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What about the blog?

We have retired the blog as a separate way of communicating with members. Old news can still be be found at aacfallscreek.blogspot.com

Opening of Bookings 2023

It's almost time to book your winter stays. 

Despite some catastrophising in the media and socials, the landslide works are on schedule to have at least one lane open by March. We expect that there could be a traffic light control for a single lane over winter. This happens from time to time in other ski seasons and normally only causes moderate delays.

Members can now register their immediate family (spouse and children) in the booking system to make it easier to book them in, especially during the Family prioritry booking period from 8-14 March. See Registering Family Members in the booking system for more information.

There are no major changes in the booking system this year but here are some timely reminders of changes that have been made of the last few years

  • The Eway secure online payment facility that is integrated with the online booking system the most secure way of paying for your bookings. Other payment methods are available but are not recommended
  • The waitlisting and exclusive single occupancy trials continue unchanged
  • Prompt payment for bookings is expected. The Booking Officer will cancel bookings not paid for in the appropriate time. This is within 7 days for normal bookings and 1 day for approved waitlist requests.
  • Continental breakfasts will be provided on peak season Sundays, not cooked breakfasts 

The Ski Lodge Details tab in the booking system and the Book tab on the club website cover most of the information you to make a booking and prepare for your stay. The email that is sent 7 days prior to your stay has important information about your stay, including the door code. Please check these resources to see if they answer your questions before contacting the booking officer.

 

2022 Club Race

With no races in 2020 or 2021 due to COVID, it was such a relief to hold our Club Race on Saturday 6th August. Pity the weather didn't play its part, but at least the race went ahead!

Our Race Captain, John Cameron, worked hard with the Mountain staff to get a race course set on Father Fosters. The conditions were far from ideal due to the heavy rain that had fallen for three straight days prior to the race, and on the morning of the race we were greeted with 15cm of fresh snow when we looked out our window! The base of soft, wet snow with the top layer of fresh snow made for very challenging conditions to say the least! It was hard enough getting to the race course, let alone going down it! With such tough conditions, our congratulations go to everyone who entered, you all deserve a medal!

A special mention to our youngest competitor Reeve Rist, and also to Peter Howlett, our sole Snowboard entrant this year. Congratulations to you both! Many thanks also to Oscar Johnstone who was our invited course pre-runner who wasn't too shabby as you can see from the times below!

The winner and placegetters of their respective categories were as follows:

Juniors: 1) Ethan Howlett, 2) Jonathon Gerstner-Stevens, 3) Reeve Rist

Womens: 1) Mel Cameron, 2) Natasha Poon, 3) Jacinta Poon

Womens Masters: 1) Viv Wall, 2) Heidi Fry, 3) Kim Walker

Mens: 1) Ross Barker, 2) Harry Cowie, 3) Matthew Wall

Mens Masters: 2) Ross Barker, 2) Gerard Gerstner-Stevens, 3) John Cameron

Here are all the results and times:

Junior Results

Womens Results

Mens results

After the race, the evening festivities kicked off, with a Commonwealth Games theme. It was great to see everyone in their best Comm's Games getup and a huge thank you to our wonderful Lodge Mangers Jess and Craig for putting on what was an amazing feast! Thanks guys!

Here are a selection of happy snaps of the day/night, we're all looking forward to doing it all again in 2023!!!

Dickie Knees

Mountain Top Starters 

Boys

Womens

Womens Masters

Mens

Mens Masters

Boarder

AAC Falls Creek Committee Members - 2022

Following the 2022 AGM, your Club's Committee members for 2022 were elected as follows:

Chairperson - Justin Checcucci

Treasurer - Will Zacharin

Secretary & IT Support - Jenny Hughes

Assistant Secretary - Kim Walker (New Committee Member)

Lodge Supervisor - Tom Harrington

Assistant Lodge Supervisor - Hugh James (New Committee Member)

Booking Officer - Alan Long

Membership/Events Officer - Lynn Cameron

Communications Officer - Tony Jordan

AAC Falls Creek 2022 AGM

On Tuesday May 17th, The 2022 Annual General Meeting was held both in person at the Royal Brighton Yacht Club and virtually via a secure Zoom online meeting. Thank you to those who were able to attend in person, it was great to see people face to face again, and thank you also to those who attended the online Zoom meeting.

