Murray Valley Bushwalkers Inc Bulletin #76 Aug 28 2013

Membership Update

Welcome to our newest members Tony Crawford and Jill and Ray Hancock. We currently have 75 financial members.  Thanks to all who have renewed membership recently. 

Committee Meeting #11

The committee meeting centred around an update on insurance issues by founding MVB member and Bushwalking Australia treasurer and insurance guru David Gordon.

This was held on Monday August 19th at the Commercial Club - click here to read the minutes.

Vale Jill Melgaard

We are saddened to hear of the passing of Jill who was an enthusiastic participant in our canoeing program and together with her close friend and MVB member Marie Rule a long time member of the Commercial Club womens squash team

Recent events

Tues Aug 27 Nail Can Hill Waterfall

Three members enjoyed the opportunity to see this elusive well hidden feature of Nail Can

Sat Aug 24 Kangaroo Hoppet #14

John Jamison grinning from ear to ear after a wonderful performance in the 42km event

Sun Aug 18 Nail Can Hill Gorges

Hans and Peter recently reconnoitered a walk to explore little known gorges on Nail Can Hill and on the 18th led a group on this day walk. Peter's enjoyment was obvious as he related details of this walk to the committee. Another wildflower photo from Hans.

Photos by Hans at Nail Can Hill. Above is Diuris sulphurea and below is Pterostylus curta

SPRUNG!

This person is clearly using a mobile phone on a bushwalk - is this a behaviour that should be tolerated on MVB Events? You betcha it is cos occassionally we like to have hot pizzas and coffee delivered to the end of the walk location!

Sat Aug 17 Beginner Snowshoe / XC ski

Another great opportunity for members to experience winter wonderland was not lost

Whats On? heaps of stuff as usual!

Spring is just around the corner so time to get moving outdoors.

Sat Aug 31st Mt Granya and Granya Falls

Join Tracey for this relatively easy but wonderful day walk click here for more details

Sun Sept 1 Beechworth to Yackandandah Bike Ride

Join Mick Webster for a "mostly" downhill MTB ride click here for more details

Sun Sept 8 Barambogie Range Bike Ride

Join Peter for an exciting ride in the Chiltern Mt Pilot NP to Eldorado for lunch click here for more details

Down the Track

September 14 Grand tour of north east townships resumes on  click here for more details

September 22 Mt Glenrowan and Chick Hill Warby Ovens NP day walk click here for more details

September 21-24 Gundabooka National Park overnight backpack  click here for more details

September 28-29 Warby Ovens National Park base camp Weekend of Activities  click here for more details

October 18-25 Grampians one week base camp in  click here for more details

November 1-2 Cocoparra National Park near Griffith NSW a weekend base camp click here for more details

Where are the photos?

Having trouble viewing photos in this bulletin?

Your email program will have a setting you can alter to view the photos or you can view the bulletin on the club's website here.

Membership Renewals

Lots of people have successfully navigated their way around the new system to renew their membership. If you've tried and got into strife help is at hand - email Tony at greencomputing@gmail.com or phone him on 0417687842 - note if you wish to join an event and you are not financial you will need to pay the visitor fee of $5 and submit an acknowledgement of risk form for each event.

Catch you on a club event soon!

regards

Lin Starke

Secretary Murray Valley Bushwalkers Inc

MVB Committee Meeting #14 July 18 2014

Meeting Commenced  3.30pm Venue 4 Jamison Drive Baranduda 3691

Present Jan Douglas, Lin Starke, Peter Presutti, Tony Marsh Apologies: Lena Sandstrom

Minutes of previous meeting held  Feb 5 2013

Minutes of the previous meeting were read. A motion was put that the minutes be accepted as a true record of the meeting
Moved Lin,  Seconded  Peter Motion Carried

Business arising from previous minutes

Tony reported on our successful grant application of $500 with DPCD via the VicTalent program.

Peter has organised a club mobile phone with prepaid credit for usage on club events.

