Dates of meetings

You’ve probably all worked it out by now, but following an outline suggestion at the AGM and some committee discussion we have shifted our regular Waterside meetings to the third (3^rd) Monday of the month. This has various benefits including; avoiding most Bank Holidays, removing a clash with the Lions and the Waterside Committee meetings on the first Monday, whist also separating the monthly Waterside gathering from the First Wednesday meetings at Craggy.

Guest and Intro Members

Just a quick reminder, I have climbed at Craggy with quite a few Intro or Guest members recently. Do feel free to keep in touch and to meet up with the GMC, either at Craggy or at our monthly meetings. We are quite easy to spot now with bright Orange T-Shirts. Guest Members have limited access to the website, sufficient to see what’s going on and to receive meet notifications (so long as you’re not blocking our emails or opting out of broadcasts!!) Intro members will have signed up to our data protection policies etc, so will be added to the group WhatsApp for Indoor Climbing, Socials and Meets. This makes getting involved even easier.

BMC Combined Liability

One of the key benefits of joining the GMC is our association with the British Mountaineering Council and their member benefits including Combined Liability Insurance. Whilst somewhat technical, this largely means that if you cause damage to something or someone whilst climbing indoors or outdoors there is legal protection for YOU in the event that you are blamed and sued. All the insurance details are here: http://www.bmc-insurance-centre.co.uk/

General BMC benefits can be found here: https://www.thebmc.co.uk/membership-benefits?s=6

It’s worth pointing out to members of multiple clubs (GMC/SACMC/CC/FRCC etc) that this element of your membership fees is refundable direct from the BMC as you will be paying multiple times – fill out the forms found here: https://www.thebmc.co.uk/claiming-multiple-membership-refunds?s=6

Lapsed Members

People move on, so anyone not actively renewing their membership becomes a “Lapsed Member”. Please note that as a “Lapsed Member” you will not be included in our membership returns to the BMC so will not be covered by the above BMC Combined Liability insurance through us. Also you will gradually be removed from club communications mechanisms and datasets as per our Data Protection policy. If you’ve lapsed inadvertently please correct the situation ASAP, certainly before you drop someone expensive!

Constitution changes

At the recent Special General Meeting it was agreed that two proposed amendments to the constitution be adopted. Details will be posted on the documents section but generally one gave the committee some small discretion when admitting a new member and the second allows the annual finance review to be ‘independently scrutinised’ rather than “Audited”. Audit is now a regulated professional standard way above the needs of a small member club.

Photo Comp results

Thanks to Paul Nicholls for organising the recent GMC Photo Comp results evening, and to Rob Mitchell, professional Photographer and Director at Craggy Island (our local wall and GMC regular meeting place!) for his help in judging our efforts, providing useful comments and constructive critique and separating the wheat from the chaff. I believe another article will have a full review so I’ll not steal that thunder.

Ask the ‘geek’ forum thread

As the Club has a good mix of new/novice members and “old hands” and gear freaks it has been suggested that the Website Forum be used for an “Ask the Geek” thread. So If you have any burning questions about which colour of trousers to wear with your bright Orange GMC T-Shirt, or which crampons to buy to climb the North Face of the Eiger then use that thread and see how helpful the GMC Community can be!