EOC Coordinator Manual

Commandments

1. Thou Shalt Understand our Policies and Procedures, and Follow Them. We are not going to stand over you to make sure you're following our procedures - we would not have chosen you as a volunteer if we didn't trust you to take responsibility for knowing what you need to do when volunteering for the EOC. Ask your mentor if you're unsure of anything, and if you haven't got a mentor, ask our Volunteer Coordinator, Mark (volunteer@edmontonoutdoorclub.com).
    
2. Thou Shalt Follow the Club's Safety Policy.
    
3. Thou Shalt Follow the Club's Rules and Etiquette Guidelines.
    
4. Thou Shalt Ensure Waiver Terms are Agreed to By All Members. EOC Members are automatically required to agree to the terms of the waiver before they sign up to or add their names to a waiting list for an event. In some cases, for example, automatic registration of a coordinator, or use of the Agent feature, the automatic waiver acceptance may be bypassed. The coordinator is responsible for ensuring all attendees have accepted the waiver. See the "Managing Upcoming Events" page for more information.
    
5. Thou Shalt Provide Accurate Web Site Data: Make sure that your distance and elevation are entered and accurate. Make sure that your round-trip kilometres are accurate for carpooling. After your event is completed, make sure that you update the attendee list so that our attendance records are as accurate as possible.
    
6. Thou Shalt Follow Our Difficulty Ratings: Be sure to follow our difficulty ratings when setting up your events (even if your guidebook says otherwise, or you personally disagree with them). Our members have come to expect consistency throughout the club based on the ratings described.
    
7. Thou Shalt Not Discriminate: The EOC is an "everyone welcome" club. This means we do not post events which discriminate against anyone based on age (except for adult-only for obvious reasons), marital status, gender, or anything else. No singles events, girls-only events, etc. please.
    
8. Thou Shalt Consider Others When Changing Events: If you have to (or want to) make a change to an event, please make sure you consider how it may affect those who are signed up. For example:
   - Do not change the time or meeting place with very little notice. If you do change the time of the event or meeting place (no matter how far in advance) use your "E-Mail" feature (under "Coordinate", "Future Events") to e-mail those signed up to let them know. If you make the change with short notice, or just before the weekend (some people only have their e-mail at work during the week), phone everyone on the list to confirm that they get the changes.
   - If you change the details of the activity (ie. switch to a different hike) for whatever reason (weather, etc), use your "E-Mail" feature (under "Coordinate", "Future Events") to e-mail those signed up to let them know.
   - If you are going to significantly change the maximum number of people on the event, send out an email to those already registered to notify them of the change. Some people choose an event based on group size and do not wish to be part of a much larger group, so you should provide adequate notification for these folks to withdraw if they wish.
   - If you change whether an event allows dogs, you must give attendees enough notice. If you are going from "no dogs" to allowing them, you should get the consent of everyone on the list before making that change - make sure you do this with enough time to give everyone at least two days to respond. Use the "E-Mail" feature (under "Coordinate", "Future Events") to send out a note such as "We have had a request to allow dogs on this event. Please let me know if you have any concerns or objections about making this change. If I don't hear from you by Thursday afternoon, I'll assume that it's ok with you." (Give them at least 48 hours on that deadline). If someone asks you to change your event to allow dogs at the last minute, please refuse the request with a reply such as "Regarding bringing your dog, I'm sorry but for this particular event, you won't be able to bring them. The event was set up originally to not allow them, and since we are now only two days away from the event, it is too late for me to follow up with everyone to make sure that they are okay with changing that aspect of the event. It is our policy to not make last minute changes to events involving whether or not to allow dogs, just because many people look for these things when they sign up for an event. In the future, if you're able to give me a bit more notice that you'd like to bring your dog, I can send out a note to the group to confirm that it is ok with everyone to make that change."  NOTE that your opinion counts too! If you do not want to allow dogs on your event, you can simply refuse (or tell the requestor that there was an objection from the group to making the change).
    
9. Thou Shalt Not Set Up Events for Non-Coordinators: Each of our events must have a starred volunteer coordinating and attending to ensure quality. Although you are welcome to add whomever you like for your co-coordinators, you should never set up an event for a non-volunteer which you won't be attending and coordinating yourself.
    
10. Thou Shalt Not Line Jump: Our events are first-come-first-serve. If your event develops a waiting list, please be sure to take folks in the order that they signed up. If you line jump, this will cause hard feelings among the membership. There are a few exceptions to this rule. Please see our FAQ for more info. Some examples: If someone has 2+ no-shows on their account, you may skip over them. If you do not have enough drivers on your event, you may take people willing to drive before you take those who can't, or prefer not to.
     
11. Thou Shalt Keep Reasonable Group Sizes: Set your maximum as your true maximum number you want to take. Generally speaking, you should never add more than 20% over your maximum to the list (to account for last-minute cancellations and no-shows). Mountain events should rarely exceed 20 people. For more difficult events the maximum should be set lower (ie 8-10 people for difficult scrambles, trips into avalanche territory). Trips to the same location should be set at least an hour apart, although the preference would be to do something else - there's lots to choose from.
       
12. Thou Shalt Remember That We Are First and Foremost an Outdoor Club: Please remember in choosing and planning events that at least 2 out of every 3 activities should be outdoor activities, rather than social activities.