EOC Coordinator Manual

EOC Volunteer Newsletter, 2011/02/24

Hello EOC Volunteers, and welcome to the February 24, 2011 edition of the EOC Volunteer Newsletter. In this edition:

• Volunteer Coordinator Vacation/Coverage
• Helping Others (Get Started as Coordinators)
• Spring Time is for Conditioning
• Proposed New Commandments - Follow-Up
• Cancellation Policy and Cut-Off Dates
• Discounts for Members

Volunteer Coordinator Vacation/Coverage

After work on March 4th, Brent and I (and our bicycles) will be flying to Australia, returning April 4th. I will probably be on e-mail some during that time, but also, Sandie will be providing some coverage in my absence. If you have any questions or need any help, please contact volunteer@edmontonoutdoorclub.com, as usual.

Helping Others (Get Started as Coordinators)

You can help other EOC members get started coordinating events. Per my proposed new commandment, you should not set up an event for someone that you won't be attending and helping with, but you can essentially put anyone on as your co-coordinator. If the person is just helping out with some aspect of the event, it doesn't matter if they're planning on getting their star. If you want to help someone who DOES want to get their star, though, make sure you follow this guide for co-coordinating with them to ensure that the event you co-coordinate with them will count towards their star. Send me a quick e-mail to let me know who you're training so that I can follow up with them on the other requirements for getting their star. I may do that after I get back, or Sandie may decide to do it in my absence.

I've already had some conversations with Michelle Bl*de, Colleen R*a, David Z*mrau and Geoff Falc*nar about coordinating events. If you get a request from them to co-coordinate, by all means, please do. And anyone else who you would recommend as a coordinator as well.
*vowels obscured to prevent individuals' names from coming up in Google searches

Spring Time is for Conditioning

I always find shoulder seasons kind of depressing. Conditions, and temperatures, often aren't good enough to do the things that I love most... hiking and cycling in the summer, snow shoeing and cross-country skiing in the winter. The saving grace of shoulder seasons (aside from going on vacation to a warm place) is the activities we can do to prepare for the coming season.

I'm very excited about all of the conditioning hikes that are popping up on the calendar for March and April. What better way to spend those mostly meh months than getting ready for summer hiking and backpacking! Joanne and Mae have a series of conditioning hikes set up for Tuesdays and Thursdays starting next week and running through the end of March (so far). They've also been talking about some gear education events, and to go along with their theme, I've brought forward a first aid/survival kit show-and-tell event that I did previously with the COC.

If you're interested in collaborating or being involved in the spring conditioning and preparation efforts, that's great - the more the merrier! I'm sure Joanne and Mae would welcome your ideas, enthusiasm and assistance. Our hikes and backpack events are always popular (to over-popular). And I haven't even mentioned cycling or other sports! If you can offer some cycle conditioning events, great! Brent and I will probably do some too, but we're not planning anything else until we're back in April.

Proposed New Commandments - Follow-Up

In my first newsletter, I sent out three new proposed Commandments for Event Coordinators. Shirley had some feedback about the "setting up events for non-volunteers" one, so I've completely reworded it from what I had originally. I think it is more clear this way.

The new, re-worded Commandments are:

• Thou Shalt Not Set Up Events for Non-Volunteers: We absolutely encourage you to put anyone on your event as your co-coordinator if they're helping out in some capacity. We believe that this gives credit to that person for whatever they've done to help with the event (for example, booking the venue). It saves you time and effort and an event gets done that otherwise might not have happened. HOWEVER, this does not mean that you can set up an event for someone else to coordinate. Only the Volunteer Coordinator can do that, and only under very specific circumstances (ie. a hopeful volunteer's final training event). This ensures that every EOC has an approved coordinator who either has their star, or is close to getting their star, who holds primary responsibility for the event. See Helping Others for more information about this commandment.
• Thou Shalt Not Post Co-Hosted Events: We have had issues in the past with co-hosted events, and at best we've found them to be troublesome. After some discussion 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).
• 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)

Cancellation Policy and Cut-Off Dates

I hope you all received the e-mails I sent out about a week ago regarding the proposed changes to the Cancellation Policy and a web site enhancement proposal regarding two Cut-Off Dates. If you want to refresh your memory on these, you can see them at:
- Cancellation Policy
- Cut-Off Dates

Thanks again to Ryan, Saeed and Dennis for all their help in coming up with these two proposals.

Discounts for Members

You may remember a while back Sandie included some Member Discounts in a club newsletter. More recently, Karl has set up a page on the web site providing an easy link to these Member Perks. You can find this page under "Member Info" on the left nav (after you're logged in). Make sure you check that out so you know what discounts are available to you, and also so you can tell other members about them!

Have a great March, and try not to wreck the place while I'm gone! ;P

Rhonda Scheurer
Volunteer Coordinator
Edmonton Outdoor Club