Present: Peter Biggar, David Cameron, Joanne Simpson, Albert Higginbottom, Bob Brown, Jo Kinghorn, Andreas Heinzl
Apologies: Steve Bell
Minutes of Last Meeting: accepted
Matters Arising: The MMC offer for Bus meets is in the Meets list and was in the last Newsletter. Andreas has made an info booklet with form for prospective members to join.
President's Report: Shenavall work meet did very well and got all work done. Even though material carrying in was challenging due to the windy weather. Jim Covenry had an accident on his pushbike while on holiday in Cumbria. He was off work for some time but is now back at work and feeling better. Peter thanks Steve for the work he has done with the new membership cards. Which have been distributed to members. He also thanked Joanne for publishing the newsletters and Andreas for the info booklet. Ken was at the climbing wall committee and will continue to represent us there. The Glen Mhor Hotel offered us to have something hung up in Nico’s Bar to represent the IMC. Agreed to hang up a picture and info on when the club is meeting there. Bob is taking on the task.
Secretary's Report: Dundonnell Mountain Rescue has sent us a letter thanking the IMC for the collection at th GPS & Digital Mapping lecture by Angus. The amount raised was £64.76. The website is attracting 170 individual users per month in the moment and Andreas received several emails with interests.
Treasurer's Report: 33 members have paid up as yet. MCofS affiliation is now at around £8.00. It is believed that Civil Liability insurance from the MCofS covers you for all outdoor activities. Bob wants to know what exactly it covers and would like to have that in written. Peter will contact the MCofS to enquire the fees for next year. Peter asked if there is more we can do to attract new members. We are going to try to introduce day meets which could also be attractive for prospective new members and new members in the club.
Meets Secretary's Report: Albert sent the deposit for Blackrock as it was booked but not paid. C.I.C. Hut meet is on the weekend of 13th-14th Feb. 2004. Torrin meet was paid off and some money was left over. Albert was not happy that campers at meets would fill up the hut facilities and wanted that they would pay more. Agreed that, if hut allows camping, camping should only be open for booking if the hut is fully booked. Albert wanted to charge £4.00 for camping, others would like to charge £3.00 but agreed on £3.50. Albert also filled out a satisfaction form for Torrin. Everything was OK apart from cooking facilities. Confirmed that SMC members actually have to pay for staying at SMC huts if they book through the IMC (unlike stated at last committee meeting 10/4/03).
Flowerdale Hydro-Electric Scheme: Jim T. Has distributed some information against the Flowerdale Hydro-Electric Scheme. Peter has written to HE to oppose the scheme in name of the IMC in hope that the club would support the opposition. The scheme would support only 5000 households but destroy a vast area of untouched nature. Andreas will send out an email asking members to object to the scheme.
Annual Dinner and other Social Functions: Peter contacted 5 places and circulated the list with prices and menus. Assynt Fieled Centre would use the same caters as the last time, charging £15 for the dinner and £10 for accommodation and breakfast. Glen Spean Hotel offers £10-20 and the free use of the in-house sauna, Jacuzzi and gym. B&B are at £30. There are 2 bunk houses nearby. The Ceilidh Place in Ullapool charges £16-20 for the dinner. Bunk houses and youth hostels are in the town. The Cuillin Hills Hotel is a pleasant place and offers £13-15 for the dinner. There is accommodation in Portree. Loch Duich Hotel has camping opportunities but there is no other alternative accommodation nearby. The dinner would be at £15-16. Decided to go for Glen Spean Hotel, assuming that accommodation can be arranged at an inexpensive rate. Albert will look investigate possible accommodation in bunkhouses nearby. Peter will try to find out how much they would charge for a band.
Jo suggested to organise a photographic event. Some members never use slides and therefore can’t share their mountain deeds with others. A professional photographer would be willing to judge the photos for a price.
We need to organise the BBQ just a week before the event as no one was 100% certain whether they would be around at the time and Peter is already busy with the Annual Dinner
Website: Andreas received a bill from the present hosting company of around £80 which would be a raise of more than 100% in comparison to when it was first set-up 2 years ago. He investigated alternatives and wishes to move the site to 34sp.com which would charge an average of £25 per year (£15 per year for hosting and £20 for 2 years for the domain-name). They would offer us more service than the present one and calico. Albert wrote a cheque of £35 for it and Andreas will set arrange the host to be set up about 2 weeks prior to the launch.
A.O.C.B.: The next Newsletter is due in July and Andreas will send out an email to everyone asking if it would be acceptable to receive an electronic copy only.
Date of next Meeting: Glen Mhor Hotel, Hanover Room, 3rd July 2003, 8:00pm, Andreas will book it, David offered his place as fallback
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