Exec reports - Quartermasters

Introduction

The Quartermasters (there are ~five) :

• Posts hours for taking out and returning gear.
• Shows up at the Clubroom reliably, to issue and receive gear.
• Ensures that people taking out gear are treated fairly and have reasonable expectations about when the gear must be back and what if it isn't.
• Keeps track of gear, makes sure it is returned on time, in good shape, buys more if needed, looks for deals on gear, does inventories, tests transceivers.
• Organizes the VOC Fall gear swap and/or ski tuning session.
• Attends the MEC Gear Swap looking for deals.
• Is heartless and insensitive in dealing with delinquents, repeat offenders, and gear hoarders.
• A good position for somebody who intends to spend a couple of noon hours every week in the Clubroom, who is organized and is interested in what we are doing with the gear. You get to find out who's actually doing trips in the Club.

Current Exec Report

2018 - 2019

Quartermasters: Jessica Brown, Hannah Bates, Diego Adleson, Vanny Pornsinsiriruk, Erica Haugland

Major accomplishments

• Added 4 new AT setups to our fleet, now we have a total of 5
• Bought 4 new Mammut Baryvox transceivers, 3 probes and 3 shovels
• Bought a portaledge and new haul bag
• Obtained 6 new packs from gear swaps and donations
• Bought 20 new climbing shoes, 20 new climbing helmets, 10 new harnesses and 3 new bouldering pads with aviary separation money
• got a new safe to keep deposits in
• ran numerous gear maintenance/repair workhikes

Recommendations for future years:

Some of the club gear is getting really a old, particularly skis and bindings are breaking more and more frequently. We need to start thinking about how to buy skis in large quantities for cheap and so far local shops have not been responsive to selling us their old rental fleets. In addition, that type of purchase brings up the AT vs tele ski debate, see discussion below. We were unable to find people for a gear committee this year, but next year it would be beneficial to have one and would probably be most successful if there is a committee member assigned to each quartermaster to keep them accountable. It would also be worth revisiting the idea of creating a trusted renter annual deposit to minimize large amounts of cash being handled regularly. Next year there should definitely be a head quartermaster who has been on exec previously; this year all of the quartermasters were on exec for the first time. For snow fest, arrive before 2 in the afternoon and set up one tent and others can come later. Shuffle people up to the first tent to maximize the number of people in the first wave later.

AT skis vs Tele skis:

At skis	Tele skis
pros
Generally what members would choose to rent if they had a choice	light even when cheap
Easier to learn on, and experienced skiers can ski more technical lines on them (for most people...)	easy to repair bindings, don't have to worry about setting dins
bindings break less often	An important part of VOC history and tradition
cons
When bindings do break they are very difficult if not impossible to fix. Also, have to watch out when setting dins (keep them low).	New skiers are not very keen on them and experinced skiers are even less excited. (in general...)
often pretty heavy	They stopped making the tele bindings we use
bindings are pretty expensive
people might just take them resort skiing

Overall, I think we should give our members what they want, which seems to be the option of AT skis, but possibly think of a creative solution to to keep up with maintaining/replacing broken bindings. We should definitely also keep the option of tele,

but that is both obvious and very easy to do (at least in the scope of the next 5 years) since we have so many.

Recommended purchases:

• more avi kits, need to phase out the yellow ones
• a few more snowshoes
• more AT skis, and boots if we start having lots of skis
• another splitboard
• replace some older packs
• another few sleeping mats
• lots of new skins!
• vertical point crampons

Time commitment:

• Minimum: two hours per week (one gear hour or workhike, and one exec meeting hour), and leading two trips during the year. This includes summer holidays, when we like to offer at least three gear hours per week.
• Every exec member is encouraged to take on roles outside of their elected position. Examples include organizing workhikes, volunteering at fundraisers, instructional trips, editing the journal, taking care of the clubroom, gear repair, maintenance & purchase, and miscellaneous club initiatives.

