This was a big vote of support for all those members who have worked on this for some time. Now we all need to support our committees as they work to implement the changes. On behalf of the Club I thank all those involved for their work on this project and the way all worked together in the best interests of WTC, now and its' future.

One of the changes you will notice shortly is we will invoice all members for subscription renewals in late January for the year starting 1st January, rather than the  old practice of  waiting 'til after the AGM in April to send out the invoices. We will include a covering letter explaining your options for subscription renewal.  The committee has already met and have put in action the changes required so we hit the ground running in January with our three committees, being General Committee, then under that umbrella - our two trading groups -Waikato Ski Club & Waikato Tramping Club.

The main focus behind these changes is to build up a ski membership that uses our Hut in winter, so we can reduce our reliance on school groups to pay the bills. Our current members will not be disadvantaged, with our grandfather clause, and the reciprocal rights we have put in place. It has to be win/win.

 Activities have continued while the above has been happening, with our Club Christmas Dinner at Stephens’s new home where Tramper of the Year was presented to John McArthur, some very interesting reindeer arrived and a young Kahikatea tree was presented to Tania Phillip to mark her retirement from Club committee after 10 years.

Last Tramp of the Year was led by David Payne and a group are currently doing the Cape Brett tramp.

The trip programme is organised through to May next year so have a look and you will find plenty of tramps, from one dayers to multi day options in both North & South Islands- so get out there in the new year!

While we are looking ahead with the above changes we are also protecting the history of WTC with the general committee adopting an Archives Policy and appointing Dianne June as our Archivist. We thank Dianne and her team for their work on formalising WTC archiving, and moving to modernise our methods of organising and preserving Club history.

I finish by wishing you all Merry Christmas, a happy New Year and remember- get out tramping and skiing in 2014!             Regards, John Davies, Team Leader