EOC Coordinator Manual

EOC Volunteer Newsletter, 2011/04/29

Hello EOC volunteers, and welcome to spring 2011 (hopefully)... only a month-and-a-half late. I’ve been riding my bike to work the last few weeks, and noticing that we’re finally starting to poke our noses (and hiking boots and bicycles) out the door. What a relief! In this edition of EOC Volunteer Business:

• Crossing your I’s and Dotting your T’s (Event Data)
• Recruiting (Begging for Volunteers)
• No Man Left Behind (Group Management)
• Volunteer Social at Pub 1905
• New Kids on the Block (Team Updates)

Crossing your I’s and Dotting your T’s (Event Data)

Part of the Volunteer Coordinator’s job is to check over new events when they’re posted and make sure the data is all complete and accurate. Members rely on the information provided to not only decide if an event is right for them, but also to find our group once they get there. I check a lot of things when I review events, but some of the key things I check for (and which frequently go out with errors are):

1. Difficulty Rating: Our difficulty ratings are all our own and a lot of work has gone into defining them. Every organization has some system for rating their activities, but compared to other organizations, ours were a little tougher because we’re one of the few clubs to offer the amazing range of activities that we offer, from socials to urban hikes to backpacking and mountain biking. Our difficulty ratings do not always match the ratings of other organizations, for example, a purely cycling club only has to rate their cycling events against other cycling events. We, on the other hand, have to rate our cycling events against the easiest social and the hardest backpack trip. Keep that in mind when reviewing our difficulty ratings - it'll help in understanding why even the easiest backpack starts at a D3 (in EOC-speak, there's no D1 in backpacking). For the sake of our members who have to gauge their own abilities against an event description, it is very important that our events consistently follow our difficulty ratings (see http://www.edmontonoutdoorclub.com/events/difficultyratings.asp). Note that if you’re going to do an event with a greater difficulty than normal, say, for example, a hike that is usually rated D3, but you want to go at a fast pace with minimal stopping, we do want you to up the difficulty rating by a notch (or even more, if warranted) to be properly indicative of how hard members will be expected to work. If you do bump up your difficulty rating for a good reason, please make sure you've explained your reason in the itinerary!
2. How to Find You: Have you given even the newest newbie enough information on how to find you and the group at the event? Try to offer clear landmarks, and ways to recognize you (for example, describe your vehicle, mention your EOC volunteer photo, wear your yellow EOC ball cap). If your event has a carpool, and you allow people to meet at the event, be sure to provide enough information for the folks who may choose to do that. Sometimes I see events which have wonderfully clear instructions for how to find the carpool, but then make no mention of how to identify the group at the trailhead.
3. Travel Costs: The web site calculates and displays an amount that members will be expected to pay for their carpool. It does this based on 8c/km for maintenance plus the current gas price divide by 9 (it's not a magic formula... it's just one that COC members chose and voted on before the EOC was even created). In order for the web site to calculate this amount (which should be fair to all parties), your round-trip kilometers needs to be accurate.
4. Multiple Days: If your event spans multiple days (ie. a weekend away, a backpack trip), I'll check to make sure you've selected all the dates for the event. Actually, I've seen very few mistakes in the EOC with this one, although it's one that COC volunteers frequently miss. Great work, gang!
5. Who to Pay: When you’re setting up an event that requires members to pay, keep in mind that on the screen where it says "Participants Will Make Payment to EOC Prior to Event", what it really means is "Participants Will Make Payment to Donna, Our Treasurer, Prior to the Event". Donna, naturally, prefers that you manage your own payments if you can, and the club does encourage that. If you are willing and able to do that, do NOT check the box. Yes, yes, sure, you are part of EOC, just like Donna is, but what happens in the web site will be dramatically different if you check the box vs not checking the box. If you check the box, the web site will do all kinds of things to facilitate people paying Donna... showing them screens with information about how to pay Donna... sending them reminders to pay Donna... and so on. If you don’t check the box but enter a Member Cost, the web site will know that people need to pay something to someone, but it will leave it up to you to put in the itinerary how and whom to pay. If I notice that you’ve checked the box for people to pay Donna, I’ll check your itinerary. If you’ve indicated in your itinerary that you want people to pay you directly, I’ll e-mail you to ask you to un-check the box.

