As we begin 2025, may I wish all our members a wonderful New Year!
Group Matters
Looking at our website and the messages our hard‑working group coordinators have been sending to their members, it appears that they have been busy planning their programme for the year ahead. I am very pleased by the variety and diversity of activities being organised. I fully appreciate that this is not an easy task, especially when there is a lack of members who are willing to lead walks or organise other events. So may I make another plea to our members to step up and get involved. Thank you!
Committee Matters:
I am pleased to report that most of the vacant posts are now filled. The latest is the position of Partnership Officer which has been taken by Shaun Waller. We offer him a warm welcome and a big thank you for taking on the role.
Annual Outdoor Gatherings
It seems like only yesterday that we were at Northampton. Now here we are, with bookings about to open for AOG 2025, (Please see pages 4 – 6) Lots of hard work has been going on to make this a great occasion for the club, so please book early and support this event!
We are now looking for a venue for AOG 2026, so it would be most helpful if local groups would consider hosting it in their area. As we now have a team in place to deal with the administration, that basically means taking the lead in organising the outdoor activities, possibly with the assistance of neighbouring local groups and some of our specialist groups. I am therefore appealing to our group coordinators: if you think your group might be able to take this on, please let me know. Thank you!
Specialist Groups
When I took over as the chair of GOC, I was keen to see our specialist groups grow, creating additional activities to expand our programme of events. I am delighted to see the way that this has begun to take place, and I would like to record my thanks to everyone who has made it happen.
Jim Cornwell, GOC Chair