1. Approval of agenda
2. Approval of Minutes of 2012 AGM
3. President’s Report
4. Vice-president’s commentary
5. Coordinators’ Reports
   • Canoeing
   • Cycling
   • Hiking
   • Skiing
   • Social
   • Snowshoeing
6. Equipment Officer’s Report
7. Membership Secretary’s Report
8. Webmaster’s report
9. Treasurer’s Report
10. 2013-2014 Budget
11. Election of OOC Executive

Break

12. Amendments to the OOC Constitution and Bylaws
13. End of Meeting

I’d like to thank everyone for showing up for this year’s Annual General Meeting of the Ottawa Outdoor Club.  We have had a year full of activities, and are looking forward to another year of many trips for our regular outdoor and social activities.  I’d also like to thank the activity coordinators for organizing, and often leading, trips of many kinds to many places.  I’m sure that most if not all who participated in these trips enjoyed the activities, and the social aspects that go with doing things as a group.

If you are interested in what is involved in leading a trip, talk with some of the leaders, with one of the coordinators, or with anyone on the executive.  Certainly, we’ll be interested in having you as a leader; but we can also give some tips and insights on why people leader, and what leaders do.

We chose to provide more training for our trip leaders this past year (a Wilderness First Aid course), and are looking to do even more in the next year, as will be outlined in the Treasurer’s Report and the proposed budget for next year.

We looked at new ways to advertise the club, such as going to the Ottawa Ski and Snowboard Show last October, and are planning to do this again on October 26 and 27, plus have a booth at Mountain Equipment Coop’s Snowfest day on Saturday, November 23.  Both of these events will need volunteers to attend, to greet people who pass by our booth, and to provide information on the activities we offer throughout the year, not just in the winter.  We will also advertise our Winter Information Night in the local media.

We have printed up business cards with a quick list of our activities and our web site URL.  If you would like to hand out some of these, or post them on bulletin boards at work and in local shops, with the owners’ permission, please tell us.

I don’t want to steal any news from our coordinators, so I’ll let them each present their reports.  I’ll speak for some of the coordinators who are not here this evening.

Jim F.

Our revenues for the year were very close to the budgeted amount of $9600.00 at an actual amount of $9660.00.

Our expenditures were under-budget with a total of $8805.00.  Individual budget areas varied from the budgeted amounts as shown on the attached financial statement.

One great variation was that the Club Executive made a decision to sponsor Wilderness First Aid training for 6 club members who frequently lead trips, as a valuable investment in the development of leaders in our club.  Funds for this were authorized as an addition to the budget from reserve funds.

Another large discrepancy with the projected budget was that the online membership and payment project was not invoiced for this year.  The same amount was projected into the 2014 budget.  Because of this, we did not actually have to draw on reserve funds in this budget year.

Online payments for membership and day trip fees have streamlined our deposits, beginning at the end of April 2013.  This year 52 members paid membership fees using PayPal since April.  It is anticipated that more members will use PayPal in the coming year, so the projected revenue has been decreased accordingly.

The projected 2014 budget was set as shown with changes to reflect amounts where we varied from the 2013 budget. 

Of note is that the executive recommends we budget $3000.00 for training and development to be funded from reserve funds for the coming year.  It has been several years since we have conducted leadership training, and it has been noted by several co-ordinators that it is difficult now to find trip leaders.  Hopefully an investment in training will help members feel more confident to take on these roles.

Our reserve fund as of September 30, 2013 was $14,753.39.  Funds for training would have us needing to draw $2875.00 from this fund for the 2014 budget year.

It has been my pleasure to serve as treasurer this year.  I have learned much and will again let my name stand for treasurer.

The canoe season got off to a slow start due to poor weather at the beginning of the year. Thunderstorms and high winds meant a number of trips were canceled for safety reasons.

 The activities on offer were also reduced due to your coordinator suffering a back injury which meant I was unable to lead trips this summer.

The canoe program continues to suffer from a lack of volunteer leaders. This year just one volunteer came forward to lead trips. A big thanks to Mike McCurrie for keeping the program going during my injury.

