Page 6 - AMA Winter 2023/24

AMAHQ
YOUR
JOURNAL
PRINTED
OR
DIGITAL
By now, I hope you have enjoyed both the printed and digital versions of Army
Mountaineer since the first digital release in Winter 2022. In response to readers’ requests, and motivated to reduce our carbon footprint and paper-waste, you would have also seen various messages offering the opportunity to opt in/out of the printed format.
Having seen both journal formats, you are hopefully in a position to decide which one works best for you. The guide below will help you navigate Tahdah to opt out of your printed journal. Anyone having issues with Tahdah, or are not receiving the digital version, are requested to contact Chris Dale or Emma Pritchard respec- tively. Until then... happy reading!
• Log into your Tahdah account
• Under ‘Membership & Clubs’
• Click on ‘Member Benefits’
• You should now be presented
with toggle-switches to opt in/ out of both the ‘Magazine’ and ‘Membership Card’
• Select ON/OFF as appropriate
6 / ARMY MOUNTAINEER
to end on this optimistic note looking forwards to a ramping up of activity during the next few years. We will need to be agile in terms of being as financially efficient as we can; we will need to plan well in advance and to have our shit together in terms of business cases, submissions of JSATFAs etc. There will likely be a move away from Public Funds towards Non-Public Funds and we will have to embrace this. There are other streams of Non-Public funding available to expeditions. Examples include the Ulysses Trust and Team Forces to name but two, in addition to Berlin Infantry Brigade Memorial Trust Fund, Army Sports Lottery and Regimental and Corps funds. Please look into the details and apply early and make use of these sources of funding. I am grateful to Colonel Neil Wilson, Commander Army Adventurous Training Group for his continued generous support of the AMA. One example of this is the
way in which he has highlighted potential funding shortfalls and then channelled money in to cover this from benefactors such as Team Forces, who are supporting the Mt Logan project in addition to many others. Team Forces delivers social impact across the Armed Forces community through the power of sport, challenge and adventure. This charitable foundation raises funds for us through its interface between large commercial enterprises and Sport or Adventurous Training. I do not hesitate to commend it and the other funding bodies that I have mentioned above to you.
Finally, I wish to thank Mark Gregory for his hard work as editor in publishing this celebration of our activities and competition, and all of the Committee and meet organisers for their continued hard work in the background that delivers such a great programme of activity for us all.
assured, you will continue to receive the same quality content (so, keep it coming!).
On this latter note, content is always a challenging endeavour and I remain grateful for the volume of meet and expedition articles that I receive, but would love to see more in the way of reviews, skills articles and general interest pieces from all budding authors. Aside from the change in appearance, and in an effort to further reduce wastage from returned journals, we will also be moving to ‘digital by default’ for all new members joining in 2024 (but retaining the ability to ‘opt in’ to a hard copy through tahdah). For existing members, you will continue to receive both hard and digital versions where you have chosen to do so. That said, anyone wishing to opt out of hard copy journals can do so, and details of how to do this are elsewhere in this edition. Happy reading!
EDITOR’S
FOREWORD
Mark Gregory
Welcome to the slightly late Winter 2023/24 edition of Army Mountaineer.
The reason for the delay has been the result of long discussions over the future purpose of the journal to our Association. After much healthy debate, the Committee reaffirmed its commitment to Army Mountaineer and the important role it plays in keeping our members informed and acting as an historic record of our activities. As part of these deliberations, we also faced the uncomfortable truth that the rising costs of publishing and postage was having an unwelcome impact on journal costs. As such, we have found ourselves having to carefully balance the cost of membership with continuing to deliver all those outputs that you hold dear. So, where we have sought opportunities to increase investment in our meets and expeditions, we have also had to seek savings in other ways, and the journal is no exception. This means that Army Mountaineer will have a new look and feel later this year, but rest