I hope to see many of you tonight at the Liberty Tavern in Clarendon for our informal meeting. Part of the reason we chose this destination for the first real meeting of 2011 was to shake things up a bit, but also to take an opportunity to chat about how we can make the club serve the membership better this year (and have more fun doing it). As is always true: This is your club. You can get out of it what you put in. The excom just here to help you make this club what you want it to be.
Goals/Priorities for the Year
In our first meeting the Excom agreed upon the following three priorities/goals for this year. We hope they're in line with what you, the membership, want from the club. We've noted a few things under each goal that we're hoping to make happen this year. Hopefully these will provide a spark of inspiration for you to participate and to create your own events.
- Create more opportunities for open and social "group enjoyment of mountaineering and related activities"
- Put more scheduled climbing events on the calendar
- Pre-arrange post-climbing drinking/dinner destinations
- Rally near metros before driving to distant crags
- Include more members in the running of this club
- Provide more support to volunteer coordinators
- Take unifying role in the local climbing community
- Joint happy hour with the AAC, Mid-Atlantic Climbers, and other local climbing groups
- Greater work with the Access Fund
- Work to Co-Host the Reel Rock Film Festival
A Request for Help
By far the best way to shape the future of this club is by volunteering to be one of the clubs coordinators or to assist with one aspect of coordination. As I'm sure past coordinators will attest, this not only a great way to "give back", but it's a great way to meet other climbers and to expand your knowledge of some area of our sport. If you're interested in helping or just curious about any of the positions below, please don't hesitate to talk to any member of your excom.
- Outreach Coordinator
- Seeks partnerships, endorsements, and sponsorships (or other funding) with and from the local community and businesses. Proposes all opportunities to the EXCOM for approval.
- Crag Stewards
- Act as the point person to watch over a particular Crag, and inform the access coordinator of any issues.
- Expedition Coordinator
- Solicits, evaluates, and make recommendation to the EXCOM to about which proposals should be sponsored bi-annually. Provides assistance, beta, and recommendations to club members planning climbing expeditions.
- Training Coordinator & Team
- Solicits, coordinates, and organizes training events for the membership throughout the year and posts the details to the club calendar.
- Membership Coordinator & Team
- Solicits new membership at local climbing events, particularly Carderock and Great Falls climbing. Assists with and collects new membership paperwork (applications & waivers) and forwards those to the Secretary.
- Communications Editor & Team
- Coordinates, organizes, publishes, and distributes the club newsletter. Ensures that events and trip reports are published to the club web site. Works to keep members engaged on the club Facebook page.
My thanks to those of you who actually made it this far down in this (overlong) e-mail; and my special thanks to those of you who consider volunteering. Again, if you have any questions or comments about anything please don't hesitate to contact myself or any member of the excom.
Thanks,
- Court
Chair, PATC-MS
