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Happy Holidays from the WEA - 2012 International Conference on Outdoor Leadership and the International Registry of Outdoor Leaders

National Office WEA - noemail@weainfo.org — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 22:03:48 GMT

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From the WEA National Office

This time of year is marked by many exciting events. The fall semester comes to a close, the holidays arrive and we take time to celebrate and spend time with family and friends. It is my hope that each of you have a wonderful holiday season and remember all of the good things in your life!

We haven't sent out a newsletter in a while and want to take this opportunity to share with you some exciting things happening at the WEA.

Mary Stuessy

WEA Executive Director

PS Check out this May LNT Master Educator Course in Indiana offered by WEA Organizational Member Green Earth Outdoors!

2012 International Conference on Outdoor Leadership

Early Registration Deadline Registration EXTENDED TO JANUARY 2!

In the spirit of holiday cheer, we have extended the early registration deadline to January 2. Registration rates will indeed go up on January 3, no exceptions so take advantage of this holiday extension and we will see you in February!

Still seeking conference presentation proposals.

If you are interested in presenting at the conference, we still have a few spaces available. 2nd round submissions will be accepted through January 6th! Please submit your conference proposal ASAP so that you have the best opportunity to present in February.

Click the presentation track you would like to present in to access the call for proposals:

Wilderness Education Association Membership

5 reasons to become a WEA Member:

Start a personal outdoor leadership online portfolio via the International Registry of Outdoor Leaders*
Fab dealson gear and clothing via the WEA Members Only ProMotive team.
Monthly newsletters to keep up to date on WEA happenings
Disounted registration for the International Conference on Outdoor Leadership
Support the WEA's mission to promote the professionalism of the outdoor leadership industry!

Curious about WEA Accreditation and/or the International Registry of Outdoor Leaders? We are designing several webinars to provide a more interactive way for interested individuals and organizations to learn about these programs and how to get involved:

Click here to complete the webinar interest form

For Certified Outdoor Leaders and Instructors:

Did you obtain your OL Certification or Instructor status prior to 2010? If so, you probably have a lot o questions about the IROL and how it affects you. We are designing a webinar to sort through all of the details and set you up for success.

For Folks new to the WEA:

Are you new to the WEA and have questions about WEA Accreditation and the IROL? We are putting together a webinar just for you!

Click Here to cmplete the webinar interest form

Upcoming Organizational Member Events!

Wilderness First Responder
Speaker's Name:
Day: Monday 2-Jan-12 8:00 AM to Tuesday 10-Jan-12 5:30 PM
Location: University of Minnesota Minneapolis, MN
Summary: Certification is through the Wilderness Medicine Training Center (WMTC) ...
Add to Calendar
Posted by: Paul Nicolazzo

LNT Master Educator Course - Big Bend (Course is full!)
Sponsor: Baylor University
Speaker's Name:
Day: Tuesday 3-Jan-12 8:30 AM to Saturday 7-Jan-12 5:30 PM
Location: Big Bend National Park, Texas
Summary: Come join Baylor University on a c...
Add to Calendar
Posted by: National Office WEA

Wilderness First Responder
Speaker's Name:
Day: Wednesday 4-Jan-12 8:30 AM to Sunday 8-Jan-12 5:30 PM
Location: University of Nebraska - Lincoln Outdoor Adventures Lincoln, Nebraska
Summary: Certification is through the Wilderness Medicine Training Center (WMTC) ...
Add to Calendar
Posted by: Paul Nicolazzo

Wilderness First Responder
Speaker's Name:
Day: Wednesday 4-Jan-12 8:30 AM to Sunday 8-Jan-12 5:30 PM
Location: Sonoma State University 1801 East Cotati Avenue Rohnert Park, CA 94928
Summary: Certification is through the Wilderness Medicine Training Center (WMTC) ...
Mapquest | Add to Calendar
Posted by: Paul Nicolazzo