Changes to ownership of land on the Gatineau River, and availability of public boat launches in Wakefield, has made running early & late season evening canoe trips problematic. Most Wednesday outings were done on Meech Lake.

There were a total of 25 outings which included 4 weekend camping trips which enjoyed full attendance.

We also offered a canoe skills training day, which was unfortunately not of interest to the membership and was hence canceled.

I have decided to step down as coordinator because the lack of volunteers puts too much responsibility on the role to run all trips for the club. Without volunteer leaders there cannot be an effective canoe program.

This year the bicycle season lasted from May to mid October.

These were Saturday cycles using bike paths in the Ottawa/Gatineau area.  Some involved car pooling with bike racks, driving to a different location in or outside of Ottawa, and biking on country roads.  There were also day trips to Merrickville, Brockville and Ingleside.

The trips were level one and two and averaged around six participants.

These bike rides could not have happened without the eleven people who volunteered to lead one or several trips.  I am especially grateful that they shared their diverse personal knowledge of biking options.

This year to date has seen 40 day hikes totaling approximately 370 km.  There were 3 multi-day hiking trips led by Jim Fraser, Mary-Anne Olivares, and Margaret McKay.  We would like to thank Margaret for organizing the popular trip to Stowe, Vermont for the third consecutive year.  This year a potential record of 40 people visited the Round Hearth Lodge for Thanksgiving.

Eddie celebrated leading his 150th hike on May 2 with a 3-hour bushwhack in the Meech Lake valley.

Alain Leury led 3 popular day trips that combined hiking with photography instruction.

Next year the hiking program looks forward to exploring the Almonte Burnt Lands alvar and searching for fossils and rare plants and butterflies.

The 2012/13 winter ski program had a slow start until it began with a bang on December 21 with a snowfall of 34 cm which kick-started the season.  Unfortunately, the large amount of heavy wet snow caused extensive damage to many trees and it took the better part of the ski season for Gatineau Park to clear the majority of trails of tree branches and debris.  Then, in mid January the winter thaw and rain set in resulting in cancellation of the regular day ski and the first introduction to ski offering on January 13.

There were a total of 18 day ski outings which included the second offering of Intro to Skiing on January 20, 4 combined moonlight snowshoe/ski pot lucks and 4 weekend trips:  Val David, Algonquin Park Winter Camping, Tremblant and Harris Farm.  All events were well attended.  There were a couple of unfortunate injuries which occurred during the season, however, assistance was provided and help sought for the injured.  Everyone survived!  Thank you to all those who assisted.

I wish to thank all those who volunteered to lead a ski outing last season, and a special thanks to those who lead the moonlight skiis:  Greg Griffiths and Hayley Price, and the weekend trips:  Xuan Qi, Helen Apouchtine and John Galbraith.

I look forward to the upcoming ski season.  Again, my goal is to provide two ski offerings every Sunday and will be counting on all the skiers in OOC to make the program a success!

The 2012-2013 snowshoe season got off to a start before there was even snow – on 15 December. By the next week there was almost too much, after the storm of 21 December.

While a welcome start to the season, this snowfall unfortunately caused the season long closure of major snowshoeing trails in Gatineau Park – including the Wolf Trail and shorter closures of other trails.

We were able to offer regular Saturday outings every weekend from mid-December to 23 March, with participation ranging from 3 to over 30 in several cases. As well, there were monthly “full moon” trips - usually in conjunction with skiers if snow conditions allowed – each month from December to March.

There were several special weekend trips as well – Val David and Harris Lodge Farm (again with the skiers) and the Algonquin Eco-Lodge just outside Maynooth. All events had a full complement of participants. It was our first trip to the Eco-lodge since it was taken over by new management and re-named, and there was a strong interest by participants in returning again next season. This area boasts good skiing and dog-sledding as well as snowshoeing.

I would like to thank all those who volunteered to lead a trip, with special thanks to those who organized a weekend trip. Without volunteers none of this would be possible.

I am looking forward to the up-coming season, and am willing to serve another year as coordinator.

