Anstr Davidson

Supervisor of Facilities

This position would be a culmination of my years working with the PATC cabin reservation system. Cabins and shelters are two of the bright spots of the club's activities. Skilled, hard-working volunteers with good leadership care for these treasurers. The Supervisor of Facilities should support and not mess with that success.

That said, there are things to be done. In cabins, goals would be to improve the cabin reservation system (particularly keyless entry), ensure that renters take proper care of the cabins, promote cabin use during less popular times like summer and mid-week, and plan for the future of the cabins—is there a limit on how many we have? 

Cabin rental rates are important. They should give the club a fair return on its work while providing a reasonably priced experience in the outdoors. Increased costs will likely make rates go up. They should never, however, be raised just to make more money. 

I don’t have as much experience with shelters as cabins. But I do know that very dedicated people maintain them and that they are very important to users of the Appalachian and Tuscarora trails.

There is one other important facility – the headquarters building in Vienna. Everyone fled that building in March 2020, and it’s been lonely since. The club has not articulated a purpose for this building or its former occupants, in the post-COVID world. This is a big issue that should be addressed by management of the club. The Supervisor of Facilities should participate in that discussion.

All elected officers have a vote on everything. I intend to use mine to make the club better. The club is not broken. It does its primary work—maintaining trails-- well. The overhead for that work—the centralized management--needs improvement. 

It’s hard for members to send a message in an election with few, if any, choices.  If you have a message about facilities—cabins, shelters, or club headquarters--please send me an e-mail.

Relevant Experience

Cabins: Cabin Desk volunteer weekly (~10 years)

Acting Cabin Coordinator five times

Chair, Cabin Reservation Committee

Drafted first half of the PATC cabin book

Trails: Manager North Massanutten District

Trail maintainer – BROT

Trail maintainer - PHT

ExCom (eight years total): Supervisor of Communications (two terms)

VP for Volunteerism (one term)

 Secretary (currently)

Day job: Retired from career with federal government