Q & A with ATC & HTMC

May 21, 2024 - by Jeanne Furukawa

In honor of the Summer 2024 HTMC-ATC Hawai’i Adventure, HTMC Member Jeanne Furukawa. Jeanne was the catalyst of the Auckland Tramping Club – Hawaiian Trail and Mountain Club sister club relationship. She asked the clubs presidents, Tony Walton and Hawkins Biggins, a few questions to compare the ATC and HTMC. Their questions and answers are below. Cover photo caption: ATC 1925 Founding Club Trip to Rangitoto – Boil up. Photographer: Adrian Moulton

Left Photo:1925 Founding Club Trip to Rangitoto – Boil up. Photographer: Adrian Moulton

Right Photo: ATC 2021 Ruapehu. Snowcraft Course. Sunday Crater Climb. Dome Ridge, Photographer Uta Machold

How many years has the club been around?

ATC: This year, on October 18, ATC will be 99 years old, so next year is our big 100th

HTMC: HTMC was founded in 1910 (at the time the annual membership fee was $5). We celebrated our centennial in 2010, although the club was inactive during WWI.

How many members?

ATC: Our club membership varies up and down each year around the 330 mark

HTMC: As of May 2024 we have 506 members, including 2 “Friends,” a new category for people who do not hike but would like to support HTMC. Instead of completing 3 hikes, Friends attend 3 events to apply for membership. Friends of HTMC have the same privileges except they cannot attend Members Only hikes, serve as Committee Chairs or on the Board of Directors.

How much are annual dues?

ATC: Our annual subs are Ordinary $60, Senior (from July this year) $40, Junior $30. This includes an $18 levy that is paid to Federated Mountain Clubs of NZ

HTMC: Annual Dues are $41 per year and starting 2023 the annual renewal is due each year on the date that your membership was approved (prior to 2023 January is the renewal date).

How much are lifetime dues?

ATC: We no longer offer a lifetime subscription – that was phased out several decades ago. People who bought lifetime membership before then who are still club members benefit from a great investment !

HTMC: A lifetime membership is $720. if you have been a member for 10 years it is $360. We have 179 lifetime members (as of April 2024)

How many board members do all the planning?

ATC: Our committee is normally around 10 people. In addition there are a number of other officers not on the committee who are involved in planning too – from June that includes Anna & Ian (Mid week day trips, Safari), Martin (Sunday trips), and Andrew (weekend trips, assisted by additional people for some trips (EG Dennis and me)

HTMC: Typically we have 7 board members. The board oversees the committees including; Books and Records, Clubhouse, Clubhouse Maintenance, Da Kine Kokua, Events, Facebook, Hike, Hike Safety, Membership, Newsletter, Public Relations, Website. The Hike Committee schedules the trail clearings and hikes along with organizing the hike coordinator sign up process. Every week we offer Sunday hikes and every other weekend there are Saturday hikes as well.

How many hike leaders do you have?

ATC: Possibly up to 25 leaders for trips, although as is usual, some names recur a lot more frequently than others. Some people are day trips only,some multi-day only, and some cover both types.

HTMC: At the moment there are 25 Hike Coordinators, when possible they each lead one hike a quarter. As many of our old time coordinators have been “retiring” we have been grateful to get newer and often younger members who volunteer.

Do hike leaders have “training?”

ATC: Every few years we schedule trip leader training – this year there are a few courses on offer.

HTMC: Our Coordinator Trainers provide a review of the Training Manual followed by on the trail training with a coordinator on a trail clearing and assisting on a hike. There is an evaluation process before applicants can be accepted. We encourage anyone interested to apply, and recommend starting by volunteering to be an assistant to see if it’s a good fit.

Are there any other notable facts you would like to share?

ATC

We have digitised all of our historical club publications (magazines, trip sheets, annual reports) – with a very small number of exceptions, since the time when the club was formed. These are all available on our website and can be text searched, although this works less well for the older publications where the paper copy was not suitable for full optical character recognition. Still human readable though
We operate a club bus, one of a series of buses over the years. At one point we ran 2 buses at the same time, although the main reason for that was that neither was 100% reliable, so we couldn’t dispose of the old one !
We progressively built what ended up as a ski lodge at Mt Ruapehu. Because of lack of club member usage and maintenance effort required, we gave that to a group of central North Island schools
We own a hut on a property adjacent to the Waitakere Ranges Regional Park – Ngaro te Kotare. Over recent years this has been receiving good patronage from the wider public, while being of limited use for club members
We have many members who have been in the club for 50 years or more, a few over 70 years
When people reach their 50 year membership, we present them with a pair of mini hand crafted tramping boots

Photo Left: The ATC Wanderlust, the ATC Monthly Magazine. Photo Right: Trampers on West Coast road, c 1931

HTMC

Last year HTMC led 79 hikes, 45 of those were open to the public. On average 12.4 members attended each hike and 6 guests came on each open hike.
HTMC is fortunate to have a dedicated crew of trail clearers that meet every Sunday to clear a trail a few weeks before the club hikes it. This crew was started by member Mabel Kekina in the 1990’s. Prior to that each coordinator needed to clear and ribbon the trail and would often rely on friends to help them. Last year there were 50 official trail clearings, an average of 17 volunteers per trail clearing which added up to approx 6,337 volunteer hours clearing trails. This is a service not only to the club members who go on the hikes but to the entire hiking community on Oahu.
One of our Hike Coordinators, Patrick Rorie, reinstated the historic Ko’olau Summit Trail (KST) backpack trip, which used to be an annual affair. This will be his third year leading this two night trek starting in Laie and ending at Schofield-Waikane.
In 2015 the Event Committee brought back the Holiday Luau, a historic club tradition from the 1950’s. We have held it annually, except during the pandemic and around 100 members attend. It takes days to transform the clubhouse into a tropical paradise, and hours for those attending to disassemble it.
The age of our oldest hiking member is Peg Foster, who is 93. Although she is not our longest member.
The historic clubhouse in Waimanalo was built in 1926 by its members. It was recently renamed the Luciano Peña Memorial Clubhouse (LPMC) in honor of Luciano Peña a young serviceman who drowned after saving a hiker who was swept off a ledge on an annual HTMC July 4th hike on Manana Island (Rabbit Island) in 1939.
The clubhouse has a caretaker resident, every year members may apply for the position. They have a private room at the clubhouse and pay the same $10 per night rate as members staying at the clubhouse.

Photo left: When the clubhouse was being built July 21, 1926 ,photo by HTMC Member Ray Jerome Baker. Right: Historic photo 1957 by Harry Whitten.

To learn more about HTMC’s sister New Zealand club, the Auckland Tramping Club, visit their website https://www.aucktramping.org.nz