Recruiting (Begging for Volunteers)

I feel very strongly that for our club to stay awesome, we need to continually recruit great new volunteers (and when I say "we", I mean "I"). Volunteering is not a forever thing. People's lives change, they move on, and frankly, if you volunteer long enough, you'll start to get tired of it and just want a break now and then. That is not only acceptable, but perfectly natural. For our club to continue offering lots of great events, that requires new, fresh blood and fresh enthusiasm... on a regular basis. Some of the things I do to recruit volunteers are:

1. Contact people directly who have been long-time members and who would be great volunteers
2. Hold the volunteer info / social events now and then for people to come out and get some information if they want to volunteer. NOTE that these events are also for YOU - our valued volunteers to come out and just relax and visit with one another. As volunteers, we get too little of that, and we often get too little time with some of our friends because we're all out there, busy, coordinating our own events.
3. Talk to people on events. If I meet someone who I think would be a good volunteer, I'll talk to them on events and encourage them to coordinate

I can't do it all by myself though - I need your help! I can't be everywhere or know everyone. If you know someone who may be interested in volunteering with us, or someone who you think would be a great volunteer, please mention it to them. Tell them that there's information on the web site on how to get started, and they can also contact me to get started.

No Man Left Behind (Group Management)

For the safety and enjoyment of all event participants, one of the main things we need from you as an event coordinator is to always use your good group management skills. In our Coordinator Manual we have some instruction on group management. Some of us do this stuff by nature, and some of us need to think about it. Please make sure that, when you're coordinating, you are doing this stuff:

1. Stop and collect at every junction
2. Stop and collect every 15 minutes
3. Don't make assumptions about the events members at the front or back.
4. Confirm through fact.

Additionally, Joanne has found and shared some documentation on group management and safety. Look in the "Outdoor Leadership Guide" guide section of our Files for Coordinators for great stuff like "Outdoor Leadership Chapter 1" and "Trip Leader Communication".

Volunteer Social at Pub 1905

I have posted my next volunteer social (and info session for new recruits) on Wednesday June 8th at Pub 1905 downtown. With May's help, I've re-worded the event description, which I understand some people found confusing.

Here's the new event description: Volunteer Social at Pub 1905

I hope you will be able to join for a casual get-together and visit. If you know anyone who may be interested in volunteering, please suggest the event to them as well. If you have suggestions for further tweaking on my wording, or any other ideas or suggestions for what you would like in a casual get-together with the team, please send them on to me.

New Kids on the Block (Team Updates)

I'm very pleased to announce that we've had a couple of new volunteers join the team recently (and David Z is close enough to having his star back that I'll be counting him soon too). Thanks to all of you who helped out with these volunteers getting trained up and ready to start!

1. Larry C, who says "Mountain biking has become my newest passion, and actually introduced me to the EOC in the late summer of 2010. I am looking forward to leading some photographic related events, exploration of some lesser known petroglyph sites and some great biking in our fantastic river Valley here in Edmonton as well as the mountains, and surrounding areas."
2. Colleen R, who says "I am an outdoor enthusiast and enjoy hiking, backpacking, biking, canoeing, climbing, skiing both downhill and cross-country, and my greatest passion is horseback riding. So hopefully you will see some of these events in the near future. Of course I have other interests namely travel, food, wine, socializing. If there is a way to incorporate these into outdoor activities I will find it."

That's it for now. Have fun and send your potential volunteers my way!

Rhonda Scheurer
Volunteer Coordinator
Edmonton Outdoor Club