Exec report - President 2015 - 2016

VOC President report (2015-2016, Artem Babaian)

How the year went

Membership

memberships ending after 2016-04-30

total members = 943

regular (student) members = 663

staff members = 0

other members = 125

alumni members = 155

Small bump in membership from the previous 'plateau' in mid-800s. We focused quite a bit on recruiting 'new' people outdoors this year. It helped but doesn't necessarily translate to more trip leaders. Focus on recruiting more people "like yourself".

Huts

Brew

Brew has been good on all fronts. Solar lighting is still working and a cool feature. The FSR may be closing in the future so a secondary trail from the North may need to be constructed.

Firewood:

Firewood is depleting faster then anticipated when it's plentyful up there. Make an effort to ask people to carry up their own firewood if they plan to burn? Organize workhikes for this too.

Note that the abundance of firewood had encouraged some non-VOCers to have campfires outside the hut, which we strongly discourage, since it uses up that precious wood in no time.

Protection of the area

This is largely the same, to quote last year's report, "This section hasn't changed much compared to last year. To quote from Steph's report:

"Powder Mountain Cat skiing would like to offer cat skiing and heli skiing close to Brew hut. Another worry is that logging companies by cutting down the forest will open access to the alpine area of Brew hut for Snowmobiles.

The VOC has to do what it can to keep the area as much free from motorized traffic as possible, so we should apply to have the area designated as non-motorized.

Important contacts are Gordon from PMC, Bryce Leigh from the ACC, Jeff Fischer (Squamish FN consultant, also governmental person for logging and such), Scott Shaw-McLaren and Alistair McCrone.

Ben, Caitlin and Ryan are the best people to ask about details."

In the past year, the government hasn't done much. Gord from PMC has approached us a few times with revised plans; the VOC wrote a letter directly to Malissa Smith from the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations"

Outhouse

Brew outhouse will still need to be emptied.

Brian Waddington hut

We did some pretty good work up on Phelix. We installed a new steel door, painted the porch, fixed up some wiring to keep birds from pecking the hut. A new outhouse hole was dug (after one false-start reaching an old one). We moved the outhouse to it's new spot. It will need some love this year.

Phelix is seeing heavier usage during the summer too. Keep an eye on this.

Burton hut (Sphinx bay)

Burton Hut got some good usage this season as well. Several parties made it over the Neve. This hut should get a recon for what needs to be fixed. Contact BC Parks and they can set you up with a canoe for access on a workhike.

For [a detailed] report on hut maintenance.

VOC evening events

Neil Mackenzie Adventure Grant

In memory of our friends we lost too early and together with the Mackenzie family we've organized a little fund to help some VOCers go on a big adventure. Our end of this agreement is to raise $2000 per year towards the fund, make sure the previous years winners give slide-shows, encourage them to write trip reports and such. Organize for submissions in January, the Mackenzies to review the applications and give them out at the Banquet.

VOC socials

I echo Steph's sentiments from two years prior: "We should try to make VOC socials (beach barbeques, winter social, banquet, slideshows) more attractive for new members. At socials we should try to be more welcoming and excited to meeting new people and not just excited to meet old friends."

Jared Stanley Lecture

Make sure this is happening. This year Fisal organized it again. It would be great if he would do it again since it would be nice to have a single contact person between Jared's parents and the VOC for a few years. In the past Phil T. has organized the Jared Stanley lectures.

Annual Banquet

Bryon Wilson did this. It was great, having good beer seems like a good choice. DJ Mannu was great again, maybe less dancing this time but people went to the beach afterwards Ian Johnston has more details on this. This year we had a great variety of "good" beer; it ran out at 9:30 or so, but the quality of beer was appreciated. The DJ (Manu) was also well received and I had the impression more people than usual were having fun on the dance floor. Don't rebook with the GSS, as of 2016 the AMS allows clubs to rent large spaces a few times a year. Do this but plan it ahead of time.

Quorum/attendance is always an issue. We had as many people as the fire code would allow for our locality, but in general a higher turnout would be welcome. We got ~85 last two years.

Insurance and Waivers

Waivers are fully online now and much better. The AMS has OrgSync and they will likely want the VOC to pipe the data to them as well over time. Make sure to protect the VOC's solidarity and keep us on our own website.

Gear + Swag

We didn't really need a Quartermaster-Master all that much but will continue it forward. QMs did a great job taking care of our gear library. We've opted to begin buying gear that's more 'intermediate friendly', but things which are specialized enough that most of us won't have i.e. large cams for OW. Splitboard experimenting has started, we'll see how it goes and if there's demand for it.

New clubroom (Nest)

It's dope. It's about twice as big as the old one and Sebastian Prass was a total boss and fixed it up pretty well. Canoe Rack, rollable ski racks, projector, speakers, new computer.

The Aviary (Climbing Wall)

Corey Kelly has been exceptional. He's establishing The Aviary as a climbing wall in it's own right. Make sure he writes up what he's done and creates documents to set up a running committee to run that place itself.

Swag

New songbook was published! It's great you should have a copy if you're musical. It's loads of fun on a trip.

Of particular importance to the club are the avalanche courses and the Slipstream wilderness first aid courses. We should always work hard to get these courses filled as they offer incredible value.

MEC clubs night seems to organize itself mostly since MEC always contacts us.

We should try to have buy nights from intuition, icebreaker and arcterix.

Journal

Journal went smoothly this year. Koby Michaels did a great job with putting it together. We still haven't had a really great surge of advertisers in the Journal, maybe because print media is dying. This year we should look to 'package' some of the advertising with online methods.

Trips

Echoing Steph's paragraph: "Trips are the backbone of the club, this is how people get excited about the club and how they acquire club loyalty. Without a sufficient offer of interesting trips, you don't get the next generation of members, execs and the club can die. It seems that incentives for trip organizers (e.g. special offers on swag) don't result in additional (serious) trip organizers. I would also refrain from any financial benefits for trip organizers or instructors. Most of those people have learned their skills for free from other club members in the past, joined trips when they were new to Vancouver or did benefit from the club in other ways, for example by making friends and connections. I think people should give back to the club without any sort of payment."

We're a great little community, do your best to foster that.

Trip organizers

This is an ongoing effort. Look for people who would be good trip leaders and promote that they help out with the club. A little bit of nudging goes a long way here.

Trips that should continue:

• Intro to mountaineering in the spring.
• Lead ladder
• Ice climbing trips during Christmas time and later, Daughter of Ice (we got nice ice tools that we should advertize to our members)
• Son of rock
• Intro to kayaking
• Summer Longhike
• Winter Longhike (January)
• Teleschool (January)
• Intro to backcountry (January)
• Intro to mountaineering
• Maybe a gong-show intro Phelix trip at the beginning of September
• glacier school 1 (maybe before september, not first trip, screening)
• glacier school 2: suggest that participants teach at G1
• Navigation on campus sessions and trips
• Wilderness first aid refreshers: might try again
• CPR
• Reading week camp (hard to organize since many exec members are grads and don't have a reading break)
• Some trip similar to the Veenstra traverse
• External deals on courses: AST courses, Slipstream 20hour, 50 hour, 90 hour