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President's Letter Hello from Randolph! It's been a windy fall here in RMC country. In late September, an especially dramatic storm came through with winds over 100 mph on the summits and over 60 mph in the valley. This has made some extra work for our volunteers and our fall trail crew clearing the trails, but RMC is fortunate to have the funds on hand to field just such a seasonal crew. This brings me around to the main project ahead of the club for the next couple of years: creating a permanent valley base camp for our trail crews and caretakers.
The club needs this building. It will enable us to hire and retain the high quality caretakers and trail crews that we must have to maintain our trails and camps. It is a major step forward for RMC and will more than repay what we put into it. Over the past several decades, RMC has become more and more of a year-round organization. The proposed rustic, simple building will allow us to support our employees throughout the year, since it will also provide housing on days-off for our fall, winter and spring caretakers, as well as space for our fall trail crew. With the base camp package mailed to you, you received our plea for a contribution. So far, we have raised half of the $300,000 required, but we need your help to finish this fund raising effort. We need to raise the entire sum before we start construction on a building that will do the job for years to come.
With this timetable in mind, we will shortly be deciding on the type of construction to be used for the building. Once this is done, we will start lining up contractors. We have already begun the permit process with the town and state. Operating the base camp will require some additional income to cover increased expenses. To fund these costs, the RMC board will be re-examining membership dues and camps fees. The board will be extremely careful to make sure that the base camp will not strain our finances. We will make certain that we continue doing all the great work we've recently accomplished! We have several other projects now in progress. New RMC board member Blake Strayhorn is developing several new shirts and hats. Keep an eye out for them on our web site. Our Trails Stewardship committee is working to protect RMC's trails for the long term. And, most recently, the US Forest Service has renewed the club's Special Use Permit for Gray Knob, Crag Camp, the Log Cabin and the Perch, for the next ten years. It is a real honor to be asked to work with so many great people who are willing to volunteer their time and energy to make all these things happen! They make my job as President easy. The RMC has always been a small club where members and friends just dig in and make things happen. I hope you will join us in making this new venture succeed. It is this cooperative spirit that makes RMC such a fun and dynamic club for so many of us!
Jamie Maddock |
Former
president Mary Brown has led the club and board through a very
worthwhile and thorough process of identifying the club's long
term needs for trail crew and caretaker housing. By now, you
should have received a package with our case statement as well
as plans for the new base camp. If you missed it, complete information
is available via the RMC web site at www.randolphmountainclub.org.
The
Anna B. Stearns Foundation has issued a fabulous challenge to
our membership: for each new dollar that we raise, they will
give us two more, up to a total of $100,000. With this offer
in place, I am confident that we can raise $50,000 from our members
-- the amount that we need to reach our goal of $300,000 by this
spring. This will allow us to break ground next fall, and have
RMC housing ready for use when the trail crews and caretakers
arrive for the 2007 summer season. Our membership has always
come through in the past, and we hope it will again. As always,
thank you for supporting RMC!