EOC Coordinator Manual

EOC Volunteer Newsletter, 2011/11/22

Greetings EOC volunteers and welcome to the Fall 2011 edition of the EOC Volunteer Newsletter:

• Vacant Officer Positions
• Important Reminders
• Event Photo Albums
• Team Updates
• Event Coordinator Social

Vacant Officer Positions

The club currently has some open officer positions: Vice President, Secretary and Safety and Equipment Officer. We will be sending out a newsletter looking for candidates to fill these positions, but we'd also like your help by way of gently encouraging anyone you know who would be interested and make a good volunteer. We don't want to pressure anyone, but some people appreciate some encouragement before they step up to the plate.

Important Reminders

• "Perks for Coordinators": In March of 2010, we had a decision to allow coordinators to collect extra money from attendees for out-of-town events to partially cover their own costs. This is a recognition of the hidden costs and extra effort required for setting up out-of-town events. We did not have an official policy regarding in-town events, however... until our most recent meeting. The team decided that attendees should not be made to subsidize coordinator costs for in-town events. I will be adding this information (as well as the specific guidelines for out-of-town events) to the coordinator manual in the next couple of weeks. Please let me know if you have any questions about this (or other event coordination policies).
  
  
• Safety and Liability: Remember to always make safety a top priority. I don’t think there’s any need for us to be super paranoid about being sued, however, it’s still important to keep it in mind as a possibility and protect yourself accordingly.
  
  What does this mean to you? Well, remember that the EOC is a 100% volunteer-run organization but it is not a registered society and it does not carry any kind of insurance. Susan is investigating options for getting insurance, but it is not easy (or cheap). There has never been a volunteer successfully sued in Canada, which is GREAT news, however, that doesn't mean that there wouldn't be legal fees associated with defending yourself if someone tried... and, being a volunteer won't protect you if you are found personally negligent. The EOC is not a legal entity and cannot be sued. If there's any suing to be done, the volunteer would be personally sued. Always consider safety and use your best judgment on events to protect yourself from personal liability with regards to negligence.
  
  I have done a tremendous amount of research into waivers and liability through my volunteer work with the Calgary Outdoor Club. Our waiver (we used the COC’s as a basis for our own) has been reviewed by a lawyer - twice - and received only minor feedback (we made some small changes). The lawyer advised that our waiver was very comprehensive and good quality, BUT, the waiver is only protection for situations in which the volunteer involved is not negligent. Our best protection, therefore, is to not behave in a negligent fashion. So what does that mean? I did a bunch of research into negligence as well, and of course, we’re dealing with the law so there are no simple answers. The question asked in order to determine the presence of negligence is 'What would a reasonable person do under the same circumstances?' That’s pretty vague, and, as far as I’m concerned, very open to interpretation and depends on who has the best lawyer arguing for them. But it is something for you to be aware of as that would be the yardstick used to determine if you are negligent in a situation where someone were to get hurt (or, heaven forbid, killed) on one of your events. Were your actions consistent with what a reasonable person would do in the same circumstances?
  
  So, don't let this turn you paranoid or overly cautious, but do make safety a priorty and use your best judgement. Your best protection is to use that grey stuff between your ears to make sure you're not doing something that is going to get someone hurt. Which none of us wants anyway, and not just to avoid being sued. :)
  
  
• Minimum Transaction - Internet Banking: Internet Banking is a great tool for event payments - whether you manage them yourself or get Donna to do it. Unfortunately, the minimum transaction amount for Internet Banking is $10, which makes it impossible for people to pay for events, or for us to reimburse people for events, if the price is less than $10. I will update the Paid Events section of our coordinator manual with this information to help you avoid causing hassle to your attendees, yourself, or Donna.

Event Photo Albums

For a long time now, all club photo albums have been set up by our Photo Historian, Larry Le. I was actually under the impression that it was a club policy that photos go through Larry. Turns out, that's not the case - we can go through Larry if we want, but we can also post our own albums if we wish. I have added some instructions to the "Completing Your Event" section of the Coordinator Manual for those of you who are interested in posting your own albums. NOTE, though, that even if you post your own albums, you should always still forward the photos to Larry so that he has the photos in our archive and for photo contests. To ensure you're not causing Larry extra work, though, make sure you accompany the photos with a note indicating that you've posted them to the web site so he knows he doesn't have to do that part. If you need the password for our Fotki account, you can get that from Larry (or myself).

Team Updates

Please join me in welcoming our new Event Coordinators:
- Glen
- Michel
Geoff Falconar and Ian Johnston are still in training - please do whatever you can to help them out. If you know anyone, or meet anyone who you think would be a good Event Coordinator, please encourage them to contact me and/or come out to the Event Coordinator Social on December 8th.

With regards to how we're doing for events, we spent most of 2011 on-par with the last couple of years, but once October hit, our event count made a big leap. Our biggest Octobers before were in the mid-20s for events (2009/2010), but this year we did 36 events in October! November also has the potential to be a big month with 25 events currently on the calendar (26 has been our biggest November so far). If we add more events for November, we'll beat our record for this month, too. Kudos and huge thanks to our volunteers who are just coordinating their little hearts out - Ian, Sandie and Christine hit double digits over the past three months, and Narmin (5), Sandie (3), Ian (3) and Glen (3) are leading the charge of future events.

Event Coordinator Social

I have posted our next Event Coordinator Social for December 8th (Thursday). I hope you'll be able to join me (no, you don't have to be an Event Coordinator to come... any/every volunteer is welcome!!).

Have a fun winter and stay warm!

Rhonda Scheurer
Volunteer Coordinator
Edmonton Outdoor Club