AOAC Newsletter

Merry Christmas everybody!!
 

AOAC Activities and the new tier system,
The tier system and fortnightly reviews of the tiers has made organising events a little trickier but not impossible, and it’s been great that some events have been able to continue! Every time the tiers are updated, we update the events for the following fortnight to show the tier they will take place in. Participants are also informed. In some cases events may need to be cancelled because for example the leader lives in a different tier to the event. Unfortunately participants will also need to drop out if they live in a different tier to the event. None of this is ideal but we will continue to do our best to run as much as we can, while complying with the latest restrictions.

Christmas online get together - Monday 21 December 2020 7.30pm
There are still a few places available on Sarah's get together; we may not be able to get together in the flesh but zoom is almost like we're in the same room eh? The aim is for everyone to bring along a short activity for everyone to participate in. Limited to 20 participants otherwise it will make activities more difficult. Feel free to wear Christmas jumpers, fancy dress or whatever you feel like and bring snacks and drinks to the screen. The great thing is you won't have to share them with anyone! (Sarah) Starting at 7.30pm.

Email Sarah for a place [email protected]

Website
Many thanks to everyone who took the time to attend the meeting, look through the presentation and vote. 52 votes were received, with a 90% approval to go ahead and employ an external web development company.
 

Many thanks to all who have worked on the current website over the past years; your hard work has been very much appreciated.

Club babies
With all the misery of this year it has been a delight to hear of the birth of several new potential members. Huge congratulations and much love go to:

Anna and Jonathan on the birth of Maxim in September,

Sally and Michael who welcomed baby Alex in November,

and Chris and Laura who introduced us to Florence in December.

If there are any other club babies I've missed please let me know and I'll add you to the next newsletter...the more good news the better.

Update: Ang Curnow R.I.P.
Russ and his family and friends completed the 17.8 mile Chew Valley Three Peaks Circular Walk on Saturday 12th December. It was a beautiful day but a very muddy, slippery walk....well done to all who completed it. Before we set out the fund stood at just over £9,000, during the walk we saw it creep up to over £10,000; it currently stands at over £11,500! What a tribute to the lovely Ang!

Many thanks to Shaun and Martin for providing sustenance at the 8-mile stop: soup, bread, sausage rolls. pasties, flapjacks, fresh fruit, water, tea, coffee, hot chocolate....an incredibly welcome interlude and wow! did we set off at a pace after all that! We finished in the daylight after 6 and a half hours; a fabulous walk for a great cause.

If you'd like to donate to St Peter's Hospice for this event the link is:

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/josh-curnow
  

Committee
Ultimate member of the committee; last but not least...

Web Officer - Irene 

Irene joined AOAC in 2013 to take part in the club's walking and mountain biking weekends. After a few years Irene thought she should give kayaking a go (everyone does eventually!). Some would say this is possibly the best decision she ever made. Within months Irene was on white water. The learning curve was steep and there were at least a couple of occasions where those present on a trip could have bought Irene’s boat at a bargain price. But Irene is now enthusiastically smashing white water! Irene is the club's first Web Officer and over the last 2 years has made the role her own. When not kayaking she’s doing website research!
Sarah 

Hopefully see you on an event in the future. Look out on calendar, forum and Facebook for events x

If you have any interesting news/funny stories/free videos/tales of your favourite trips/tips that may help club members, in fact, anything that might be of interest/entertaining, to brighten up the next newsletter, please let me know at [email protected] . Thank you.

Stay safe and stay well, and here's to a happy, healthy, prosperous and active 2021! Fingers crossed we get to see one another again xx.

Cathy x

Events