining and registering for events
6. Numerous email exchanges with Paypal to get full service established

Reports

1. Event coordination

Trish generally happy with how event moderation is occurring. Tony highlighted the event management documentation now available under the Help menu for logged in members to the MVB website.

Trish reported a problem with multiple email generation after new events posted and subsequently edited again - a trial run of turning off auto notification to be considered. This would necessitate a manual notification email to be sent to the coordinator to advise a new event requires moderation.  Since the last committee meeting Trish and Tony got together on Wed 31st Aug to review event management procedures. 

2. Treasury - Peter tabled a treasurers report indicating some $794.93 in the bank and also indicated the overview of income and expenditures to date. Discussion ensued regardng when and how insurance fees will need to be paid for the next year and Tony indicated payment will probably be requested about March 2012

A motion to accept the treasurers report was moved by Hans and seconded by Tony and was carried.

3. Memberships - Tony reported current membership stands at 56 with the canoeing program being a substantial contributor to this number. Discussion ensued regarding appropriate membership dues for those that join the club in the new year. It was decided that a maximum of 2 months grace should be applicable - that means if someone joins after May 1st then membership will be valid for 14 months. Memberships received between Jan 1st and May 1st may attract a discount up to a maximum of 50% but should not fall below $20 for individual members not a member of another walking club.

4. Presidents summary- Hans expressed his thanks to the committee for the successful launch of the new club. Discussion then turned to the need for a logo for our club. It was decided given our financial situation to defer the cost of getting a graphic artist to design a logo until we hear of the outcome of the Sports and Recreation funding application.

Agenda

1. Department of Sport and Recreation funding submission - a copy of the final submission is available on our website

2. Minimum numbers for events for official club event status- the advice proffered by David Gordon at the last committee meeting was discussed and the following agreed upon: 2 participants is acceptable if there is moble phone reception in the area to be entered provided mobile phones are carried and are properly charged and functional. Where there is no mobile phone coverage a minimum of 3 participants is required. A personal locator beacon (plb) is to be carried when the club owns one

3. New Leaders - it was decided that the next newsletter / bulletin would invite interested members intending to participate in an event to consider suggesting to the leader that they would like to learn the ropes of planning and running an event. The leader would then coach/mentor that person to eventually become a co leader for club events. A formalised process for this may evolve. It was also also decided to explore the program of leader training that the VNPA offers to establish if that may be an option for us to pursue in 2012

4. Program for 2012 - public meeting - it was decided that a public meeting /information night would be held in March/April/ May 2012 with a guest speaker and a focus on the Murray Valley - an additional person from the club not currently a committee member will be invited / co-opted to organise the evening

5. Policy statements - these can be found on the website under risk management and then policies - policy statements for the following were reviewed

6. Children policy - this was edited to read "legal guardian or such other person that a legal guardian may appoint in writing"

7. Canoeing policy - reviewed and confirmed as official club policy

8. Member Medical Info policy - it was agreed that the key tag should have the phone number of an emergency contact person not the phone number of the person carrying the tag - form to be modifed toadvise people to leave out the titles to give more room to fit info in - key tag vs laminated options to be considered but in the meantime key tag remains the recommended option for personal safety but not mandated

9. Emergency Contact info - Tony pointed out the proposed usage of the electronic booking forms on Google docs have the potential to act as an accurate record of club events for emergency contact persons. Hans suggested that to work properly we would need to ensure that at least one person with access to the Google docs booking sheets would have to be a non participant in each event. Tony demonstrated usage of booking sheets. Leaders to be given access and encouraged to use the booking sheets. This policy needs further work and is not ratified at this stage.

10. Incident Reporting - this document was ratified as official club policy and members to be advised by bulletin/newsletter of its existence and encouraged to use it

11. Car Pooling - this policy engendered plenty of discussion - rewording is definitely required however the meeting confirmed the principle that we need to ensure that car pooling passengers contribute to the transport costs. For simplicity it is suggested (but not mandated) that a rate of 10 cents per km be adopted in the interim until this policy is finalised.

Committee Succession - the MVB constitution stipulates the size of the committee to be put in place at the AGM in July or August as dependent on the number of members of the club as at January 1st. At this point with 56 members we would need to elect an additional committee member. If membership exceeds 60 members as at Jan 1 we would need to elect two additional committee members at the 2012 AGM. Discussion ensued regarding roles to be defined for new committee members and the need to proactively engage and mentor potential new committee members. That will be addressed early in the new year. Interested members will be invited to attend committee meetings to discuss potential committee roles and succession arrangements.

Next meeting : to be prior to the public meeting to be held at a date to be determined between March and May 2012

There being no further business to discuss the meetng was closed at 9:00 pm