Murray Valley Bushwalkers Inc Bulletin #69 16 June 2013

Notice of Annual General Meeting, Friday 5th July

Venue: Thurgoona Community Centre Time: 7pm

Guest Speaker Bruce Key

Topic: Global Warming

Bring along a plate and your questions for Bruce and the audience to discuss

Nominations are now open for Office Bearers for 2013/14

First Aid Training / Background Screening Checks

4 people have taken up the clubs offer to subsidise by $100 the cost of first aid training or background screening checks. There is still funds available. Contact Tony if you want to take up this offer.

What We've Been Up To

Tues June 4th

Waterfalls on Nail Can Hill - led by Hans

Friday June 7

MVB Committee meeting #10 - minutes available here

New membership schedule of fees - the club's constitution gives the committee the responsibility for setting membership fees. It was decided that we needed to simplify the schedule and the new fees payable as of July 1 this year are as follows

Please note that from July 1 we will be implementing a new system for managing subscriptions that will automate the renewal process and give everyone 12 months membership from the date of payment. There may be teething problems however so please be patient and communicate with us if strange things happen!

Sat June 8

Easy abseiling at the Quarry in Albury led by Neil Brown

Monday June 10

Social bike ride from  Barni Pub to Chiltern through the Forest

Several members joined Peter on a ride from the Barni Pub to Chiltern via the Chiltern Forest we picked our tracks as we went along, enjoyed a coffee at the Chiltern Bakery before setting off back to Barni and Lunch,  found a nice little park with a unique tablesetting. And the weather could not have been kinder..

Sunday 9th and 16th June

Hans has been leading walks in the vicinity of the Old Coach Road Mt Pilot - photos next bulletin

Upcoming Events

Tuesday June 18

Mungabareena Wanderings

Join Hans for an enjoyable half day birding wander in the wetlands.  Meeting at Mungabareena  at 9.00am this is a grade 2 walk. Click here to join

June 21/22 Tuan Campsite Chiltern Mt Pilot NP

Enjoy an evening in the forest, BBQ tea Grade 2 night walk spotlight and another short walk in the mornng. Come for just the evening or the morning walk - click here for more details

June 23 Intermediate Abseiling at The Rock

Here is a great opportunity to go to the next level with Neil Brown click here for more details.

If you cant view photos in this email you can read the bulletin on the MVB Website

July 7 Kelly Caves at last!

Join Mick Webster for a walk to this historical site - click here for more info

July 19 to 30 Going North for in Winter

Some people are so averse to the cold weather they are prepared to drive along way north to warmer climes. Join Hans for a 7 to 11 day driving and walking journey to NE NSW and SE Qld - click here for further details

Catch you on a club event soon!

regards

Peter Presutti

Treasurer

Murray Valley Bushwalkers Inc

MVB Committee Meeting #10 5 June 2013

Meeting opened 7.30pm Venue; Commercial Club Albury

Present Tony Marsh, Peter Presutti, Hans Kaspers, Neil Brown      Apologies:  Tracey Barkley, Nicole Stephens

Minutes of previous meeting held March 26 2013

A motion was put that the minutes be accepted as a true record of the meeting

Moved  Peter  Seconded  Hans          Motion Carried

Business arising from previous minutes

Emergency Contact Person details

Neil reported that he has been contacting members (x40) to get their ECP info updated and that he has added that data to the Community Builder database and the Google Drive booking form.

Tony reported that issues with leaders having their events unpublished by making edits has been resolved – leaders to be made publishers on the website and publishers excluded from moderation in the RSEvents Pro groups settings. 

Hans asked Tony to find out if the published button for new events made from scratch could be by default set to unpublished – Tony to enquire with RSJoomla team.

Neil, Tony and Hans are developing a set of protocols for event creation/management – this is a work in progress to hopefully be completed by the next committee meeting

First aid kits and Spot access - keeping track of where stuff is and what needs replacing – Tony’s proposal to create a form to be maintained by users of the First Aid kits has not yet been implemented – to be reviewed at next meeting particularly in light of decision to purchase additional equipment (see Agenda )

Treasurers report

Peter tabled the Balance Sheet as at June7 – see below

Discussion took place and a motion was put that the treasurers report be accepted

Moved Tony Seconded Neil Carried

Website report - spam registrations are continuing to be a real pain – up to half a dozen a day – these have not diminished despite installation of the Recaptcha spam decryption tool. Tony to investigate other options.

Tony reported that the application of a second layer of password protection of the administrator login url has proven successful at completely stopping attempts at unauthorized logging in to the back end.

Correspondence

In:

Numerous membership enquiries, outside clubs information, Bushwalking NSW change of name, letter of resignation from secretary Tracey Barkley

Out:

To: Albury City Counctil grants to sporting orgs - application completed and submitted – we asked for $2430 – see below

To: Albury City tourist info guide updating details

To: Sue Harper re partnering with Albury City and the City of Wodonga in the 2013 Albury Wodonga Tourism & Visitor Information Centre Partner Program.

AGENDA

Grants Money – expenditure of grants money - timetable and review of where we are at

Tony reported that CAGS and Volunteers  grants  to be spent by end of October and end of September respectively First aid training approx 850 to 1K and volunteers program $1,3k – see image below of where we are at

AGM– proposed to be held at the Thurgoona Community Centre on Friday July 5 with guest speaker Bruce Key (confirmed) to talk on the topic of global warming and how it might impact on the outdoor pursuits of clubs such as ours – Peter to confirm availability of TCC.

