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49 people came together at Eden Community Church in Mt Eden for the AGM Dinner, always a popular time
to catch up with one another, look over the past year and begin a new Club year. A few extra people turned
up for the AGM only, having had other commitments first.
A slideshow of trips over the past 12
months was shown on the screen during the informal mix-and-mingle over drinks that began at 5:30pm. We
sat down to a yummy dinner of meat and vegies followed by apple crumble and ice cream at 6pm.
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At 7:15pm we gathered in the lounge area for the formal time, which began with devotions from Warren
Prestidge. He shared four thoughts about our tramping based on Psalm 19 (1) the reason we go tramping
is to experience the natural wilderness in which God’s glory is displayed; (2) tramping gets us fit,
it is God’s intention for us to enjoy and exercise our bodies, to be fit like the sun in its daily journey
across the sky; (3) having devotions on our tramps allows us to share God’s Word which gets into our
hearts and minds; (4) being in a club, especially a Baptist or Christian tramping club, allows us to
be together and learn from, work with, help and challenge one another.
Our guest speaker John
Staniland gave a presentation on his involvement with A Rocha and Ark In The Park. First of all he shared
about the work of A Rocha, an international Christian environmental organisation that now has six branches
in NZ. Their mission in NZ is to protect and restore environment through community-based conservation
projects, research and education. Projects include a community garden in Hamilton, planting on Oakley
Creek, and biodiversity on Mt Karioi. John then showed his own presentation of Ark In The Park, a large
area in the northern Waitakere Ranges where pests such as rats, stoats, ferrets and possums are being
eradicated, and many native birds have been reintroduced to the forest.
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After a 5 minute break, the AGM began at 8pm. The new Executive was elected on a confidence vote
by secret ballot:
Paul Ungemuth (President), David Kilgour (Vice President), June Sinclair (Treasurer),
Katherine Dorofaeff (Secretary). David Walker, John McCarthy, Ali Norton, Warren Prestidge, Barbara Langridge,
Roger Donnell, Laurie Richardson.
Phillip showed a couple of slides on the record amount of climate-warming
carbon dioxide we have in the atmosphere at present before giving a presentation on the Club’s summer
tramps to the Nelson Lakes and Mt Richmond area. He then showed some slides about proposed trips he would
be leading to the Middle East and the Bible Lands sponsored by the FMC Travel Club to take place in Mar-Apr
next year.
Paul handed out thank you cards to those exec members who had decided not to stand
again - Phillip Donnell, Linda Sutton, Gary Thompson and Noreen MacArthur.
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