Please find below the link to the meeting minutes.

AAC Falls Creek AGM 2022 Meeting Minutes

Apple Safari users - Booking System issue

The booking system is a having some problems with the Safari browser. The full booking matrix page may not display properly, preventing you from making bookings with it. The devloper is aware of this and hopefully a fix is not too far away. In the meantime there are still ways that you can make bookings from Apple devices.

  • Use the simple screen alternative, or
  • Use a different browser, eg Chrome

The simple screen was developed as an easier option to use on phones and other small screens. The booking system may default to it anyway but you can click the phone icon to force it to use the simple screen. cbdweb screen toggle

 

Gone But Not Forgotten

The Club would like to recognise the passing of several members who were integral to AAC's establishment.

Bryan Linacre
1928 - 2022

Bryan was the founding board member and long serving chairman of the Australian Alpine Club Dinner Plain. Devoted husband of Peg (dec). Dearly loved father of Jan, Sandy and Andrea, and father-in-law to Gilles and Michael. Beloved Papa to Emilie, Camilla and Tom; Justin and James; Charlotte, Amelia and Phoebe; and their partners. Papa Bryan to Harley, Bastien, Isabelle, Lily, Penny, Sienna and Oliver. Loving partner of Barbara.

Recognised by everyone as a true Gentleman, Bryan’s vision, wisdom and dedication made the Lodge at Dinner Plain a reality.

Clive Brinsmead
1925 – 2021

Clive had a life-long love of skiing and the Australian alpine regions, starting when he was at university in the 1940’s when there were only rudimentary lift systems for skiers, and provisions had to be carried into many Australian resorts on horseback. Clive and his wife Elspeth joined the AAC in the 1970’s and were among the original members of the Club. He and his family stayed at the AAC for many winter skiing holidays and also spent time at Falls Creek during Easter and summer breaks for hiking and bushwalking.

Clive and Elspeth enjoyed the friendships they made through the AAC with families such as the Camerons, Marshalls and Pitts.

Clive is survived by Elspeth and his children John, Katrina, and Andrew who are all members of AAC.

Donald Cameron
1929 – 2022

Critical to the establishment of the AAC Falls Creek Lodge, Don was one of five people who provided a personal bank guarantee to shore up the funding which enabled the construction of the Lodge we now have at Falls Creek, which was built in 1970. At that same time, Don joined up his three children Lynne, John and Jenny to help with the funding, despite them having never skied.

Don passed his membership onto his granddaughter, Mel who remains a Member of AAC Falls Creek today.

 

Amazing Opening Weekend!

It certainly was the greatest Season Opening ever. With almost a metre of snow on the ground and so much terrain open, you could have been excused for thinking it was late July or early August! The Mountain did a great job with grooming and opening up as much terrain as its staffing allowed, providing acres of pristine fresh runs for everyone to get their snow legs back into action. 

Unsurprisingly, with so much snow on the ground and a long weekend off work, we had pretty much all rooms taken up at the Lodge. It was great to see so many happy smiling faces at the Lodge, the atmosphere was super friendly and everyone had a great time. It was also great to see some of the younger Members and their Guests enjoying themselves, continuing on the tradition of their parents when they were younger!

Here are some photos of everyone enjoying their Saturday night at the Lodge!

Harrys Group Low

Barker Group

Jordans Camerons Lowres

Working Bee 2022

In preparation for what will hopefully be a bumper season for our Club, an enthusiastic group of volunteers descended on the Lodge at the end of April to get it ready for Opening Weekend.

With a long list of things to attend to, everyone was kept busy across the weekend with the all the usual tasks but also some new ones. For instance, the WiFi reception in Rooms 13 and 14 should just about be the best in the Lodge after Brian's handiwork in the ceilings above, and, if you've ever wondered how the fly screens on rooms 13 and 14 get put in place, just ask Risty about his absailing prowess!

