EOC Coordinator Manual

EOC Volunteer Newsletter, 2011/01/26

Hello EOC Volunteers, and welcome to the introductory edition of my EOC Volunteer Newsletter. In this edition:

• Greetings from EOC’s new Volunteer Coordinator
• Managing Your Own Paid Events
• Time to Update Bios and Photos
• Policy Suggestion: Three new EOC Commandments
• Event Suggestion: Cross-Country Ski lessons with Adventure Plus (A+)
• Team Updates
• EOC Volunteer Wall of Fame

Greetings from EOC’s New Volunteer Coordinator

Effective January 5th (our last volunteer meeting), I am the EOC’s new Volunteer Coordinator. Many of you know me already, so this will be more of a "refresher" than actual news.

I have been somewhat involved in the EOC since its very beginning, having helped Stephanie start the club, based on the Calgary Outdoor Club, back in March 2006. For the first several years of the club’s life, however, I was living in Calgary and had little or no occasion to come up here. In March of 2008, I came to town with a few COCers and went on an EOC urban hike, which was the extent of my involvement before I met Brent. In summer of 2008 I went with a group of COCers to go hiking in Newfoundland. My friend, Joel, invited his friend, Brent, from Edmonton, to come along, and the rest, as they say, is history. Since Brent and I have gotten together, I’ve been much more involved in EOC. About a year ago, I moved up here and tried a couple of roles with EOC, but with everything else going on in my life at the time, I wasn’t able to keep up with my extra-curricular commitments and backed way off from several things, including volunteering for EOC.

Last December, about a year after I moved here, I started to feel really settled in and ready to do things again. That’s when I decided that I would like to renew my involvement in EOC and asked for my star back. I was planning to put my hand up for a Director position as well, but when Sandie decided to resign as Volunteer Coordinator, I put my hand up for that instead. VC has been my favourite position with the Calgary Outdoor Club - a position that I held, and developed, with them over the course of several years. I love helping new volunteers get started, and helping current volunteers with questions and concerns. I believe that our volunteers are what make our club - without our volunteers we have no events, and without events, we have no club.

My job description as the EOC’s Volunteer Coordinator is:

• Recruit event coordinators from experienced and knowledgeable membership base
• Train and coach event coordinators on club procedures for leading events
• Assist new event coordinators with their first events as needed
• Be an information resource for Event Coordinators, including:
  • Answer event coordinators' questions and/or put them in touch with the appropriate volunteer
  • Provide appropriate event coordination documentation in the form of an Event Coordinator's Manual, plus support files
• Monitor events to ensure procedure is being followed properly by all coordinators
• Follow-up periodically with inactive coordinators to ensure that the volunteer page stays current and up-to-date

I've been working on a manual for my job, a lot of which I've taken from the one I developed for COC. If you're interested in seeing it, it is on the left nav Processes called Volunteer Coordination.

Note that I am not responsible for volunteers who do other jobs besides event coordination. That still lies with the club executive - Susan and Saeed. I am also not responsible for taking disciplinary action with event coordinators. If something is not going well with a coordinator, my first responsibility is to train and coach the volunteer to ensure that club policies and procedures are followed, and club standards are met. If that does not work, I would escalate the issue to the executive who would decide on a course of action.

If you have any suggestions or ideas for how I may be an effective Volunteer Coordinator, please send them to me. I will also be working on updating our Event Coordinator Manual to make sure it is complete and up-to-date. If there’s anything wrong or missing that you notice, please let me know so that I can update it.

Please note that I will be absent from March 4th to April 4th as Brent and I will be in Australia, visiting and cycling. Sandie has agreed to hold down the fort for me while I'm gone. If you have any questions or comments during that time, please continue to send them to volunteer@edmontonoutdoorclub.com, but note that I'm not asking Sandie to take care of everything... just to keep the lights on.

Managing Your Own Paid Events

In the past, it was against EOC’s rules for coordinators to manage their own event payments. Payments were required to go through the Treasurer. Last year, that policy was relaxed, and coordinators are encouraged to manage their own payments when possible. Working with our Treasurer, Donna, I have updated our policies and procedures regarding Paid Events and put together some suggestions for how to manage your paid events to cause yourself, and Donna, the least amount of hassle possible. Please review our Paid Events page in our manual and let me know if you have any questions or suggestions.

If you’re considering running a paid event and would like any assistance or suggestions, please feel free to contact me for help.

Time to Update Bios and Photos

Is it time to refresh your volunteer bio and/or photo? Depending on how long you’ve been a volunteer with EOC, you may wish to update some things. Please take a moment to review your bio and photo on our Volunteers page.

Does your photo even look like you anymore? That’s actually quite important - it helps new folks recognize you at events. If you would like to send in a new photo, just send me your photo without worrying about cropping or re-sizing it. I will do that. Just make sure that I can get a recognizable image of your face from it - it should be relatively high resolution, and from a fairly close distance; not too shaded; not too much obscuring gear (ie. helmet, sunglasses) on your head. Bonus points if you’re wearing the yellow EOC ball cap in your photo.