Public Meeting held in May 2014 at TCC - discussion ensued and it was agreed it would be best run in the warmer months at or around the beginning of the canoeing program

Treasurers report

 Held over to AGM in Lena's absence

Correspondence

In: Country Action Grant Scheme report request

Insurance payments request from Bushwalking NSW

SnowTrek and Travel invoice for snowshoes

Out:

Discussion from correspondence:

Coordinator’s report

The current program is looking strong with snow based activities but is needing enhancement with walks. Tony to email leaders requesting new activities to be posted. Tony suggested that leaders may be preferring to program events at short notice when weather is suitable as plenty of club events are still happening. The committee confirmed its commitment to short term event programming as a defining aspect of our clubs operations.

Membership Report

Tony reported that financial membership is currently at 92 and discussed the website based online subscription management system CBSubs. In general it has been working well with 3 instances of reminder emails going out to members - 1 month before expiry, on the actual day of subscription expiry and 7 days after expiry. There is a problem with the Concession plan only allowing one bite of the cherry - that is not allowing a second subscription to the Concession plan (which has a negative $10 subscription rate) - however a work around has been devised until a proper solution (based on a discount coupon system) is devised using CBSubs. Paypal has again proven to be the most popular payment method. The advantages of subscription renewal dates being spread out over the year and not concentrated on June 30 are evident as at this time last year we would have had half the number of financial members.

Since inception in July 2013 as at July 18 2014  CBSubs has tracked 89 subscription transactions at a total of $3195

Agenda Items

1. Held over from previous meeting - website management including Google Drive, Flickr, Facebook and Ecoportal. Tony explained that due to limitations on the number of worksheets supported there is an urgent need to upgrade our event booking system on Google drive to the new system - this has been achieved however the old system needs to be saved offline and event leaders need to be notified and invited to join the new event booking system on Google drive.

Flickr continues to be an incredibly rich way of documenting our clubs activities - most events have a photo album uploaded and associated event and photo descriptions. We are rapidly approaching 6000 photos in just on 3 years of operation.

The clubs Facebook site has attracted a lot of interest - members sharing their interests, photos, reports and Spot progress is enhancing the club profile. Hans continues to add club events to the Ecoportal site.

There was discussion about the Spot OK messages being posted to Facebook and some concern about whether the same would occur if a Help or SOS message was sent. Tony confirmed that the auto posting to Facebook only applies to the Ok messages that Spot sends when a leader on an event invokes that option.

 2. Purchase of 2 pairs of MSR snowshoes from Snowtrek and Travel in Wodonga for $600 - it was moved by Tony and Seconded by Peter that we write a letter of thanks for the generous discount applied to our purchase.

3. Refund of $490 made available by Albury City Council to support MVB snow activities to be made by provision of receipt and completed form by the secretary as soon as possible.

4. Insurance premium payments - the club has been invoiced for a total of $1293.30 for insurance premium as per below and 3 separate funds transfer payments have commenced (we are constrained to a maximum of $500 per transaction)

Discussion took place about the possibility of creating a membership plan for Associate members who may choose to join the club but not have insurance coverage. Tony was asked to investigate this further with Bushwalking NSW

5. AGM Date and Arrangements - it was decided that we would run the AGM on a sunday afternoon at 4pm at the Thurgoona Community Centre aiming for August 3rd as first option - attendees to bring a plate and a guest speaker to be arranged. Quorum for the AGM will be 20 members present.

6. Committee Structure - the current structure was reviewed and given that the constitution stipulates 4 executive (president, secretary, treasurer, coordinator) and 2 non exec members (website management and publicity coordination) that no changes to this structure be recommended to the AGM.

7. Schedule of Subscription Fees - the committee has become aware that in the event of there being an insurance claim due to a mishap on a club event that the club is required to pay an excess fee of $1000 per claim. Consequently it is felt that we should make provision for such an outcome by ensuring we have sufficient funds in a term deposit to covers such an event. At the same time we are reluctant to raise fees to fund this situation. We have been very fortunate up to now to attract funding for the club and we cannot assume that will continue. Consequently it has been decided to recommend to the AGM that we raise fees on all subscription plans by $5.

