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President's Letter The RMC is coming up on its one hundred year anniversary in 2010. I would hope that if Messrs. Peaks or Cook came to visit they would still recognize our club and our trails, and approve of what we are doing. Maybe they would pitch in and help us out on the next work trip!
In the past decade the RMC has done a great job of adapting to the information age. Our membership is now spread out all over the country and in general spends much less time in Randolph than earlier generations did. We also have a much larger year round contingent that enables us to run the club all year. Keeping all these people connected and informed is a real challenge. To do this we have developed several methods. The club now has a newsletter that is mailed out twice a year. It would be nice to just post it at Lowe's and be done with it, but I think it would take most of the year before everyone had seen it. Instead, one evening after the newsletters are received from the printer, whoever is available gathers around and addresses them. To achieve the cheapest rate for mailing, volunteers then sort the letters by an arcane system based on zip code, distance from Randolph and several other factors, which only the Post Office truly understands. Eventually, the newsletters are taken to Gorham and sent on their way to our members. The newsletter keeps us in touch with many of our far-flung members, and in the past couple of years we have also made an effort to reach members who prefer to get their information online. If you have not checked out the club website at www.randolphmountainclub.org, please give it a look. Jeff Smith has done a fantastic job of putting up information about the club in an easily accessible format. You can check out the latest journal entries from our caretakers, or even see what the current weather is at Grey Knob. There are many pictures from all over the Northern Presidentials, information on every RMC trail, and many of the previous newsletters are also posted there. The latest schedules for work trips and weekly hikes are there too. Be prepared to spend some time browsing! We have also added the ability to use Pay Pal to renew your membership or purchase RMC merchandise. This has assisted the club's finances; the money we receive from web sales has helped us to keep a balanced budget. Last winter we added an email news bulletin. Because the printed newsletter has a long lead-time, it is not possible to get timely information out. With email we can send out short notices and also save some trees. Hopefully emails can become our "bulletin board" and members can use email to talk to the board. One last way that any member can reach out is through the message board on the RMC website. The board is checked regularly and replies are posted. We can once again become a well-connected club, even though we are quite spread out. In another effort to keep everyone well connected, we are updating the RMC Directory once again. We realize that many folks use this book to keep in touch with people associated with Randolph. With this in mind we want to include everyone who would like to be in the Directory. However in this day and age of information and identity theft, we do not want to publish any private information. So in addition to not putting this information online, the RMC will only include members who have indicated that they want to be in the Directory. Unless you are already in the current Directory, or have checked the box on your membership renewal form, your information will not be in the next Directory. With all that in mind the board is going to be using most of these ways of communicating with you this summer to keep the membership up to date on the new Mt. Crescent Trailhead Project. As this opportunity evolves, look for further news in the various Randolph publications, as well as the RMC web site and our new club email bulletin. Please take a few minutes to read Doug Mayer's article elsewhere in this newsletter about this great opportunity to preserve access to our many trails in the Crescent Range. Securing a permanent trailhead for the Crescent Range, and protecting access for future generations is an uncommon opportunity. I hope you'll join other RMC members and friends in this exciting endeavor. I hope to "communicate" with you this summer using the preferred method -- face to face. See you on the trails,
Jamie Maddock
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One
thing that has really changed, however, is the way we communicate
with one another. Back in their day, if someone wanted to lead
a hike or post something for the membership, all they had to
do was to put something up on the boards at the three hotels
in Randolph. With that and word of mouth, it was easy to spread
information to the membership. Feedback came the same way; chances
were that you would see a board member in the next couple of
days and be able to voice any concerns. The club's activities
shut down during the winter and did not restart until the summer
guests showed up at the hotels the next year.