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Tag Archives | club ideas

Club committee tools and tips

Running a successful club takes a few tools and skills that can be just as handy as a map and compass for keeping your club on track!

Great bushwalkers use their tools and resources exceptionally efficiently, so on this page we shares some tools and tips from Bushwalking NSW and our clubs. This is by no means all the great tips and tools employed by all our clubs, so if you’d like to add to this list, please share your tips here.

 

 

Your say on our focus

Thank you to everyone who responded to our survey in January, 2017! It was a biggie!

To begin sharing the results and our actions with you, here’s the ordered response to the question:

What should be the current focus of Bushwalking NSW?

  1. Safety, rescue, risk management
  2. Tracks and access (defined walks)
  3. Conservation (natural places to walk in)
  4. Public promotion of bushwalking
  5. Training
  6. Services to clubs

Interestingly, these options were presented in quite a different order in the survey:

  1. Services to clubs
  2. Public promotion of bushwalking
  3. Conservation
  4. Tracks and access
  5. Safety, rescue, risk management
  6. Training

So it was a good question to ask!

If you would like to send us your thoughts, you can still respond to our survey here.

This information will ultimately go into our strategic plan, however we have already responded with work in these areas:

  • more work on our Risk Management Guidelines
  • met with NPWS and members about tracks and walk promotion
  • visited the historic, Kedumba Valley hut with NPWS and talked about tracks and access (one member specifically asked for huts)
  • delivered an excellent minimal impact bushwalking presentation
  • and more!

While we could never do everything that can be imagined, members also made the following suggestions which we could may be able to  on if we find the resources: “Collate an inventory of walks”

Also, one members suggested we “monitor insurance suitability each year” which we do with the help of Bushwalking Australia.

Our Community Liaison Officer, Alexandra Davidson has been working tirelessly to analyse your results so we will be continuing to bring you more details of the results.

Inclusiveness

Recently a member ask us about ‘member protection’ – she was referring to the terms used in Sport & Recreation: http://www.ausport.gov.au/supporting/integrity_in_sport/member_and_child_protection

To use the Sport & Recreation phrasing, bushwalking should also be “safe, fair and inclusive for everyone involved…..[and clubs should seek to] to prevent and address discrimination and harassment and to protect children from abuse.”

These attitudes and behaviours are deeply ingrained in our clubs.  The fact that bushwalking clubs welcome all members of society, and provide social interaction and recreation for all people, is one of the reasons why I work for Bushwalking NSW!

Clubs have reached out to Bushwalking NSW for assistance on these matters and we have helped these clubs out on these sensitive matters.  If you have any concerns or suggestions in this area, feel free to contact us for assistance.  You can reach me using my personal email or use our form on the contact us page.

To describe some of the ways that Bushwalking NSW is safe, fair and inclusive:

Our clubs also practice inclusivity in may ways, the most common is that clubs promote the culture of always pacing the walk to the slowest walker.  Members have even benighted themselves for the safety of their fellow walkers and the group.