OOC Snowshoe Inventory Oct 2013

We have eight pairs of snowshoes. Unfortunately, three are damaged to some extent

1. OHOC A1 medium, blue Atlas brand with a soft vinyl bed, missing front toe crampons (both feet), fair condition, these ones are tied together with a cable tie and were not used in the 2013 season
2. OHOC A2 like A1 above, but in good condition with crampons
3. OHOC A3 like A2 above, but one foot has a broken crampon (broken in the 2013 season)
4. OHOC A4 very large, blue Atlas brand with a soft vinyl bed, binding on one foot was broken this year (2013 season). The binding is not currently functional, but could potentially be replaced (?)
5. Unlabeled Yura brand, large good condition, with a hard nylon bed
6. Unlabeled Black Atlas “825” brand, medium/small in good condition with nylon bed
7. OHOC C1 Snow Mountain – large in good condition, soft plastic bed, with a modernish binding
8. OHOC C2 -same as C1 above, these two are the best of the lot

These snowshoes are currently in my (MHB) basement, and I am willing to keep them as long as I am snowshoe coordinator.

This year I still tried to figure out the reason for low attendance and lack of interest for social activities. I came up with a few ideas:

1. Activities likes dances (with the exception of social dances, like the traditional Irish dance) are not popular.
2. Belly dancing, karaoke bar, softball, piano bar are not interesting enough.
3. Movies are only interesting in conjunction with a restaurant, but the event was a big success.

Therefore, the decision was taken to continue with the last activity, and also try out a social event that would involve people from other outdoor or sport clubs to spark the mingling fun and to add diversity to the human contingent. Instead of the ballroom and Latin dances I would like to try out a contra-dance in the next year.

I am very grateful to the OOC members who offered their ideas and made an effort to organize an event of their own, Theresa M., Tony W., Mary-Lynn S. and some others.

Inventory as of 20 October 2013

The roles of webmaster and newsletter editor are complementary roles, since each, at its core, is responsible for letting Club members and others know what is happening with the Club. These roles also require working with most of the members of the executive and other Club members to communicate their information to both the Club membership and the world.  I enjoy these roles, since one of their many benefits is that they help keep me in touch with many of the Club members.

This past year, the following enhancements were made to the website:

• Online membership registration has been available since May.  Since then, there was a steady stream of membership registrations that tapered off during the fall as the new membership year drew closer.  It is now much faster and easier for people to register and pay for their memberships.  Hopefully, this has encouraged more people to become members.

I had the pleasure of working closely at times with Ken Zimmerman, our membership secretary, in the lead-up to the introduction of the online membership registration.  Ken and other members of the executive provided many useful comments that hopefully made the online membership registration process easier to use for all.

• Since September of 2012, it has been possible for day trip leaders to forward various fee payments to the treasurer by PayPal, saving them and the treasurer time.  In December 2012 or January 2013, after a trial period, this was publicized to trip leaders and is now included in the information on the back of the sign-up forms.
• The text on the home page, schedule page, and activity description page was updated based on comments from Club participants to hopefully better describe the Club and to place useful information where it might be most seen.
• The number of unique visitors to the website has increased over the past year compared to the year before, as shown in the following graph.  (For a few months in the spring of 2012, data was not collected.  The month data for October 2013 is not yet available.)

The newsletter is sent weekly, with every attempt made to ensure all of the week’s activities are covered.  Sometimes, unfortunately, due to time constraints, this has not always happened.

I try to have the newsletter cover the basics of the outdoor activities that will be happening each week, along with any Club announcements, upcoming social activities, and weekend trips.  As time permits, information and photos about past activities are included.

Both a draft and a final version of the newsletter are created.  The draft is sent to anyone mentioned in the newsletter, along with all executive members, for approval and changes.  The final version is sent the next day to all Club members.  This process has worked well, since it provides for feedback from many people.

The following amendments to the Club Constitution and Bylaws are proposed for 2013:

Date & Venue: 23rd October 2013 at SHCC

Present: 29 members, including outgoing executives