4WD NSW-ACT - February 2013 Quarterly Minutes

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Four Wheel Drive NSW & ACT, INC
ABN: 51 879 448 402
PO Box 1371, Parramatta, NSW, 2124
Phone: 1800 646 630
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NSW-ACT 4WD Association - February 2013 Quarterly Minutes

Meeting Held at North Wollongong Scout Hall on the 8th February, 2013

Meeting Opened 9:20am by Craig Thomas
Craig welcomed all Delegates and Visitors
Quorum: 26 Clubs and 44 members in attendance
Apologies: Mudgee and District 4WD club, Andrew Beer, Wagga Wagga 4WD Club, John Kent , by email

National Parks and Wildlife Presentation

Stockton Beach

NP&WL Open the meeting with a discussion and slide show on Stockton beach
Mr Robert Quirk and Mr Tom Bagnet

“Managing Shifting Sands”
General Information taken
Worimi Land- Controlled by three entities

Worimi LALC ( Local Aboriginal Land Council)
Worimi Conservation Land
Managed by NP&WL
They are governed by a board, not government

When sand shifts, “Middens” are uncovered

What is a midden?

It is an area where the Aboriginals, lived, Cooked and made tools

How can you tell a “Midden?”

As the sand blows or is washed away
Storm activity
Shells are of similar size
Black soil shapes appear

DO NOT DRIVE OVER
These areas are barricaded off.
NP& WL are saying “Stockton beach is Open, with restrictions”

Some interesting facts

Beach is damaged
Sand is coming back quickly
Vegetation is damaged – regrowth is a natural process
Camping is OK
NP & WL answer to a board not Government
NP & WL will look toward NSW and ACT 4WD Assoc for help in the future
NP & WL are very happy with the relationship the have with the NSW and ACT 4WD Assoc
The tree line has moved west approx. 140 metre since 1976 to 2008
All money taken is put back into the Beach

More Information
www.worimiconservation.org

Watagans
NP&WL added discussion on the Watalgan Gates

Yes the Watagans have gates that do get closed

There are mainly 2 reasons

Weather, it seems as though some 4WDers wait until it pour and head towards the Watagans and rip up the tracks, which make it had for the rest of the 4WDing community
Road Maintenance, in some area at certain times the roads are graded and maintained

Presidents Report - Craig Thomas

What a great time to be part of the association and what a great honour it is to be the President, in the last three months the new committee has had to hit the ground running and have done a fantastic job in representing the members, we have dealt with everything from an uncertain future for the Adventure Show, a barrage of technical changes that the RMS have tried to get through and of cause the Stockton Beach Rally. On the up side we have now stabilised the future of the show and have finally started to drive some tracks for the parks, spent some time working with some rangers to fix a park and got to talk to lots of people with the same passion as us.

Probably the biggest issue for us now is the Roothy rally, this has highlighted a lot of areas in the association that need to be worked on, with this in mind we have ramped up the Facebook page and have actively taken to social media to get ourselves better known to the wider population. This is already working for us by being able to back up interviews and editorials with positive and accurate comments.

Our next meeting will be at Bathurst on May the 18thmake sure your club is represented, things are changing and we need your support.

On a personal note, THANK YOU ROB KELLY, if you had not done that NBN news interview I would have had to drop everything and drive to Newcastle and do something that terrifies me and probably have no idea what I was talking about.

General information from Craig about the Rally re Stockton beach

NSW and ACT 4WD Assoc did not support it
Assoc told people to attend
At no time did the Assoc tell people “do not go”
If attending go as individuals
NP & WL wanted to attend but decided not to go when the Assoc decided not to attend
48 Klm of 4x4 from Newcastle to Cessnock
Sunday came and the rally failed
Assoc had interview with
- Newcastle Herald
- KO FM radio
- ABC News
- NBN News
Have made contact with the rally organisers, willing to Work with the NSW and ACT 4WD Assoc
NSW and ACT 4 WD Assoc deemed “the Voice of Reason”
Webmaster to put any News cutting on Assoc web page
Also sent to Rob Kelly to put on National Web Site

Secretary Report - Grant Picman

Correspondence IN

Refer to Committee meeting Minutes, posted on Association web page
Emails re Stockton Rally

November Quarterly Meeting Minutes presented and
Accepted by – Peter Fenwick
Seconded by – Rory McCardle

Treasurers Report - Tony Ellery

Current Bank Balance - $57,748.30

Association has paid

National Association Fee’s
Registered Training Fee
For a NEW ride on Mower for training Centre

4 Clubs are outstanding for Association fees approx. $2500.00

Vice President Regions report – Ron Owen

Membership Report
As at date of writing we have 86 financial Clubs on our books with four yet to pay their affiliation fees. In my February 2012 report I advised that we had 2 outstanding with 88 clubs on our books.

