CANISIRRA NJMWALJUNG CLU1 1111CC 1NJIWLIETTIR ITP.O. Box 160, Canberra, A.C.T. 2601 Registered by Australia Post; Publication number NBH 1859 VOLUME 25 SEPTEMBER 1988 NUMBER 9 PresidenVs Prattle As promised last month, a brief outline is provided below of all the positions up for election this month. Let us have plenty of nominations on the night. Committee work (at least for the CEC) is rarely onerous and it is a great way to ensure you get a' say in how your Club runs. If you would like any further details about individual positions please give the current office bearer a call. President Chairs the Committee and General meetings and prepares controversial copy for "President's Prattle" each month. Vice President/Treasurer Controls the Clubs accounts includihg the banking of monies received and the payment of accounts - is also responsible for the preparation of the Club's Annual Report and the preparation of all RMURL \ financial statements and their submission \ to the Club Auditor. Acts as President \ when required. Minute Secretary J1ICCT7JYQ Records discussion &t and decisions made at Committee meetings. wUL &d.d at 8 pim.. n/iàAJftt&&oit Walk Secretaru 21 ot Is responsible for \ att&e,&t&m/ ensuring a balanced and comprehensive walk programme throughout the year, ie. harries members to lead walks. Prepares copy for IT. Correspondence Secretarg Clears the mail from a P.O. Box in Civic and brings relevant correspondence to the attention of committee members and the general membership at meetings and through a regular column in IT. In some cases the correspondence secretary will undertake to reply to letters on behalf of the membership. Assistant Walk Secretary/Check-in Officer Provides a back up for the Walk Secretary. As Check-in Officer, ensures that all leaders telephone to confirm their party's safe return and if necessary initiates the search and rescue procedures in conjunction with the Search and Rescue Officer. Hassles walk leaders to ensure that all walk lists are forwarded to the Club's Statistician. 2 Publisher Collects the IT manuscript from the Editor and arranges printing. Seeks out IT Collation venues from amongst the membership and delivers the copies to those venues and organises subsequent posting. Reviews printing costs periodically. Editor Collects and edits the copy for the newsletter and prepares it (pun intended) for publication. Membership Secretary Handles all membership enquiries both telephone and written and ensures, in conjunction with the Club's Statistician, that the membership lists are up-to-date. Collects all membership dues. Social Secretary Arranges the various social events conducted by the Club during the year including monthly meetings. Is responsible for the sale of the dreaded frogs and T-shirt s! Conservation Officer Represents the Club at meetings of the Conservation Council of Canberra and the South-East Region and is responsible for keeping the membership informed of conservation matters relevant to the Club. Coordinates any Club response to these matters. Conservation Associates The Club's membership of the Conservation Council entitles it to three members on the main committee. Two further Club members are elected to represent the CEC: at these meetings and provide a back-up to the Conservation Officer where necessary. These are not regular committee positions. Greg Ellis I [1# = In the July IT Greg and I outlined proposed changes to the system for registering on trips. In essence these changes involve Abolishing the lists in Paddy's in favour of telephone bookings only; and arranging for a copy of the latest IT to be displayed in each bushwalking/ski shop for inspection by non-members. The old booking forms facilitated the recording of all relevant information about participants on each trip and provided useful information for leaders and persons registering in Paddy's. It is most important for search and rescue purposes that all relevant information is recorded and that proper procedures are followed and a new form has been designed to meet these objectives. A copy of the new form has been included in this IT and should be used by all leaders from October. You can copy the sample or obtain further copies from the Walk Secretary or Assistant Walk Secretary. A new feature of the form is the requirement that leaders give particulars of their proposed route. This can be given by description, diagramme or attaching a marked photo copy of the relevant part of the map. This information should be invaluable for search and rescue purposes. The "information for leaders" on the reverse side of the form gives a step by step summary of the procedures to be followed. Rob Parriell of the Canberra Ornithologists Group (COG) has kindly offered to lead a bird watching expedition in the Mount Kelly area on October 16-16th. Other