Wilderness EMT Module
Speaker's Name:
Day: Wednesday 4-Jan-12 8:30 AM to 5:30 PM
Location:
Summary: ...
Add to Calendar
Posted by: Paul Nicolazzo

Wilderness EMT Module
Speaker's Name:
Day: Wednesday 4-Jan-12 8:30 AM to Sunday 8-Jan-12 5:30 PM
Location: University of Nebraska - Lincoln Outdoor Adventures Lincoln, NE
Summary: Certification is through the Wilderness Medicine Training Center (WMTC) ...
Add to Calendar
Posted by: Paul Nicolazzo

Wilderness First Responder
Speaker's Name:
Day: Wednesday 4-Jan-12 8:30 AM to Sunday 8-Jan-12 5:30 PM
Location: Sonoma State University 1801 East Cotati Avenue Rohnert Park, CA 94928
Summary: Certification is through the Wilderness Medicine Training Center (WMTC) ...
Mapquest | Add to Calendar
Posted by: Paul Nicolazzo

Wilderness EMT Module
Speaker's Name:
Day: Wednesday 4-Jan-12 8:30 AM to Sunday 8-Jan-12 5:30 PM
Location: Sonoma State University 1801 East Cotati Avenue Rohnert Park, CA 94928
Summary: Certification is through the Wilderness Medicine Training Center (WMTC) ...
Mapquest | Add to Calendar
Posted by: Paul Nicolazzo

Wilderness First Responder
Speaker's Name:
Day: Saturday 7-Jan-12 8:00 AM to Sunday 15-Jan-12 5:30 PM
Location: University of Puget Sound Tacoma, WA
Summary: Certification is through the Wilderness Medicine Training Center (WMTC) ...
Add to Calendar
Posted by: Paul Nicolazzo

Wilderness Medicine Recertification
Speaker's Name:
Day: Saturday 14-Jan-12 8:00 AM to Sunday 15-Jan-12 5:30 PM
Location: University of Puget Sound Tacoma, WA
Summary: Certification is through the Wilderness Medicine Training Center (WMTC) ...
Add to Calendar
Posted by: Paul Nicolazzo

Wilderness First Aid
Speaker's Name:
Day: Saturday 18-Feb-12 8:00 AM to Monday 20-Feb-12 5:30 PM
Location: Adams State College Alamosa, CO
Summary: Certification is through the Wilderness Medicine Training Center (WMTC) ...
Add to Calendar
Posted by: Paul Nicolazzo

2012 ICOL Exhibitor Registration
Sponsor: Wilderness Education Association
Speaker's Name:
Day: Sunday 19-Feb-12 8:30 AM to Tuesday 21-Feb-12 10:00 PM
Location: Estes Park, Colorado
Summary: Stand-alone Exhibitor Table: Skirted table BEST FOR:...
Register Add to Calendar
Posted by: National Office WEA

2012 ICOL Registration
Sponsor: Wilderness Education Association
Speaker's Name: Andrew Buerger, Founder, Climb for Hope
Day: Sunday 19-Feb-12 1:00 PM to Tuesday 21-Feb-12 10:00 PM
Location: YMCA of the Rockies Estes Park, CO
Summary: Early Registration Deadline Extended...
Register Add to Calendar
Posted by: National Office WEA

Wilderness First Aid
Speaker's Name:
Day: Friday 24-Feb-12 8:00 AM to Saturday 25-Feb-12 5:30 PM
Location: Alderleaf Wilderness College Monroe, WA
Summary: Certification is through the Wilderness Medicine Training Center (WMTC) ...
Add to Calendar
Posted by: Paul Nicolazzo

Join us in Estes Park, CO!

WEA + LNT = Master Educator Course Opportunities!