Because of our process of counting memberships 12 months in arrears (e.g. your Club will pay for the total memberships it received between 1/7/12 and 30/6/13 for the 2013-2014 year) it is not possible to accurately advise Club’s memberships at a given point in time. However at the end of last financial year we had 3816 Club members listed whilst at this point in time this year we have 3715.

Now that you may be confused be assured that in the current economic climate and level of fuel costs we are doing ok. Unfortunately we haven’t yet hit the 100 Club level I have been aiming at for the last 6 years. Maybe 2013 will be it!

Two important points to remember and address; (1) if you have not already done so please ensure that your Club updates its contact details on our website (www.4wdnow.com) (2) make sure that as a Delegate you are registered to access our website. Please encourage your Club committee to do the same.

Insurance Report
There has been little activity over the festive period, particularly from me.

State Insurance Officers are scheduled to meet again this month however I have not received any details of such meeting at time of writing or any statistical information. I did commit in my November report to write a paper on Public Liability insurance however I have not done so at this stage and I will have to run it past our insurers. It will be done before our May meeting.

As always I would be happy to receive any feedback regarding insurance issues, particularly for personal vehicle and property insurance from TCIS. There is a response form for this purpose on our website under “Documents”.

Vice President Lands Report – Chris Keys

Define – keep tracks open

4wd tracks – Newnes, Watagans
Heavily degraded by 4wd use
Tourist routes – Caves to Caves, Bicentennial trail, Murray Darling run
Stock routes in western NSW
Track/trails that have natural features or cultural or historic significance
Tracks to camping, fishing, canoeing, etc

Objectives

Develop a set of targets to act on.
Define what we can do in terms of the general community
Build relationships with organisations that make these decisions
Build relationships with organisations that also have these objectives
Support funding for land managers

Tools

Local knowledge and presence
Skill base – DTU
Track classification
Track maintenance
Sensible presence
Political contacts

Activities

Relationships with land managers
4wd consultative committee
Track maintenance
Track classification
Local contact

Define what we want to do

What tracks
What opportunities do we see for tourism
What opportunities we see for unique and valuable community based experiences
Manage 4wd challenge tracks

Input to POMs

Co-ordinated track maintenance
Training
Cannot underestimate importance of DTU
Status

4wd consultative committee

March 8 probably

Track classification

ACT
Caves to Caves
Hunter
POM
Marrangaroo

Track Maintenance

Wollemi
Baal Bone gap
Turon river

Roger Sheath added Clubs must help
Please send site to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Use the web site to gather info on Track closures

Communication Report – Dom Fitzgibbon

Web Access

We have identified an issue where some club updates which had been update had disappeared.
It seems during our rollover from IMTG to a temp server then back to our new home at Digital Pacific a disconnect with the backend database has caused missing data.
We have the information and will be rectified in due course

Facebook

We have rebooted our Facebook presence due to recent social networking events and will now be putting public information both on our website but also on Facebook for greater visibility and to effectively get the association presence out more.
Committee members will be the administrators
POST can only be made by Committee members

Costs

We have reduced our expenditure from $660 a month to $220 a month to $110 a month to now $199.50 a year in around 18 months.
This service includes full backup protection and utilises better solutions on offer from hosting organisations like Digital Pacific.

