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Gear Sec

As gear secretary you will possess a set of the coveted and infamous gear store keys, giving you 24\7 access to £1000’s of hiking equipment (and the other strange things that seem to live in the gear store). It is quite an imposing task to go through all of the lovely precious things, but it is so vital for the running of every single trip the club does that gear is safe and accounted for.

The most important task is to make sure that each trip has all required gear, whether you can go on it or not (WARNING; packing for trips and not attending them has been known to cause many diagnoses of FOMO for the gear secretary species). This means that you need to keep on top of the literally 100’s of maps we own as a club and have an understanding (with the aid of google of course) which ones you need for every trip. Winter trips are when the more serious gear comes out to play, so knowledge (or a keen mind to learn the knowledge) of how to adjust crampons would be very useful. 

Because we are nice and lend out gear to members it is also up to the gear sec to manage these loans to members. So not being afraid to demand gear back from pesky leaders for an imminent club trip is essential. 

Shock horror but you will have to reply to emails - mostly to tell people ‘yes, you will need to wear hiking boots and no, please don’t wear jeans’. You might also be that person who turns people away from Sunday for wearing jeans or trainers, or making sure older members don’t get too big for their trail shoes boots.

All of the above is important but half of your time as gear sec will be spent thinking up delicious and nutritious menus for weekend trips. So a good recipe book for bulk cooking for vegetarians, vegans and gluten free people would be very helpful. We’re fully vegetarian on club meals at the moment but this isn’t constitutional just current gear sec preference! If you're not on the trip you need to communicate your meal plans to whoever has been roped in to be club chef/chefs that weekend.

This is a middle-ish role in committee, taking 2-3 hours a week. This includes regularly answering emails, packing gear for sunday hike and trips, planning and ordering food. It has also involved additional tasks such as re-supplying first aid kits, applying for or spending funding, researching and buying gear when needed. “Gear” is quite a big umbrella for things like tupperware, spice supplies, ££££’s of crampons and ice axes, spare waterproofs, cooler bags, guide books etc. Oh, and you don’t have to talk to LUU at all (unless you accidentally make the gear store home to our friend Dave the Mouse).