Here are just a few pics of what was happening.

Risty John and Harry

Liam Windows IT Gurus

Jessica Cheeky Remo

Lateisha Toms Son

Window Screen TJ BBQ

Thanks everyone for all their hard work!

Notice of 2022 Annual General Meeting

Notice is given that the 2022 Annual General Meeting of AAC Falls Creek Inc will be held:

DATE: Tuesday, 17 May, 2022
VENUE: via Zoom videoconference and at Royal Brighton Yacht Club (253 St. Kilda Street, Brighton)
TIME: 7:30 pm - Annual General Meeting to commence

RSVP by 8 May 2022 is essential

AGENDA

  1. Apologies
  2. Receive and adopt the minutes of the previous Annual General Meeting
  3. Business arising from the Minutes
  4. Correspondence
  5. Receive and adopt the Committee's Reports
  6. Receive and adopt the Profit And Loss Account and Balance Sheet as at 31 December 2021
  7. Proposed New Annual Subscription & Levy for 2023
  8. Receive and adopt the Auditor's Report
  9. Appoint an Auditor for 2022
  10. Election of the Committee
  11. A.A.C. Business
  12. General Business
    • Covid-19
    • Policy on forfeited debentures

Preparation and conduct of the meeting

  • To be admitted to the meeting you must RSVP by email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. by 5pm Sunday 8th May. Prior to the AGM you will be sent a link to join the meeting, whether you intend to attend in person or via zoom.
  • The meeting will be kept as succinct as possible. We also need to make voting as uncomplicated as possible, while ensuring that it is done faithfully.
  • Therefore all nominations, proxies, items of general business must be submitted to the Chairperson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. by 5pm Sunday 8th May. Any proposed Motions must also be provided to the Chairperson by this date.
  • You are strongly encouraged to send any questions to the Chairperson by the same date. There will be an opportunity to submit some questions on the night but questions with notice will be more manageable with the technology.
  • Voting may be a bit laborious. Please be patient if votes need to be counted.

For Zoom attendees

  • Please prepare in advance. Install Zoom on your computer, tablet or phone and use Zoom’s facilities to test that your audio and video are working. If you have a headset with microphone, please use it to reduce background noise.
  • Please keep your mic muted during the meeting unless the chairman recognises you to speak. The chairman or his assistant may mute you if necessary. We prefer having all cameras active during the meeting but you may be asked to “mute” cameras if there are difficulties.

For in person attendees

  • Please wait to be recognised by the chair before you speak. You will need to use a microphone so that you can be clearly heard by zoom attendees.

Election of committee members

The committee recommends that a total of 9 committee members be elected (3 executive members plus 6 ordinary committee members). At the committee meeting after the AGM, the committee elects members to specific positions. If a ballot is required, ballot papers will be sent to you to return by 5pm Friday 13 May 2022.

At the time of this notice, all current committee members are intending to stand again this year, however some are considering retiring in 2023. Therefore the committee wishes to add 2 more members to ease the transition. While learning more about club operations, new committee members would be asked to assist in various administrative tasks and to help with coordination of lodge operations and maintenance. Meetings are held approximately monthly by Zoom. Please consider nominating and helping to keep the club running smoothly.

Documents

 

Jenny Hughes (Secretary)
C/- ProAcct Advisors & Accountants Pty Ltd
PO Box 140 BALWYN VIC 3103
Phone: (03) 9880-9600
Fax: (03) 9880-9699
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Welcome New Lodge Managers

The Club is pleased to announce the appointment of new Lodge Managers, Jessica and Craig McAllister. Jessica and Craig and their family will be moving into the Lodge in the coming months to be ready for the start of the Winter season. Anyone at the Lodge over Easter may also see them as they will be visiting at that time. Welcome Jessica and Craig, we all look forward to meeting you and getting to know you!

Jessica and Craig Square Low Res