No need for waiver forms in good mobile phone reception areas

From: Brett Davis To: info@shoalhavenbushwalkers.com Subject: No need for waiver forms in good mobile phone reception areas Date sent: April 9, 2025

Hi SBW committee, If mobile phones and PLBs can be used to justify a weakening of our safety rules by reducing the minimum number of people allowed on a walk from 4 to 3, then the same argument can be used to justify the modification of other rules within the club. For example, sending a completed risk waiver / attendance form to sbwwaiver@gmail.com prior to a walk - for all walks - is part of the club's safety procedures, although - as we all know - this purely administrative burden for leaders does nothing to improve the safety of the people on the walk. If a walk occurs fully within an area with good mobile phone reception, there is actually no need for a leader to email the attendance form to the club, as the leader and every other walker on the activity can contact the police or ambulance should an accident occur, and all are contactable by their own safety backups, so there is no need for the club to know who is on the walk, who their emergency contacts are, and what the emergency contacts phone numbers are. I therefore suggest that if a club walk is in a mobile phone reception area then there is no need for leaders to send a risk waiver / attendance form to the club and this requirement for leaders should be removed. Regards, Brett TOP

This page shows one of the 35 suggestions to improve the club and its procedures sent by the Shoalhaven Bushwalkers webmaster to the SBW committee in 2025. The Shoalhaven Bushwalkers webmaster would have his membership cancelled for sending in these suggestions, although the real reason was probably because of two disputes he raised with the Shoalhaven Bushwalkers committee which they seemingly did not want to deal with. The cancellation of the webmaster's membership was arguably illegal under NSW law and could lead to the club being taken to court.