specialty trips in this IT are the "Castle and Monolith Valley Photography Trip" 3 on September 17-18th and "Botanising in the Budawangs" on September 24- 26th. These trips should be lots of fun and should give participants a greater appreciation of what the bush has to offer. Finally I wish to thank everybody who contributed to the programme during the year. Without your efforts the Club could not exist. George Carter (Walk Secretary) I am pleased that our slide competition attracted such enthusiastic response from participants and audience. In appreciation and practical terms the judging by popular vote may not be ideal but it does make for an accessible, friendly exercise. Precisely what I believe the Club stands for. The 1988 competition contained many stunning, awesome, hilarious and possibly shocking entries. One projection also advised us who to elect for president. To choose the four best out of 45 landscape entries was painfully difficult. Eventually a rank was established even among Alan Vidler's psychedelic experimentation of fusing film and snow in a volcanic eruption of colour. My congratulations to the winners and thanks to all participants and assistants. When I became Social Secretary it seemed quite a task to organise interesting and entertaining Club nights for a whole year. Looking back it has been easy thanks to the valuable suggestions and support I received from the members. I would like to encourage interest in this committee position by pointing out that there are really only seven nights that require a speaker as the other months are occupied by two outdoor meets and taree traditional events. The September meeting will, of course, be the Annual General Meeting when all positions will be open for election. I would like to thank you all for your help and friendship, particularly those who helped out in the kitchen. Best wishes. Eddy The Correspondence Column The Club has received a letter of thanks from the Reverend and Mrs Crofts concerning the book of photographs and anecdotes compiled by several Club members about Mick's life in the Club. Some walks which will be of interest to members are coming up later in the year. If you enjoy long walks with lots of company the bicentennial Katoomba to Mittagong walk may interest you. It is sponsored by the Mittagong Chamber of Commerce and will cover 140 kilometres over 7 days. There is a registration fee of $90 and a limit on numbers, the dates are from October 7th to 13th. The Federation of Bushwalking Clubs requires fit bushwalkers to go to the Barrington Tops area to locate a Cessna which went down in 1982. This is for the weekend of October the 8th to 9th. Please contact me if you require more details. HUME AND HOtJELL WALKING TRACK The Club has an invitation from the Talbingo Bushwalkers to join in the inaugural walking of the Flume and Hovell track. The dates are tentative but George Carter has a full itinerary for anyone who is interested. Please contact him. Kate Moore Concerning Conservation This is my last contribution as Club Conservation Officer although one can hardly switch off conservation once it is in the system. I hope that there is an increasing awareness amongst members of the importance of our national areas. All of us who spend time "in the bush", allowing ourselves to reflect on our place on the planet. I believe, feel this value intuitively 4 People from all eras have felt this strong affinity with nature, although they may not be in the majority. The rapacious demands on our natural areas to produce raw resources for ceaseless and, we are told, necessary development only serve to increase their inherent value. As the demands grow stronger: calls to allow inappropriate development. logging, grazing and mining within national parks and nature reserves will increase. The Victorian Alpine National Park. Kakadu and the Great Barrier Reef are but a few of the threatened areas. Feeling the inner glow of communing with nature is not enough bushwalkers; now you have to fight to keep what should be an unequivocal right. Expectations that someone else, maybe those greenies who keep getting arrested in Queensland and Tasmania, might keep these areas sacred are not good enough. You need to be the people taking actionm Julie Andrew MEMBERSHIP MaTTERS New Members Judith Upton, 8 Shore Place, WESTON, ACT 2611, 886690(h), 464250(w). Robert Walters. 26 Trenwith Close, SPENCE. ACT 2616, 983831(h), 612076(w). UJanda Kayaba 17 Burara Crescent, WARAMANGA, ACT 2611, 883613(h), 803434(w). Prospective Members Stuart Dennis. 42 Bonython Street, DOWNER. ACT 2602, 470008(h), 499368(w). Marianne Lund, 13 Ridley Street, TURNER, ACT 2601, 473932(h). 466111(w). Alan Nelson. 102 Bangalay Crescent, RIVETT. ACT 2611, 889666(h), 849198(w). Ian Ryall. 72 Rivett Street. HACKETT, ACT 2602. 496307(h), 741662(w).