8. Review of risk management policies - Spot usage - it was agreed that in all situations where a Spot device is taken on a club event that all members of the executive need to be programmed into the profile that is applicable to that event to receive sms and email alerts. Also in light of recent experience with a club event in a remote area with problematic mobile phone reception the possibility of acquisition of a device that would allow sms communication virtually anywhere was discussed. Peter has researched InReach and it was decided that in the next funding application we make that purchase of an InReach device (currently $420) would be number one priority.

It was agreed that leaders be advised/updated regarding the usage of Spot and to get them to contact Tony or Peter to make required changes to the profile that is active for the event they will use it on.

9. Affiliation with Bushwalking Victoria - it was agreed that we apply for affiliation. Moved Tony Seconded Jan motion carried

10. GPS training event - a thank you and gift voucher from the club to be provided to the trainer Bob Gough - Jan to organise

11. Report on the Country Action Grants Scheme funding in 2013 ($2000) - Tony thanked Peter for the acquittal documentation that was provided at last years AGM which made it easy to provide the report required by the DPCD which was tabled at the meeting.

12. VicTalent grant $500 - this money has been specifically tagged to traveling expenses for snow activities in 2014 - it was decided that we would allocate $80 per trip to the snow - $40 subsidy for fuel expenses and $40 for entry fee expenses.

13. Creation of secretary email account with gmail - it was decided that a new email address be created for the secretary of the club using gmail and that all secretary email would be redirected to this account. Members of the executive would be all given access to this account. This procedure would facillitate succession in the treasurers role and would also ensure full access to communications at all times.

14. Equipment list and record of borrowing - it was decided that Tony and Peter would develop a Google drive system for managing equipment borrowings with the intention of knowing where equipment is at any point in time. Peter suggested creation of laminated descriptive tags that could be attached to each item.

15. Snowshoe usage 2014 - it was decided that usage by club members would be free of charge for the winter of 2014 and that requests for usage would be dependent on applicants being financial members of the club.

16. Report on Sports Trainer program - Jan discussed this program which she participated in and has successfully achieved the Level 4 Sports Trainer qualification.

There being no further general business the meeting closed at 6-30pm – next meeting date to be determined as the need arises.

MVB Committee Meeting #13 Feb 5 2014

Meeting Commenced  6.30pm Venue Thurgoona Community Centre  10 Kosciuszko Road Thurgoona.

Present Jan Douglas, Lin Starke, Lena Sandstrom, Peter Presutti, Tony Marsh

Minutes of previous meeting held  Oct 16 2013

Minutes of the previous meeting were read. A motion was put that the minutes be accepted as a true record of the meeting moved Peter and seconded Lena
Moved Tony,  Seconded  Lena Motion Carried

Business arising from previous minutes

Lin reported on our successful grant application with Albury City Council

Grants in the pipeline include MCF (Medibank) and grants we will apply for include the Victorian Country Action Grant Scheme (CAGS), VicTalent (application due March 3). Ideas for a project were sought , and responses included: travel expenses to activities, leadership training, map reading. Bushwalkers wilderness rescue, Victorian Huts Ass’n.  A brief discussion followed on suitable apps for mobile phones. Peter to look at getting a club phone for canoeing.

Meeting Guests

 Tammy McDonnell and Tracey Barkley to discuss a possible Memorandum of understanding between MVB and Junction services - deferred to next meeting.

Treasurers report

The treasurer’s report was read and a motion put that the treasurer's report be accepted and confirmed. Moved by Tony and seconded by Peter - the motion was carried.

Accounts for payment Tony presented two accounts to the meeting. Purchases account moved for payment, Tony and seconded by Lin. The second account is deferred subject to getting group into Elite First Aid courses in Albury rather than travelling to Wagga.