Committee succession procedures  - discussion occurred regarding a possible new committee structure – a few key members will be approached to fill committee positions - Tony to fix the forwarder for sec email to go to Peter in the interimMembership report / join procedures – Tony talked about the shortcomings with our existing system and the need for a much simpler schedule of fees with fewer options – currently there are 28 different membership plans. Extensive discussion took place about a new membership fees system and the following was decided upon which reduces the number of membership plans to 10.

Membership

Peter and Tony reported on implementation of CBSubs based new membership system – a work in progress but hopefully to be implemented with above by June 30

Decisions made on expenditure included:

1. Purchase of a toilet shelter and pan for remote area base camping plus between one and three large water containers perhaps at Rays Outdoors or BCF plus– Peter to investigate
2. Registration renewal on the existing Spot to be paid ($116) and purchase of an additional Spot - may not need to register it immediately or even for a full year - idea put that we could ask people on a trip to contribute – buy a month subscription for a special trip and ask all to put in for constant tracking
3. Up to two sets of snowshoes (depending on cost)– hire to be free to members and $20 per day for non members – onus is on the hirer to replace if they don’t come back no decision made about deposit - to be reconsidered at next meeting Tony to create a form to do hire on website - Moved Peter Sec Neil carried

Events grading system

1. Proposed system by Hans, Neil and Peter is available for comment on the website under Risk Management – Event Gradings to be embedded in events –  terrain and road conditions determine grade – distance mentioned as well as grade – technical ability required
2. Proposed gradings for Cycling – discussion points
3. For cycling we need to identify degree of difficulty (Grade 1 to Grade 5) and the distance
4. Mountain bike and road bike events grading to be separate – on track or off track for mountain bike events needs to be specified – might be mix of both
5. Grade 1 flat road no hills eg bike tracks in Albury Wodonga
6. Grade 2 some undulating hills –eg West Wodonga to Chiltern
7. Grade 3 – medium grade of climbing – eg Wodonga to Yack
8. >Grade 4 – some steep grades ride eg Wodonga to beechworth
9. Grade 5 – prolonged steep grades eg Mt Buffalo and Falls creek

The meeting closed at 10pm – next meeting the AGM on July 5

Murray Valley Bushwalkers

Committee Meeting 9 Minutes

Date: Wed March 26 2013

Location: Commercial Club Albury 

Attendance Hans Kaspers, Tony Marsh, Tracey Barkley, Peter Presutti, Neil Brown, Nicole Stephens

Minutes of Meeting 8

December 19 2012 - Location Chiltern Mt Pilot NP

The minutes of the previous meeting accessible here were reviewed and accepted as a true and accurate record of that meeting

Moved: Tracey

Seconded: Hans

The motion was carried

Business Arising from Previous Meeting

• Ecp info, join vnpa, thank you letter to TA Hooley

Tony reported that the new booking forms we use for event registrations is capturing the info we need for emergency contact details for guests and their contact details for further communication from us eg the bulletin. However there is a lot of the existing members who haven’t added that info to their community builder profile yet.
Neil and Nicole volunteered to spend some time contacting members to get that info updated as much as possible.

The club has now joined the VNPA as a corporate member – we get a monthly mail out of a magazine and promotional material. Tony to check if he has been reimbursed for membership fees.

Letter still to be sent to Tracey-Ann Hooley thanking her for the leadership training weekend conducted in October 2012.

Treasurer's Report

Peter tabled the Balance Sheet as at March 26 – see below

Motion was put that the treasurers report be accepted Moved Tony Seconded Neil Carried

Events coordinator report

Hans gave a verbal report on the events program and some of the issues with the management of events. The software that we use RSEvents Pro has some irritating constraints – Tony indicated that we are probably going to run into issues with whatever software we choose. The main problem is with events being unpublished when the owner/creator who is not a website administrator makes any edits to an event as the system then waits for the events coordinator to approve the changes and in the meantime the owner gets locked out of carrying out more edits. Neil and Tony talked about creating a protocol / set of rules to follow when creating events and will present their findings and recommendations to the committee at the next meeting.

Website manager report

Membership at 26 March is 106 – was 83 at last meeting – membership boost coming mainly from canoeing as it continues to be an astonishingly popular activity. Over 40 people participated in

the Beginner canoe safety training and the club will continue to run a similar progrm in the summer of 2013/14

Correspondence

In

Numerous membership enquiries, outside clubs information, Bushwalking NSW change of name

Out

Reports

Grants Money

Tony reported that CAGS and Volunteers funds to be spent by end of October and end of September respectively First aid training approx 850 to 1K and volunteers program $1,3k – see image below of where we are at

Agenda

1. Committee succession procedures - discussion occurred regarding a possible new committee structure

2. Canoe program 2012/13 review – see stats above

3. First aid and Spot access - keeping track of where stuff is and what needs replacing – Tony proposed to create a form to be maintained by users of the First Aid kits

4.Social night with photos to be scheduled? – Tracey and Hans to organize the format of the evening to be held at Tony’s place

5.Membership report / join procedures Tony to demo a new membership system

6.Accounts to be passed - $39 for extending bandwidth to 3gb for 12 months

7.Albury City grants to sporting orgs now open and application completed and submitted

8.Events grading system – proposed system by Hans is available for comment of the website under Risk Management – Event Gradings Meeting closed at 9-30 pm

Next meeting to be the last committee meeting for the 2012/13 year.

General Business

Need to develop a policy regarding booking accommodation – upfront costs of events to be paid prior to acceptance on activity (NON Refundable). Place on agenda for next committee meeting

Next meeting : location and time to be determined

There being no further business to discuss the meetng was closed at 10:15 pm