CASTLE CHRONICLE #5

The committee met on 8th January and this is the latest update to let you know what we have been getting up to:
• Recent club highlights have been the talk by Mick Fowler and the well-attended Christmas Meet at the excellent Coldwell Centre on the East Lancashire Moors. Many thanks to Andrew and Ali for the organisation and to everyone who helped prepare the sumptuous Christmas meal.
• The list of away meets for 2024 is looking healthy. Meets are planned to Coniston (January), Capel Curig (Easter), Yorkshire Dales (May), Northumbria (Spring BH), Cairngorms (May-June), Chapel Stile (June), Dentdale (July), Mid-Wales (August), Galway (September) and the Lakes (November).
• After last years’ successful Alps trip to Ailefroide another trip to Aosta is planned for late June / July. Those lightweights who prefer sunshine rock are catered for by a trip to Sicily in October!
• We are organising some skills sessions run by experienced club members including winter skills and navigation. Future sessions may include self-rescue, sports climbing techniques and abseiling. Let us know if you have any suggestions.
• On the social scene, after last years’ successful ceilidh, another has been organised for Saturday 23rd March. Vanda has organised more slideshows and Helen is organising some “Pub Grub” evenings allowing members to share good food and convivial conversation. We are also hoping to hold another photographic competition.
Information about away meets, skills sessions and social events will be posted on the message board.
The committee are continuing to look for ways to streamline club communications and are considering the following proposals:
• Reactivating the Castle Facebook and Instagram accounts. This will allow us to share information about club activities between club members. It will also help us to promote ourselves as an active club to people outside the club, especially younger folk, who may be interested in joining us. We will be encouraging all club members to contribute photos etc which reflect the wide range of current club activity.
• Setting up a WhatsApp Communities group. This is a way of organising the different WhatsApp activity groups which will be helpful to the membership team. Please note that the existing activity groups will operate in the same way that they do now.
• We are trialling a Microsoft programme which will streamline the membership process and reduce the administrative workload of the membership team.
Geoff is working on proposals for the club to reduce our environmental footprint – watch this space for the results.
As always the committee welcome feedback from club members – especially suggestions for meets and other activities. Volunteers to organise climbing and walking meets are even more welcome!