2017 - 2018

Quartermasters: Alastair White, Ainsley MacDougall, Esther Li, Heather Filyk, Nick Uleryk-Carvalho, Lukas Schreiber

Major accomplishments

• Nearly doubled our snowshoe fleet
• Were given two new Bora 50 packs by Arcteryx, as well as 5 other packs picked up for cheap at various gear swaps.
• Bought 2 more splitboards
• Bought 10 new Mammut Baryvox transceivers to begin the process of replacing our Tracker DTS (2-antenna) transceivers with modern 3-antenna models.
• Bought 10 new probes to add to our stock and replace a few old ones that needed regular lubrication to avoid jamming when trying to extend them.

Recommendations for future years: A big issue this year was that gear hours were very hectic. This is in spite of having 6 quartermasters and regular gear helpers who helped out during gear hours to make them go more smoothly. We were so pre-occupied with holding gear hours that other tasks such as purchasing and servicing gear were not paid enough attention to. Therefore we suggest that next year there should be 5 exec quartermasters that are elected, plus a gear committee with no more than 5 gear helpers appointed by the exec upon recommendation by the quartermasters. The role of the gear committee should be limited to holding gear hours and organizing workhikes. The aim of this change is to double the number of gear hours available to try and reduce the strain on the quartermasters. Budget and gear purchase decisions should still be handled by the quartermasters, not the gear committee. The outgoing exec is currently working on the details and exact responsibilities involved with this transition to a committee structure.

Our system for handling gear deposits is becoming untenable. Alastair is drafting up ideas on what this might look like in the short and longer terms. He will work with the incoming QMs and treasurer on this.

Insert result of 5-year plan discussion on tele vs AT (frame) vs splitboards here

Recommended purchases:

• Lots of new climbing shoes, especially sizes 43+. Look into Butora as an economical source of shoes (this is where the Aviary get theirs). We have money specifically earmarked for climbing equipment.
• telemark boots around mondo 27-28
• short telemark skis
• as many avi packages as we can afford (at least 5 more), and replace any remaining trackers with three antenna beacons
• Many of our backpacks are getting very old and worn. These should be slowly replaced over the next few years.
• camping out at the MEC snowfest with a group in November is totally worth it for the club. Get some club members to camp with you, only one quartermaster is needed. Snowshoes and probes were just $20 per pair/probe. If you want your own skis, get in line at 3pm the day before.

Time commitment:

• Minimum: two hours per week (one gear hour or workhike, and one exec meeting hour), and leading two trips during the year. This includes summer holidays, when we like to offer at least three gear hours per week.
• Every exec member is encouraged to take on roles outside of their elected position. Examples include organizing workhikes, volunteering at fundraisers, instructional trips, editing the journal, taking care of the clubroom, gear repair, maintenance & purchase, and miscellaneous club initiatives.

2016 - 2017

Quartermasters: Kelsey Miller, Carly Peterson, Nick Uleryk-Carvalho, Bryan Starick, Anna Geller, Nick Hindley

Major accomplishments:

• Purchase of 10 new Mammut beacons, doubling the number of avalanche packages available
• Retired and replaced the older harnesses, ropes, and gaiters
• Accepted several large gear donations
• Expanded our winter fleet to include a splitboard and two pairs of (donated) AT skis (Both additions were overwhelmingly popular)
• Generated lots of interest in maintaining our telemark ski fleet, giving members a chance to give back to the club and learn about gear maintenance
• Offered gear-care workshops to teach members how to inspect club gear and their own gear

Recommendations for Future Years:

• Each QM should be responsible for quality control for a particular discipline of gear (skis, climbing, boots, etc.). This will ensure that gear will be checked more often and more thoroughly, and help prevent diffusion of responsibility, and encourage QMs to develop an area of expertise.
• Make a formal gear inspection log to raise the standard of gear maintenance and help us keep better records.
• Even though we added new beacons and shovel handles to increase the number of total avalanche packages, throughout the winter there appeared to be a shortage. It might be wise to increase the total number of packages by 5 (or more?).
• Gear hours proved to be hectic at times, sometimes resulting in non-QMs entering the gear room and taking gear for themselves. While this is sometimes OK and understandable, this problem could be mitigated by having permanent and consistent QM Helpers.
• Investigate options for purchasing additional (and easier to use) splitboards and second-hand AT skis.
• Expand our snowshoe fleet, since demand was higher than ever this winter.
• Organize more gear-care workshops early in each season. This ensures that our growing gear fleet is taken care of by the membership, and encourages individuals to take ownership of the club and the gear.

Time commitment:

• Minimum: two hours per week (one gear hour, and one exec meeting hour), and leading two trips during the year. This includes summer holidays, when we like to offer at least two gear hours per week.
• Every exec member is encouraged to take on roles outside of their elected position. Examples include organizing workhikes, volunteering at fundraisers, instructional trips, editing the journal, taking care of the clubroom, gear repair, maintenance & purchase, and miscellaneous club initiatives.

2009 - 2010

Quartermasters: Piotr Forysinski, Lisa Pittl, Jacob Slosberg, Stephen Mullen

Draft: refer to "5-year gear plan"... likely this needs updating, as our gear funding has increased and we've got a few surprise injections of cheap/free gear

Opperations: -the gear-room safe for gear deposits -- keys/combo

Ski equipment: -attempt to standardize the bindings by only purchasing G3 Targa's (note: T/9 versions have aluminum toeplates, and should be avoided like the plague)

Beacons: -20 BCA Trackers were purchased this year on a pro-deal through BCA (negotiated by Jacob). There have been a few units that have been acting up. They should be sent back to BCA for a diagnostic. If this hasn't been done as of May 2010, it should. If it has been done, the new quartermasters should be expecting the units returned sometime over the summer, OR check back with BCA late summer to find out what's up with our beacons

-7 or 8 Ortovox F1 beacons were sent back to Ortovox Canada (calgary) in Dec. '09 for diagnostic & service. They havn't been returned yet. Stephen will check up on this.

Contacts at G3: (bindings & parts, shovels & probes) -when new parts are required to maintain our binding fleet, contact Marty Lazarski (martyl@genuineguidegear.com), or Stephen France (stephenf@genuineguidegear.com. They're both in Customer service, and Stephen is ex-VOC (and stoked to help us with gear)

General equipment: -Jacob has contacts with NOLS. (skis & Voile bindings, mountaineering gear, etc). He can fill in the details here:

-Stephen & Veenstra have had good dealings with Tim Michell (TMitchell@mec.ca). He's the warrenty guy at MEC head office. He'll likely have gear from time to time that MEC will donate to the VOC. Tim is the type of guy that 'doesn't like to see the gear get thrown out'. This is gear that's been warrantied by MEC members, has been determined to be a manufacturer's issue, and the manufacturer does't want it back for testing. It is given to us with the understanding that we'll never attempt to return it to MEC (that'd be fraud), or never sell it (it was donated in good faith). It's donated 'as-is', and WE need to assess whether it's safe to use. Often it's only one small part of the gear that is affected (ie, broken cable on an otherwise brand new tele binding). multiple broken bindings can be combined into good bindings, or good parts can be salvaged as spares. Often, gear will be donated that is outside of the scope of the club's rental fleet, ie light hiking boots, water filters, headlamps, or camping mats. These items can be given to 'needy' VOC'ers, (maybe upon the completion of a work hike -- ie. fix 2 or 3 leaky camp mats, return 2 good ones to the club, and keep one for themselves).

Past Exec Reports

Gear Plan A 5-year plan (2007-2011) to revitalize the gear room.

Exec report - Quartermasters 2008 - 2009
Exec report - Quartermasters 2007 - 2008
Exec report - Quartermasters 2006 - 2007