Correspondence

In:

1. Gail at Admin Bushwalking.org.au 
A. 13 Oct re Tracks and Access,
B. 2 oct Sept newsletter – Blue Mountains Licencing Requirements,
C. 30 sept re Wild Mag seeking info on activities
D. Annual Conference nature Conservation Council 19-20 Oct
 
2. Peter Presutti
A. MERIMBULA PARK
B. Garmin Extrex

3. VNPA 27 Sept AGM

4. Tony Marsh
A. Re Mandy Marsh DPCD Wangaratta re CAGS Grant Acquittal
B. Invoice from Tony Marsh for CPR training refund Feb 19
C. Invoice from Tony Marsh for website expenses

5. Liona Edwards ledwards @wodonga.vic.gov.au
A. Raise money National Bike Ride, closes 4th March 2014
B. Country Action Grant Scheme, closes 4 March 2014
C. Training Opportunity – Level 1 Sports Trainer Course for NE Sports and Recreation Clubs

6. What’s happening Albury. 11 bulletins
7. Sports and Recreation Officer, Office of Communities, 2 items
8. Victoria national Parks Ass’n, Matt Ruchel 7 items
9. Vic Health, Registration of Lin Starke as secretary
10. Albury City Destination Management plan, Sue Harper, Lin Starke put a submission in to this.
11. President of Bushwalking Australia re new website and insurance handling changes
12. Albury City – re successful grant application
13. City of Wodonga to president re Baranduda sporting precinct
 

Out:

1. Submission to Victorian Govt re proposed schedule of fees for dispersed camping in national parks

2. Submission to Albury Tourist Info Centre re facilities for promotion of tourism in Albury Wodonga

3. MVB Bulletins

4. Funding submission to Medibank Community Fund

Discussion from correspondence:

Lena is to apply to attend the Sports Training program as a club member and Jan and Peter are considering this too. Information is to go into the bulletin.

Peter discussed various phone options and plans suited to having a phone in a leader’s canoe in case of emergency. He will follow up on having a phone for the start of the next canoe season, then discussed further possibilities for the current season.

Coordinator’s report

The programs scheduled for the next few months were looked highlighting the new events that have been added recently.

The potential for privacy issues were raised over the printing and distribution of multiple copies of member bookings for canoeing events (currently three copies created), and options for printing less less detailed information vs giving access to the booking forms electronically via a password.

A decision was made to reduce the number of printed copies, to ensure that such copies are appropriately destroyed after the event ensuring that all persons requiring bookings information have password protected access to the Google Drive booking form.

Canoe leadership when Jan and Tony are away later in the month is an issue. A short list of potential other leaders was made subject to the people consenting to take on that role.

Membership Report

Tony reported that membership is currently at 102 and that once again canoeing had proven to be a real bonus for membership. We were given a demonstration of how our website online subscription management system CBSubs works. Tony to follow up with some documentation to distribute to committee members. The advantages of Paypal / Credit Card transactions were pointed out as no manual intervention is required unlike all other modes of membership subscriptions payment.

Agenda Items

1.  Public Meeting - Discussion followed about the possibility of inviting members to a general meeting where we could “Showcase” club activities. AGM  will be in July so probable dates for this are 7th or 14th May.

Aspects for the “Showcase" evening suggested were

• Food dehydration for camping, Peter to do
• Appropriate items for in a backpack, appropriate backpack, for camping
• 2 styles - girls and boys, Jan and Lena , and Peter
• Appropriate items for ½ day or day walks
• Car boot camping requirements.
• Macro photographs taken on outings. To see if following will provide 10 pictures each
• Hans Kasper
• Marie Squire
• Jill Hancock
• Landscape photos as well from Flickr. Lin to create Power Point presentation for scrolling through evening.
• Info on snow activities
• Info on canoeing
• Members to invite guests from their friendship circles
• Venue Thurgoona Community Centre, to be booked when date set.

2. AGM guest speaker Mick Webster to talk on Ned Kelly if he accepts, and navigation and geocaching.

3. Discussion was held on guidelines for Total Fire Ban days, policy says we won’t walk in a forested area on a day of Total Fire Ban. Such considerations are relevant to canoeing and it was decided that we expect that common sense will prevail on days of Total Fire Ban and windy weather.
4. Extreme ultra violet light. Individuals to decide if the heat / exposure will be too much for them and notify leader of non-attendance.

5. website management including Google Drive, Flickr, Facebook and Ecoportal deferred to next meeting

There being no further general business the meeting closed at 9-20pm – next meeting date to be determined as the need arises.