Club information

Dom Fitzgibbon has information on who from what club had signed up to the NSW and ACT 4WD Assoc web site
At this stage information will be supplied by request. It is the intent to have this available to club delegates at some point in time

DTU Report – No one available

Regions Report

Hunter Region – Rob Kelly
• What to permanently mount the BBQ on the Assoc trailer
• Suggested putting the Assoc trailer at Lavis Lane and Bulbie Point

Sydney Region – Rory McCardle
•    Rory Expressed interest of Stepping Down
•    Jim Skinner has taken up the roll
•    Made comment and thanked Ken Timmins and Son for the work they do at the Training Track
•    Made Comment and Thanked Blue Mountains Club for the Volunteers at the Show
•    Made Comment and Thanks Chris Keys and the Efforts for the Track Classification
•    Rory thanked all clubs for attending the Regional meetings

South Coast – Lee Dunston
•    Struggling to keep focus with Clubs
•    Comment that he is not giving up
•    Requires help from Ron Owen (vice President Regions) in contacting clubs

Canberra – No information available

National 4WD Association report – Peter Fenwick

Resolving issue’s with Canning Stock route re Fees
Expecting the “Green Vote” to decrease at next election
Expecting the “Nationals vote” to increase at next election
Suggest “ALL” get in front of your Politian and ask how they can help 4WDers
Motor cycle Council has 35,000 members
NSW-ACT 4WD Association has 4,500 members

Politics – Craig Thomas

Craig Indicated he does not like discussing Politics
Although he did indicate we are now more political than ever before in the past
Have a look at what has happened with 4,500 members
Referred to the ACMC and the representation
Conference on the 17/2/13
- Needs as many people to attend

Allan Hay

Politian who is supporting all motor enthusiasts. He has stickers out with the Associations logo on them.

We need to support Allan hay if possible
Craig has spent a lot of time on the phone with Allan
Allan is running for Senate
Running on a motorist platform – supported by the ACMC
Has major supporters but require smaller supporters as well
It was mentioned by Peter Fenwick that Allan is NSW, and more people like Allan is needed for other states
Suggestion that as an Association we donate a SUM of money to Allan’s Campaign
Roger Sheath added in the past we did a similar thing with NP & WL we are now reaping the Benefits

Roger Sheath put forward a motion to donate $2000.00 to Allan hay’s Campaign
This motion was seconded by Rory McCardle
By a show of hands all accepted and Majority ruled

TECHNICAL / ACMC Report – Geoff Northcott

NRMA

Doing something stupid re tyres
They are looking at a new feedback system for rating tyres
- Eg noise, ware and traction
Can't tell if this does not meet criteria
Jack Haley now with the NRMA

General

Jim Skinner – A member of his club approached him and told him that 4 committee members were working for NP & WL
1. Craig Thomas – NO, no one on the Committee are NP and WL members
2. The Assoc meet with NP & WL 4 times a year
Peter Fenwick –
1. Do we have a presence at the Illawarra Show
2. Can we get Info to hand out
3. Can we get the trailer to the show
4. Action by Ron Owen/Craig Thomas
Hoppa – DTU – the DTU keep pushing the basic training through, DTU is a national recognised training
Roger Sheath – Sub Committee
1. Can the Association make a Sub-committee to allow individuals to join the Association
  1. Craig Thomas responded NO, although the Assoc will look at it on a one by one basis
  2. Roger asked for it to be brought up at the Committee Meeting
  3. Can we make REGIONS Sub-committees,
  4. Good Idea, to be brought up at Committee meeting
Craig Thomas passed out a big thankyou to the Black Diamond Club for hosting the day and providing a fantastic morning tea and lunch.

Next Quarterly Meeting to be Held on the 18th May, 2013 at Bathurst.

Ron Owen to confirm exact location

Meeting Closed 1:50pm

Action Items

Date Raised: 8/2/13
By: Craig Thomas
Details: Webmaster to put news clippings on WEB and also send to Rob Kelly for National WEB
For: Dom Fitzgibbon

Date Raised: 8/2/13
By: Lee Dunston
Details: Requires Help to Contact Sothern region Clubs
For: Ron Owen

Date Raised:8/2/13
By: Peter Fenwick
Details: Can we get hand out/trailer to Illawarra show
For: Ron Owen/Craig Thomas

Date Raised: 8/2/13
By: Roger Sheath
Details: Association Membership for Individuals
For: Craig Thomas

Date Raised: 8/2/13
By: Roger Sheath
Details: Can we make Regions Sub Committee
For: Craig Thomas

Date Raised: 8/2/13
By: Craig Thomas
Details: Next quarterly meeting Location etc
For: Ron Owen