Does your bio accurately reflect your current situation and interests? Does it contain all the information (ie. preferred pace) that people may find relevant in deciding whether your events are the right fit for them? If you would like to update your bio, please send me the new wording you would like. If you would like some suggestions for what to include in your bio, please refer to the following questions:

1. How long have you been in Edmonton? Try to use absolutes (ie. "since January 1997") rather than relatives (ie. "for six months") which become out-dated very quickly.
2. Where did you live before and what brought you to Edmonton?
3. What are you outdoor interests?
4. What are your other interests?
5. What do you do for a living?
6. What kinds of events do you coordinate for the club?
7. What are your events (ie. hikes) like as far as pace? Are you a fairweather outdoors person or a determined die-hard?
8. Do you like to explore and go on side trips, or stick closely to your planned itinerary?
9. Anything else you can think of that may help people understand what to expect when considering one of your events.

Policy Suggestion: Three new EOC Commandments

The EOC’s Event Coordinator Manual was originally copied from the COC’s Event Coordinator Manual. Since then, we have diverged somewhat in our policies and procedures. We have updated our manual, and COC has updated its manual and the two have gotten out of synch. COC has three commandments in their Coordinator Manual that I would like to suggest we add to our own. I will not be at the next volunteer meeting, but I would like to put this on the table for discussion and decision in my absence. Here are the three commandments that I would like to add to our existing list:

1. Thou Shalt Not Set Up Events for Unapproved Coordinators: All EOC events must have a coordinator who either has their star, or has been approved to work towards their star (Coordinator In Training) on them, who holds primary responsibility for the event. See Helping Others for more information about this commandment.
2. Thou Shalt Not Post Co-Hosted Events: We have had many issues in the past with co-hosted events, and at best we've found them to be troublesome. After some discussion and debate about what is best for our club, we decided to implement a policy that all posted events will be EOC-only - we won't try to co-host with other groups. This helps us ensure that the consistency and quality of our events is preserved and that there are no misunderstandings or confusion over how two groups can merge (especially when there are completely different policies and procedures around waivers and such).
3. Thou Shalt Do No Harm (or at least do everything you can to minimize harm): Although the EOC's mission is to get people into the Great Outdoors for fun and fitness, we consider it to be of high importance to do our best to do no harm (or at least as little as possible). Please ensure that your events follow this guideline, including:
   • Fostering a positive reputation for EOC in the community (by following the laws and guidelines of any area that you take a group to)
   • Respecting the environments and ecosystems that your events occur in and minimizing harm (particularly in more delicate areas, ie alpine)
   • Respecting the purpose of the area you're recreating in and not spoiling it for others (ie. hiking or snow shoeing on groomed cross-country ski areas)

Event Suggestion: Cross-Country Ski lessons with Adventure Plus (A+)

I received an e-mail from a fellow named Doug Bezovie offering cross-country ski lessons. This is not an event that Brent and I are interested in (or available to) coordinate at this time, but I thought I would pass it along to you all in case you may be interested. Please contact Doug directly if you think you would like to set up this event for EOC.

Team Updates

Since I started as VC, we haven't had any new volunteers join the team, but this section is where I would normally announce our new folk, as well as our departing volunteers. I am trying to do a bit of recruiting and see if we can add some new blood to the team this year. If you know anyone who may be interested, please encourage them to contact me and/or attend one of my Volunteer Social events.

Speaking of the Volunteer Socials, we had our first one last night at Flare Lounge with a few folks coming out, including three new hopeful volunteers - yay! These events are for ALL of our volunteers to come out and just have a nice visit. Although volunteering has many benefits, one of the bad things about it is that once we start coordinating our own events, we often don't see certain people anymore because we are no longer attending their events. This is a great opportunity to reconnect. In addition to our current volunteers, I encourage people who may be interested in volunteering with us to come out, visit, and get some information in a no-pressure format. Lastly, but certainly not least, these events are also for our volunteer alumni. The folks who have left our team, but would like to come on out and see everyone. The next one will be on April 20th at Mae's. Hope to see you out, and please pass this along to anyone who you think may be interested (ie. potential/future volunteers and alumni).

There have been some other team changes (besides Sandie/me) that you may want to familiarize yourself with, especially if you weren’t at the volunteer meeting. Please see our up-to-date volunteers page, and note the following: Saeed is our new Vice President, and Joanne is our new Safety Coordinator.

EOC Volunteer Wall of Fame

Some interesting info about our team:

• Our most active event coordinator in the past three months is Sandie with 10 events. Other coordinating maniacs include Joanne with 9 events, and Wes and Narmin with 7 events each.
• The most events coordinated ever, by far, is by Sandie with 117 events, and Ryan is in second with 81 events coordinated total.
• Some of our volunteers have been on the team since... well, almost since forever! The club started in March 2006, and the following coordinators have been around since the club’s first year:
  • Donna started volunteering with us in June of 2006
  • Shirley started in August of 2006
  • Keith started in February of 2007
• Missing the "first year" kudos ever so slightly are:
  • Narmin who started with us in May of 2007
  • Jeff who started with us in July of 2007

Thanks for all your efforts. I look forward to working with you all to make 2011 the best year ever for EOC!

Rhonda Scheurer
Volunteer Coordinator
Edmonton Outdoor Club