Hiking clubs are quite popular among fitness buffs and it is likely you have heard about them before. In the unlikely event that you have not, here are a few words of introduction for you. Hiking clubs can mean many things, but mostly they refer to groups of persons who share a common interest in hiking. They are hikers. They hike on a regular basis, say twice or thrice a week. Hikers who belong to a hiking club often hike together as a group.
Hiking together as a group has many advantages. First, having as company the one who shares the passion of hiking with you makes the hike doubly exciting and satisfying. Second, hiking in groups, especially with experienced hikers, means added security. The combined knowledge and experience of the group can be useful to prevent accidents from happening, or for the group to avoid harmful situations.
There is also the so-called long-distance hiking adventure. These hiking trips take you farther from your usual hiking parks or trails. These trips often entail camping or even checking in at hotels. Due to the relative complexity of ensuring that hiking trips of this kind will become rewarding, organizing them are best undertaken by hiking clubs. This also helps lessen the cost by spreading them equitably among those who wish to make it to these trips. In this sense joining hiking clubs becomes important, if not necessary. You can also draw fraternal support from fellow hiking club members in case any of your family members or friends are unable to join you in these trips.
And when you get to the point of weighing the benefits of membership in hiking clubs, keep in mind that hiking clubs are not of exactly the same makeup. For example, they may differ in terms of how they intend to attain their objectives. There are hiking clubs whose members come together only for hiking trips or adventures. There are also hiking clubs that go beyond these activities, like holding meetings as frequently as once a week or once a month. Their agenda in these meetings ranges from exchanging ideas on hiking equipment or accessories, to planning for hiking trips, to fundraising, and many other things. Enterprising hiking clubs have, for instance, went into car washing and vending chicken barbeques to generate funds for their hiking trips. What all this means is that the benefits you may want to derive from joining a hiking club will depend on what mold of hiking clubs attracts you.
There are other considerations you need to remember when you do decide to join a hiking club. Hiking clubs charge membership fees at rates that vary from one club to the other. Be prudent enough to pick the one that suits your budget. Another point is the structure of your daily activities. For example, is it possible for you to make yourself available for weekly or monthly meetings? If this is not, it might work better for you if you join hiking clubs that demand [...]
Archive for October, 2009
Exciting Benefits Of Joining Hiking Clubs
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Basics for Planning a Mission Trip
It’s final, after much prayer, you’ve decided to take youth from your church on a mission trip. “Now,” you may ask, “what do I do next?”
The first item of business is prayer. When deciding where to take your team, you must first realize there are hundreds if not thousands of opportunities for mission work. Pray, asking God to lead you to the place where your team can serve the best.
The next step would be to set the date for your trip. Most places are flexible enough to work with you on the trip date if you begin your planning soon enough. It is important to begin planning at least six to eight months prior to the date you choose. Allowing this much time ensures the chances of scheduling the trip when it best suits your team. You can plan a trip in less time, but I would advise against trying it.
Putting a team together is somewhat difficult. Rules and guidelines should be in place well in advance of the trip. Once you decide where you are going, the missionaries in that area will help you in deciding the dress code, expected rules of conduct etc. You should have written, clear and defined guidelines for members to adhere. Communicate your expectations to the team.
Most ministry areas have age or grade completion requirements. Usually youth must have completed ninth grade to participate. In addition to age requirement, you will need to consider your youth and the qualifications of the team.
Age should not be the only qualifier. The youth need to realize volunteering for missions is a huge commitment. It is important to schedule sign-up opportunities for around a month. During this time advertise and promote mission opportunities. If at this point you already know where you are going, I do not recommend announcing the trip location. Those choosing to go should do so for the mere reason to serve.
WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO?
Now that you know the date and your team is in place, you should determine the type of work your team can do. Is your team more of the service type? Do they want to paint, clean, build or do some other service work? Maybe they are a creative ministry team, or more of a sports camp team, or possibly a resort ministry team. What exactly does your team want to do?
Once you determine the kind of ministries is best for your team, this is the time to visit the North American Mission Board website (namb.net). You will find many opportunities depending on your team’s abilities. Clicking on the Find Opportunities button will lead you to the bridge.
The Bridge is an excellent web tool on the North American Mission Board website (namb.net). Southern Baptist Missionaries across the United States who are seeking teams to help in their ministry, provide a list of their needs. After registering, you will have the chance to review and select a project type. Narrow your choices by region. At this point, you should decide [...]
Round Tripping of Funds
ROUND TRIPPING
Introduction:
Round Tripping refers to the capital belonging to a country, which leaves the country and is then reinvested into the country in the form of FDI.
This route attracts a lot of incentives, which are:
Firstly, enterprises set up through FDI enjoy
tax benefits,
administrative support,
easier access to financial services.
Secondly, citizens’ from countries with weak property laws prefer to remove profits from their country and invest abroad to enjoy property rights rather than reinvesting their profits.
Thirdly, Round Tripping is often used as an avenue for laundering one’s illegitimate money.
It is due to these reasons that tax havens like Mauritius, the British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Cyprus etc. are used. These places are of immense advantage as money routed through them is exempt from capital gains tax.
Methodology:
Analysis of case studies.
Internet web pages and legal websites.
Legal journals, reports and opinions.
Limitations:
Round Tripping in itself is a very unregulated and ambiguous phenomenon so the literature available is extremely rare and deficient; therefore this report has drawn inferences from the available material to draw out a viable overview of the entire scenario.
Literature Reviewed/ Bibliography:
The Securities and Exchange Board of India Act, 1992
Articles published in The Hindu newspaper
Articles published in The Economic Times newspaper
The Law lexicon
Theoretical Framework:
The tussle between the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the Revenue Department
Lately it has been observed that the RBI is leaning towards legitimizing certain types of Round Tripping.
The RBI’s view on the subject is that money reinvested in India through a foreign subsidiary of an Indian company should be considered foreign direct investment and that in many parts of the world such as China these aspects have already been legitimized. It feels that doing so would boost the FDI count of the country and render it a more attractive destination for foreign investment.
However, the Revenue Department looking from a microeconomic point of view feels that round tripping should not be allowed as Indian companies may use it to evade tax by routing their money through the tax havens.
Although in such cases FDI might increase but the country would not benefit in terms of revenue.
The RBI disagreeing with the revenue department’s assessment, cites the Chinese example arguing that where subsidiaries of foreign companies are levied a lower corporate tax, the incidence of round tripping is extremely high i.e. more than 25-30 per cent. However, in India where the corporate tax rates are the same for all companies the incidence of Round Tripping is only 2-3 per cent.
It is pertinent to note that the RBI stand is with regard to legitimizing Round Tripping within the sphere of the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) definition of FDI only and does not intend to accommodate Round Tripping as a means of escaping tax or laundering ill-legitimate gains. In pursuance of this, recently the RBI has set forth directives with regards to Participatory Notes and tighter Know Your Customer (KYC) norms.
Instances where permission has been refused
1. Bharti Share Transfer case
In 2001, the Government i.e. the FIPB on the advice of the Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) rejected two proposals [...]