The WEA has been a provider of LNT Master Educator courses since 2005. Through our agreement with the Center for Outdoor Ethics, we are able to offer Master Educator Courses through our network of Organizational Members. If your organization is interested in partnering with the WEA to bring LNT ME courses to your area, please contact the WEA National Office.

nationaloffice@weainfo.org

If you want to take a LNT ME course through the WEA, please check out our course page with our 2012 courses!

www.weainfo.org/lnt

Other things to do over the holidays......

Like the WEA on Facebook

Start using Goodsearch (Enter us as the organization you are earning money for!)

Subscribe to the JOREL

20-Dec-11 5:03 PM

A Primer on Controlled and Automated Decision-Making for Outdoor Leaders

Nate Furman - noemail@weainfo.org — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 16:00:00 GMT

A Primer on Controlled and Automated Decision-Making for Outdoor Leaders

Nate Furman

Adventure Education Program

Green Mountain College

Decision-making is a critical topic for wilderness educators, but the sheer number of decision theories can make it challenging for outdoor leaders to gain a broad sense of the literature. In recent years, a number of papers on decision-making in outdoor education environments have been published. These articles often focus on specific decision-making topics, such as heuristic traps (e.g., McCammon, 2004) and naturalistic decision-making (e.g., Galloway, 2007). Rather than investigate one specific type of decision-making phenomenon, this paper seeks to provide a broad overview of the decision-making literature, most particularly how the roles of automated and controlled decision-making processes operate.

Decisions are thought to be made by (a) controlled, deliberative processes and/or by (b) intuitive, automated processes. Several theoretical models, called dual-process models (e.g., Evans, 2008), account for both of these types of decisions, and suggest that most decisions are not “process pure”—meaning that individuals usually rely on both processes in most decisions. Automated processes are often referred to as intuitive, tacit, heuristic-based, and affective. Controlled processes are often referred to as rational, step-wise, cognitive, and deliberative .

The question of when to use which process should be approached with care. In general, a deliberative approach works well in many outdoor education contexts. In the field, we often work in instructor teams without pressing time constraints, and as such, there is limited utility to using automated decision processes. Using deliberative models of decision-making makes it easier to share decision-making with co-instructors and students. Students often appreciate instructors being “transparent” in their decision-making, and relying on intuition-based decision processes makes it more difficult to communicate why and how a particular decision was made.

Other times, though, using an automated process is warranted, but only if the decision-maker is an expert, or if the decision is relatively unimportant. If the decision is unimportant, then intuition can be an effective decision-making method for even inexperienced instructors (particularly if the opportunity to reflect on the decision is created). If the decision has serious consequences, then only highly experienced practitioners should rely on automated processes.

Expertise plays a major role in which type of decision-making process should be used. Expertise is thought to develop from (a) beginner to (b) advanced beginner to (c) competent to (d) proficient to (e) expert. Further, expertise is highly context-specific, which is important in remember for outdoor leaders. One instructor might be an expert kayaking instructor, but needs to remember that their expertise is limited to teaching kayaking; they are likely not expert wilderness medicine practitioners, and should they be called upon to perform wilderness medicine, should probably use more deliberative decision-making strategies.

Decision complexity is also a factor in when outdoor leaders should rely on automated or controlled processes. Many researchers suggest that when the decision is highly complex—meaning there are too many alternatives, the alternatives are ambiguous, and there is time pressure—that decision-makers are wise to use automated processes (although there is significant disagreement about this idea). These situations are relatively rare in outdoor education, though, as we typically are faced with a fixed set of reasonable alternatives and in no great hurry to carry out a course of action. This is compared to fields such as fire fighting, where people are at risk of dying if a good decision isn’t made immediately, or fields such as macroeconomics or weather forecasting, where an almost infinite number of events can influence an outcome.

So how does one develop good decision-making skills? Similar to Drury’s recommendation (2008), practicing deliberate decision making provides the opportunity to consider a number of alternatives and their potential impacts. Intuition is developed through gaining context-specific expertise in environments that offer consistent feedback (Kahnemann & Klein, 2009), so immersing yourself in field activities will help increase expertise. Intuition is not reserved only for experts, but also for when the decision is relatively unimportant. When you rely on intuition, attempt to reflect on the factors that influenced that decision and why they influenced it.

