I was unanimously elected as the new president of the Huachuca Hiking Club last night. And that's not because I'm such a stellar hiker, but because as small as we are there was no one else in the group at last night's meeting that hadn't yet been president.
I knew my time was due soon but I was hoping to wait another year when I was more settled with my classes. I told the members present last night that I would not be around this summer, but they didn't care. And since they didn't care, that took the pressure off of me to always be present every weekend for hikes.
So...this is going to be a challenging and fun year. Perhaps now I'll be more inclined to lead "exploratory hikes," hikes that are not necessarily long but interesting, with ruins, birding sites or historical significance to the hikes. Or perhaps I could lead hikes where I know we could find placer gold (I'm not going to reveal where here!) Perhaps now Kevin will feel more willing to hike with me on some of the hikes.
One thing I do want to change is our membership. We need more members! The members who attend our Tuesday meetings are all retired and in their 60s and older. Newbies who show up for one meeting don't return because they think we are too old. I want to advertise more and get perhaps more ages represented from the area. I want to advertise our hikes in meet-ups. The membership is only $4 a year. Compare that to other clubs like the Southern Arizona Hiking Club (SAHC) that charges $25 a year and does not allow kids, dogs and guns on their hikes. The SAHC is also a much larger group of several thousand that is very active. On any given weekend they may be sponsoring several hikes based on speed and distance and grade.
The Appalachian Mountain Club, the famous AMC charges $50 a person per year ($75 for families). The fees go toward a monthly magazine and help in running the cabins in the Appalachian Mountains along the Appalachian Trail. And the Outdoors Club of South Jersey, the group we were very active with until we left New Jersey in 2004, charged $8 a year per person. So $4 a year a person is undisputably the best deal.
We discussed upcoming hikes and clean-ups. One such topic was the topic of trash in the Huachucas left behind by illegals. There's a huge "garbage" dump up Brown Canyon that is so big the Forest Service allegedly wants to remove that trash via helicopter because the non-profit group that uses pack horses is out of funding for now.
http://www.svherald.com/articles/2009/03/11/news/doc49b75cbda713b146234175.txt
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