President's Corner

Hi Club Treaders!

This is my first message to the membership since the elections at the Annual General Meeting held in February. I look forward to working with a conscientious and dedicated team that makes up your Executive for the oncoming year. Gail Clark steps down as President - and a fine job she did as such! -- and transmogrifies into Past President. Continuing as Vice President is George Welsh; as well as John Ward, Treasurer; Mike Motek, Webmaster; Janine Silk, Secretary; Donna White, Outdoor Events Coordinator; Donna Medgyesi, Membership Coordinator; and Carol Madsen, Publicity Coordinator. But new faces (besides yours truly) joining us are Graham Hayes as Schedule Editor and Patricia Aikens as Social Coordinator. As for Keeping Track Editor, that position is presently vacant. However, the Executive is working on coming up with some ideas that might combine the best of that with George Welsh's blog site and our website. We will keep you posted on what we come up with. We bid fond farewell to outgoing members of the Executive: Tom Gore as (long-and-faithful serving) Past President; Sue Warren, Social Coordinator; and Fred Trudel, Schedule Editor.

Like every organization, Club Tread has and continues to change over the years. While membership has remained fairly consistent over the years, we are not really growing, and we are not attracting as many younger people to join us as we would like. And also like every organization there is a tendency for the same people to be active in club activities while the rest tend to be more passive in their participation. We should be making greater efforts to overcome these deficiencies. But we also have a lot of things going for us as well. We are remarkably well organized. We provide a considerable number of activities from hiking, cycling, and urban walks to bird watching, rambles paired with good dining, backpacking, and car camping. These activities don't just take place on weekends: there are regular events occurring on at least three days during the week; and they don't all occur just within the Victoria area but extend all over the province, into Alberta, and the American states. Like other outdoor organizations we also wish to be an active stakeholder in all matters relating to promoting the preservation and enhancement of the natural environment that surrounds us. There really is something for everyone in Club Tread.

As your President, I can only promise to do my best to ensure that we continue to do what we are doing well. I also realize that there are a number of things we have been doing for a long time that could be changed, and I trust the rest of the Executive shares the desire to making any changes that are reasonable. I also undertake to be as accessible as I can. Please do not hesitate to phone me or send me an e-mail about any concerns you have relating to the club and what we do.

Barry Gaetz