The decision-making field is interesting and full of ideas. This article sought to briefly summarize some major aspects of the decision-making literature, including automated v. controlled decision-making processes, expertise, and decision-complexity. We recommend reading the works of Klien and Lipschitz (naturalistic decision making and expertise), Gigerenzer and Tversky/Kahnemann (heuristics), Ericsson (expertise), Payne (behavioral decision theory), Swait (decision complexity), Evans (dual-process theory), Weber (mindful decision making), Schwartz (the role of emotion in decision making), and Bechara (somatic marker hypothesis). If you Google the author’s name with the text in parentheses you’ll be able to track down a number of excellent, insightful articles.

References

Drury, J. (2008). The case for teaching the rational decision-making process. Journal of the Wilderness

Education Association, 20(3), 6-7.

Evans, J. (2008). Dual-processing accounts of reasoning, judgment, and social cognition. Annual Review of Psychology, 599, 255-278.

Kahneman, D., & Klein G. (2009). Conditions of intuitive expertise: A failure to disagree. American Psychologist, 64(6), 515-526.

Galloway, S. (2007). Experience and medical decision-making in outdoor leaders. Journal of Experiential

Education, 30(2), 99-116.

McCammon, I. (2004). Heuristic traps in recreational avalanche accidents: Evidence and

implications. Avalanche News, 68, 1-10.

23-Mar-11 12:00 PM

Outdoor leadership and the “poor me” syndrome

Gregor Kay - noemail@weainfo.org — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 15:00:00 GMT

by Gregor Kay

It starts mildly enough. You might not even notice. Someone in your group remarks about all that has gone wrong today, saying little about what went right. Then, later they bemoan their aches and pains from carrying their pack or that their boots are hurting their feet. Then they talk about their life back home and its many toils and troubles, as if others around them didn’t have their own. Next, they do little to help with group tasks, like setting up camp or cooking a meal. Finally, they compare their lot in life to someone else who seems to have it better. You may just want to say to this person, “Grow up”!

Wilderness can be a place of great growth. In fact, wilderness outings can be a place of great transition in a person’s life. The multi-day trips with other people, all who also have their own life issues, can provide an excellent venue for a change in ones perspective. The “poor me” persons, having to struggle with social, physical and natural phenomena in a new way can alert them to their ill found ways of looking at life. Can the venue alone make the person see the light? Perhaps. But good leaders can do more.

There will surely be a better chance of behavioral change if the astute guide can identify what’s going on and make an effort to change it. As a guide, you may feel that you are not responsible for changing a person, but if you look at the group as a whole, then you surely are responsible for them. You do have a duty to keep morale up, so that when you face real challenges, the group is ready to handle it. In this context, taking control of the situation is important. “Poor me” syndrome is contagious, and detrimental to group productivity. At the bare minimum, this type of behavior is boorish, dull, and unpleasant. If it is not addressed, this behavior can lead to the breakdown of the entire group and worse. So, what does the leader/guide do? Here are some suggested remedies for the behavior you want the person (lets call him/her Mel) to address.

Get Mel to reflect on how they talk, where his focus lies or perhaps have a voluntary journal reading around the campfire one evening after you suggest the reflection.
- It is likely that Mel will hear other readings and see how positive the others are and gain some insight that his negativity is overdone.
Assign tasks to Mel making her responsible for helping others.
- When Mel sees what others experience, her troubles may seem to diminish.
In a group setting, have participants list two things that made them happy, and one not so happy event.
- This will give everyone an opportunity to talk about their day, while ending on a positive note. Positivity may be empowering to Mel, and give more reason to think more positively.
Model the behavior and speech you are suggesting.
- Mel can understand better if he sees the behavior in action.

