Exec reports - Useful Person
Useful Person has it good. He is responsible only to himself, and tries to fill in the slack from some of the other Exec. Typical tasks from the past year (2003-4) have included:
- Making sure that people who want to join the Club can do so; making sure they know what they need to do to join, and helping where possible; taking their money and , important, entering their membership information in the computer. Members have a right to have their membership application processed in a timely manner.
- Making sure gear is available to members who wish to take it out. This has included purchase of gear and building of backcountry skis. This past year 2003/4 we bought three shovels and asembled five pairs of B/C skis, and bought several pairs of leather boots. (And a Coleman Catalytic Heater for Sphinx)
- Making sure that at least a few hikes or other outdoor trips are available to the average member, not just my friends (though my friends are more fun usually).
- Offering encouragement for anybody who would like to either maintain our Huts, or replace Brew, though so far this has met with very little results.
Though anyone who is so inclined can be a Useful Person, this position is ideally suited to Staff, ie non-student Members, as only Students may run for the usual Exec positions.
Current Exec Report
2008 - 2009
Useful Person: Roland Burton (again)
The position of Useful Person does not have any assigned tasks. The Useful Person picks his/her own projects.
Being retired, I thought I'd have way more time for Club Events, but strangely, the opposite was the case. I put in some time at our crummy booth location at Clubs Day. This is always fun; I hope I didn't scare away too many potential Members. I tried again to provide an alternate activity for a few Members who preferred to not rock climb but still attend the Long Hike party, and many more showed up for a hike the next day. I showed up to help instruct Glacier School, though the weather sucked. And I made it to the first "Intro skiing at Brew", though most there skied better than me.
This year I found that being indecisive made me miss a lot of good trips, but that may have been the experience of many of our Members. Used to be, Thursday evening was a good time to plan your weekend, but nowadays everything's full by then. Oh well, that's progress, I guess.
Looking forward to doing some more hut renovation, this time at Phelix, trying to compensate for the lack of a wood burning heater, with some high-tech electronics. Will this really work? Tune in next year to find out.
Past Exec Reports
2007 - 2008
Useful Person: Roland Burton (again)
The purpose of the exec reports is to warn incoming Exec Members of problems and pitfalls to be avoided, because the Club is very Phoenix-like, and tends to replace itself every couple of years, so it does not have a very good memory.
The position of Useful Person does not have any assigned tasks, so problems and pitfalls for the non-assigned tasks, are non-existant. The Useful Person picks his/her own projects. This past year I have been concentrating on two tasks.
One task is trying to make sure that prospective Members are welcome to the Club, and that they are given an opportunity to join in a fairly professional manner. Of course I have had lots of competition from Champagne, Piotr, and others. Pretty well any Member can tell others why they might want to join, and can provide such details as the cost of membership, and where to get a form, and when there will be somebody around to collect their fees. If I enable somebody to join who wants to, and otherwise wouldn't, I am happy, and the Club and the prospective Member, all benefit.
The other task is taking people on easy trips, both skiing and hiking. I would prefer that the Club provide a little guidance to enable Members to do things that they would like to do, but might not otherwise attempt. It's nice to get into new territory, but I usually end up at Red Heather.