President’s Report 1994

Last year’s Committee report suggested that 1993 was a period of consolidation, however, as I look back on 1994 I see that in many ways the Club is changing and reacting in a healthy manner to the circumstances of the mid-nineteen nineties while still remaining true to our past.

Central to the Club’s activities is our programme of meets.  Excluding the Dinner and After-dinner Meet, your Committee organised 16 meets, five of which were open meets.  All the major activities of the club were catered for within the programme including rock climbing, potholing, fell-walking, Nordic skiing and the opportunity to tackle major alpine routes.  Average attendance at meets was 22, marginally up on last year’s 21.  The Ladies’ Weekend was the best attended with 43 members and their ladies present.  This was followed closely by the December Meet at Blencathra House with 42.  In spite of the 900 mile round trip, 10 members and a guest attended the sea cliff climbing meet at Bosigran near Land’s End.  I can only regret that, due to my domestic circumstances, I have been able to attend only half the meets on the calendar.  All the meets have been an undoubted success and this is due in no small part to the efforts of the meet organisers and I should like to take this opportunity of thanking all of them for the work they have done.  I should also like to remind members that the committee very much welcomes receiving suggestions for new meet venues.

Thanks to our Editor, Michael Smith, the discussions of last year on the introduction of a bulletin produced by desk-top publishing methods came to fruition with the first issue of The Yorkshire Rambler.  This has been well received by the Club and seems to have stimulated a previously hidden desire by some members to write about their mountaineering and potholing activities.  I’m sure the health of the bulletin will depend on members continuing to make the effort to write about their excursions.  Please keep up the good work.

Planning for the expedition, which commenced in 1993, is now well advanced. The Committee took the decision that the expedition should take place in October/November of 1995 and should follow in the footsteps of the 1957 expedition and visit the Jugal Himal in Nepal, with the main objective of climbing Dorje Lhakpa.  Alan Kaye has been appointed planning co-ordinator and Ged Campion the leader of the climbing party.

The Club Huts are both in excellent condition and are continuing to be well used and also financially profitable.

During the year, the Committee has given much thought to the future of the Club and, as a result, established a sub-committee to look at the current state of the Club and to prepare a plan for the next 25 years.  One statistic of interest to emerge was that the average age of the membership is 56.6.  The sub-committee’s deliberations have been circulated to members and will be considered at the Special General Meeting following this AGM.

Regretfully, I have to announce that our Honorary Member David Cox, a one-time President of the Alpine Club and Editor of the Alpine Club Journal, died in October while in Cyprus.  Two new members were admitted to the Club, Ian Potter resigned and a member resigned by non-payment of subscriptions.  Total membership, including our honorary members, which had remained constant for the previous two years, thus declined by one to 188.  This is broken down as follows:

	1994	1993
Honorary Members	6	7
Life Members	65	59
Ordinary Members	116	122
Junior Members	1	1
	188	189