By using multiple strategies, there is a greater chance that Mel will come to understand her behavior and the need for change. These suggestions, and your leadership can help the “poor me” in your group. By addressing the behavior, maybe we can get Mel and others to be a happier part of the group. We can all use a little more happiness!

Reference:

Self-Pity – The Poor Me Syndrome

http://www.about-personal-growth.com/self-pity.html.

Accessed Feb. 1, 2010

Author unknown

13-Dec-10 10:00 AM

JWEA Update

Briget Eastep - noemail@weainfo.org — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 15:00:00 GMT

You may have noticed that the Journal of the Wilderness Education Association (JWEA) has not been consistent in the past year. Between the Newsletter, which updates members regarding WEA, and the Journal of Outdoor Recreation, Education and Leadership (JOREL), which publishes peer reviewed articles, the JWEA has gotten lost.

The Research Committee has been in discussion about the evolving purpose of the JWEA and its value to members. We have not found a solid solution to date, but plan to address the JWEA at the next International Conference on Outdoor Leadership. The ideas percolating right now include 1) Turning the JWEA into a student led journal 2) Having affiliates adopt the JWEA for a term 3) Committing to its current form with more public relations and article solicitating focusing on WEA's core curriculum. If you have ideas, please comment on this update.

In the meantime, if you have an article, please use WEA's site to post it. We will continue to collect articles and identify at least one issue this year.

Thank you,

Briget Eastep, Ph.D.

Editor JWEA

13-Dec-10 10:00 AM

12 days remaining!

National Office WEA - noemail@weainfo.org — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 16:15:15 GMT

Tendenci Newsletter

2011 International Conference on Outdoor Leadership

Act quickly, the early registration discount ends in 12 days!

Hello [firstname],

We don't want you to miss out on this opportunity to receive the best possible price on your registration for the 2011 International Conference on Outdoor Leadership.

	Register Before 17-Dec-10 11:45 PM	Register Before 14-Feb-11 11:45 PM	Register After 14-Feb-11 11:45 PM
Member:	$295.00	$360.00	$380.00
Non-Member:	$375.00	$475.00	$495.00
Student Member:	$130.00	$170.00	$190.00
Student Non-Member:	$160.00	$210.00	$230.00
Exhibitor Booth:	$500.00	$600.00	$650.00

Be sure to get the very best price and update your membership before registering!

Register online or call the WEA National Office today (812) 855-4095

Help us spread the word and pass this message along to professionals, academicians, guides, students and anyone else you know that are looking for professional development opportunities!

PRE-CONFERENCE WORKSHOPS - Register Today!

Half Day Workshops

Emergency Epi for Anaphylaxis & Ruling-Out Orthopedic Injuries (Sun am)

WEA Accreditation Workshop (Sun pm)

Single Day Workshops

Introduction to Ice Climbing (Sat)

Project WILD for Outdoor Professionals (Sat)

Avalanche Workshop for Field Instructors (Sat)

Worst Case Scenario Survival Skills (Sat) - Information Coming soon!

Two Day Workshops (Sat-Sun)

DLP WFR and WEMT Recertification Course

Creating a SPEC (Student-centered, Problem-based, Experiential, Collaborative) Classroom

Avalanche Awareness Course

Be sure to 'like' us and check out our updates on facebook!

Stay up to date with our RSS feeds.

6-Dec-10 11:15 AM

Outdoor Leadership and the Poor Me Syndrome

Gregor Kay - noemail@weainfo.org — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 13:00:00 GMT

Outdoor Leadership and the “Poor Me” Syndrome

It starts mildly enough. You might not even notice at first. Someone in your group, let's call him or her Mel, remarks on much that has gone wrong during the day, saying little about what went right. Later he bemoans his aches and pains from carrying his pack or that his boots are hurting his feet. Then he talks about his life back home and its many toils and troubles, which might actually sound somewhat commonplace, as if others around them didn’t have their own. Next, he does little to help with group tasks, like setting up camp or cooking a meal. Finally, he compares his lot in life to someone else who seems to have it better. At times, the group becomes the therapy for the one individual, and at other times, you may just want to say to this person, “Grow up”!

