It’s nearly September, which means that the annual general meeting of the Wellington MTB Club is imminent! We've also got a brief update below on Te Ahumairangi (Tinakori Hill).
Join us: Tuesday 3 September, 6:00-7:30pm at the Southern Cross, Abel Smith St
The AGM will be from 6:30pm at the Southern Cross bar on Abel Smith St. We’ve got the private room out the back booked, and will be providing nibbles throughout the night. We've set aside the first 30mins from 6pm for food, drink, and banter. The formalities themselves will be blessedly brief. We’ll have a report from the Committee on the past year, an end of financial year statement, and election of officers. This is a free event, no registration necessary.
you could make a difference.
This year, Jono Baddiley and Jo Goudie will again be standing for (respectively) President and Secretary, but we welcome other parties to these roles if interested. But after many years of invaluable club support, Karin Mackie will be stepping down as Treasurer, so we’re looking for someone willing to help with club finances.
Could you be our new Treasurer?
We'd love to hear from you if you have any previous experience in a similar role or if professionally, you manage finances in some capacity. We're ideally seeking someone who is experienced with MYOB or similar financial system. A laptop is also provided with this role.
The club runs on the effort of our volunteers, and the committee is central to much of this. We’ve got openings for people that are able to help in the following non-executive roles.
Event Coordinators
We run a number of events throughout the season, generally between January and May. The committee provides good support for these events so that no one person needs to take the event on by themselves. But, one person generally does need to take the lead coordinating role.
We're seeking individuals who would like to have more of a hand in coordinating events in the 2019/20 season. It's super rewarding and due to the resources and experience behind the committee, it's more straight forward than you may think. You need to be reasonably mature and very organised. Previous planning experience is preferable but not essential.
Community Manager
The Club maintains a number of relationships with local community groups and businesses. Communication with these organisations is important to add value for our members, ensure the organisations are well represented in our activities, and to identify new opportunities for collaboration e.g. events and work parties. We're looking for someone to act as a liaison between the committee and these organisations. As a representative for the Club, a degree of professionalism is required in addition to good communications skills.
Social Media Manager
Our Facebook, Instagram and email channels are important ways that we connect with club members and the wider MTB community. After many years helping with this role, Aidan is stepping down to become a part time architect, and we’re looking for someone able to help with newsletters, photographs from our events, and generally being "down with the kids".
We'll be asking for nominations (including self-nominations) for these roles at the AGM. However, feel free to drop us an email if you'd like to get in early or if you have any questions. Email: secretary@wmtbc.org.nz
Te Ahumairangi update aka Snail update
By now you’ve probably seen a story, or the extensive discussion on Facebook about an unauthorised trail that was built on Te Ahumairangi (Tinakori Hill), endangering a rare snail habitat. If you haven’t, this story on Radio NZ provides a reasonable summary.
The club recently organised a planting day up on the hill to put in 200 seedlings where the unauthorised trail had been built. This isn’t something that we do lightly – we’ve been advocating for greater MTB access to Te Ahumairangi for the past 5 years, and opening up access, not closing it down is our goal.
Unauthorised trail building puts our discussions with the Wellington City Council and other land managers back significantly. In this case, it has put those discussions back to a degree that brought national media coverage.
Trails such as this one jeopardise trail access all across the city, not just on Te Ahumairangi. Right now, we’re lobbying for grade 5 trails on Johnston’s Hill, and a long loop in Te Kopahau, so we have to maintain a long term view.
Getting new trails built takes a long time – often we spend longer asking and negotiating for access than we spend building the trail, but the effort is worth it. All we ask is that if there’s a trail that you would really like to build, or features or changes that you want added to a trail, please come and talk to us first.
See you all Tuesday at the Southern Cross.