Wilderness can be a place of great growth. Furthermore, wilderness outings can be a place of great transition in a person’s life. The multi-day trips with other people, all who have their own life issues, can provide an excellent venue for a change in one's perspective. The “poor me” individual, addressing social, physical and natural phenomena during the outing in a way that they previously may not have, can inadvertently wake up to her difficult ways of dealing with life. Can the venue alone make the person "see the light"? Perhaps. -But good leaders can do more, which will benefit not only the individual, but the group as well.

There will surely be a better chance of behavioral change if the astute leader can identify what’s going on and make an effort to correct it. As a leader, you may feel that you are not responsible for changing a person, but if you look at the group members as a whole, then you surely are responsible for them. You can not let one sewing seeds of discontent spread throughout the whole. You have a duty to keep morale up, so that when you face challenges, the group is ready to handle them.

As a leader, taking control of the situation is important. “Poor me” syndrome is contageous, and detrimental to group effectiveness, productivity and overall success. At the bare minimum, this type of behavior can be boorish, dull, and unpleasant. If it is not addressed, this behavior can lead to the breakdown of the entire group and worse, or ruin the potential and experience for other individuals in the group. So, what does the good leader do? Here are some suggestions for the behavior you want to address:

Start the day having the group focus on speaking with positive intent, keeping the focus on possibilities and successes, End the day with a voluntary journal reading around the campfire reflecting on the effects of the positive attitude in their day's experience.
It is likely that Mel will hear other readings and see the effect of others' positivitiy and gain some insight that his negativity might overdone or inappropriate.
Assign tasks to each group member, making Mel specifically responsible for helping others.
When Mel sees others' experiences, her troubles may seem to diminish. As well, her sense of belonging and contribution may improve her own experience and attitude.
Have each group member list one difficulty of the day then two happy or successful events.
This will give everyone an equal opportunity to talk about their day, while ending on a positive note. The positivity outweighing the negativity may be empowering to Mel, and give incentive to think more positively.
Model the behavior and speech you are suggesting.
Mel can understand better if he sees the behavior in action and it's effects.

By using multiple strategies, there is a greater chance that Mel will come to understand her behavior and the need for change. These suggestions, and your leadership can help the “poor me” in your group and the group as a whole. By addressing the behavior, maybe we can get Mel and others to be a happier part of the group. We can all use a little more happiness!

Reference:

Self-Pity – The Poor Me Syndrome

http://www.about-personal-growth.com/self-pity.html.

Accessed Feb. 1, 2010

Author unknown

1-Dec-10 8:00 AM

Nary a Month Remains!

National Office WEA - noemail@weainfo.org — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 16:00:00 GMT

Tendenci Newsletter

2011 International Conference on Outdoor Leadership

February 21-23

Pre-Conference: Feb 19-20

YMCA of the Rockies - Estes Park, Colorado

Early Registration Pricing Ends December 17th!

WEA National Office

Eigenmann Hall #029

1900 E 10th St

Bloomington, IN 47406

E: nationaloffice@weainfo.org

P: 812.855.4095

Hello [firstname]!

Don't let this next month get away from you!

If you haven't submitted your conference presentation yet it's not too late! The extended deadline is November 23, so don't wait much longer.....this last week will sneak up on you quickly!

Don't hesitate to contact the WEA National Office if you need assistance or have any questions about the upcoming event. We are happy to create registration invoices, register you over the phone, update your membership or just answer your questions!

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Mary Williams and Margaret Estock

Stay up to date with our RSS feeds.

17-Nov-10 11:00 AM

2010 Proceedings - National Conference on Outdoor Leadership

National Office WEA - noemail@weainfo.org — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 19:00:00 GMT

2010 Conference Proceedings

Spring Courses on the Western Slopes of the Tetons

Author: Maurice Phipps

WEA courses have been taught in the Jedediah Wilderness Area of Wyoming for over thirty years, most often when the head office was in Paul Petzoldt's Lodge in Alta at the entrance to Teton Canyon. WEA recently gave up the UFS Permit but it may be possible that the Forest Service is setting up some temporary days that may be available. Years ago WEA courses were 30 days long starting in June -- which meant that they included spring mountaineering. When talking about spring mountaineering, one... [More Info]

Developing a WEA Program for High School Students

Author: Mary Williams & Matt Scholl

Release Date: Friday 15-Oct-10 11:00 PM

Developing a WEA Program for High School Students Presented by: Matt Scholl - Manice Education Center Director, Christodora Mary Williams - Executive Director, WEA Background & Need: The WEA's mission is to professionalize the outdoor leadership industry and has targeted higher education and those organizations and individuals working and training professionally in the field of outdoor leadership. The impetus for this presentation and the concept... [More Info]

Outdoor Risk Management Training Tool – The development of Critical Adventure Scenario Exercise (CASE)

Author: Guan-Jang Wu

Outdoor Risk Management Training Tool - The development of Critical Adventure Scenario Exercise (CASE) by Guan-Jang Wu, Assistant Professor, National Taiwan Sport University Yun Chang, Teaching Assistant, National Taiwan Sport University Introduction In recent years, risk management has become one of the most discussed issues in the field of outdoor adventure due to the increasing accidents around the world, including Taiwan. Organizations' efforts... [More Info]

What Can I Do With My Recreation Degree? Having fun like it’s our job.

Author: Rachel Collins

The Spaceship Consider this scenario. The world has ended and there are 12 people on a spaceship headed to start a new colony on a new planet. The problem is there are only enough resources on the spaceship for 6 of the people to make it to the new planet. On the spaceship you have a Doctor, a Poet, a Farmer, a Leader, a Geologist, a Novelist, a Researcher, a Solider, a Musician, an Engineer, a Teacher and a Recreation Specialist. Who do you think are the most critical people that... [More Info]

Supersize Your Bag of Tricks: Activities for Outdoor Leaders.

Author: Kim Collins & Tyler Kivland

Job Expectations of Outdoor Leadership

Author: Genevieve Marchand

Oklahoma State University's Outdoor Adventure and Saint Cloud State University's Outdoor Endeavors Present Dr. Frank Lupton: A Conversation with a WEA Founder.

Author: Patrick Lewis, Ivan Bartha, and Emily McKenzie

On October 22, 1977 Frank Lupton, Paul Petzoldt, Chuck Gregory and Bob Christie met in a non-descript conference room on the campus of Western Illinois for a meeting that would significantly impact many future outdoor leaders and much of outdoor education. The meeting was held to discuss a national certification in outdoor leadership and resulted in the inception of the Wilderness Education Association (WEA). Over thirty years later, we met with Dr. Frank Lupton in Lake City, Minnesota to hear his story.... [More Info]

Proposals for the 2011 International Conference on Outdoor Leadership are being accepted.

Deadlines are quickly approaching!

2011 International Conference on Outdoor Leadership

International Conference on Outdoor Leadership February 21-23, 2011 - Estes Park, CO... [More Info]

Stay up to date with our RSS feeds.

19-Oct-10 3:00 PM

Supersize Your Bag-of-Tricks: Activities for Outdoor Leaders

Kim Collins - noemail@weainfo.org — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 19:00:00 GMT

Kim Collins, Indiana University Outdoor Adventures, Bloomington, Indiana

Tyler Kivland, Indiana University Outdoor Adventures, Bloomington, Indiana

Keywords

Activities, Outdoors, Leaders, Games, Trips

Introduction

The need for this workshop was born in the outdoor classrooms of Indiana University Outdoor Adventures (IUOA). During the last couple of years, we saw leaders using the same set of name games with each of their groups at the beginning of a trip meeting. We also observed what appeared to be lack of knowledge on behalf of new outdoor leaders regarding when to use the other activities and games they knew during the course of a trip. Activities and games can happen in a formal, organized setting, such as at the beginning and end of an experience. They also and often more successfully, can happen more informally throughout many different settings of an outdoor trip. Through talking to other leaders at other programs and schools, we noticed that they were often like our leaders, early in their outdoor leading careers, and looking for new ways to get basic information shared amongst group members throughout the duration of a weekend trip.

Leadership (NCOL) was to show new outdoor leaders that the art of facilitation on a weekend trip is not as difficult as one might assume. It is important that outdoor leaders make the most of short amount of time they have with their participants by filling "dead space" in the schedule (i.e. hanging around camp, in the car, waiting for a canoe shuttle, etc.) with activities and games. Playing games and participating in activities together will allow the group to discover new things about each other and themselves as individuals.

We chose not to share the "same, old, tired" games and activities that may have been used or overused in our participants' past. Many schools and sports teams now incorporate games and facilitated activities into their repertoire, to achieve the same goals that we hope to achieve during a weekend trip. As facilitators and trip leaders, ourselves, we felt that we were trying to use old activities in new ways or make up our own activities for the trips that we lead for IUOA. Therefore, we chose to use some "oldies, but goodies" in our presentation, but in new creative ways. We chose the activities for our presentation with the hope that they would enhance an outdoor experience.

Definitions

Activity

An activity is an event engaged in for diversion or amusement, a form of organized, supervised, often extracurricular recreation (Merriam-Webster, 2010), or in the case of this article, a facilitated event that has no clear winning or losing team, often used as a vehicle to get to know a group better, or to encourage teamwork (Bradford Woods, 2003).

Game

According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, a game is an activity engaged in for diversion or amusement or a physical or mental competition conducted according to rules with the participants in direct opposition to each other. We use the term "game" in this article to mean the second definition, as a game needs the element of competition.

Outdoor Leader

In the context of this article, an outdoor leader is person trained to lead participants in adventurous activities.

Weekend Trip

A weekend trip is one that takes place Friday through Sunday.

Why do we do activities?

Activities and games help our group develop as a unit, and simultaneously, as individuals during the course of a trip. Whether a group needs to work on awareness, communication, cooperation, or goal setting, there are activities that are useful to help facilitate human skills (Nicolazzo, n.d.) needed by members for trip success. During our presentation, we asked the group to tell us why outdoor leaders run activities and games during trips. After some discussion within small groups, the groups told us outdoor leaders do activities (a) as energizers for participants and leaders, whenever needed, (b) for group morale boost during long days on the trail, long crossings while paddling, or during challenging sections of a trip, physically or mentally, (c) to build group culture (i.e. to develop "inside jokes" that are unique to the group), (d) to build comfort between group members and leaders (i.e. to "break down walls and/or boundaries"), (e) to destroy awkwardness of meeting new people at the beginning of the trip, and (f) to assess group development.

When do Trip Leaders lead activities?

During the course of a weekend trip, there are many opportunities to lead structured and casual activities and games. The group listed the following times as appropriate times to lead games and activities, (a) when a group first meets, (b) when the group needs a moral boost, (c) during non-scheduled or "down time", (d) during the pre-trip meeting, (e) fireside, (f) during water or food breaks, (g) at the end of a trip, (h) when the group needs a "brain snack", (i) before putting a group into "solo", (j) when packing camp, (k) in the car or during travel, and (l) as the "last word" between activity/schedule transitions.

In order to organize the presentation content into a usable amount of information for an hour and thirty minute period, we split activities that fell into the times above into four major categories:

Meet and greet activities

Car games
Initiatives and Group Challenges
Debriefs and Group Closings

Meet & Greet Activities

Meet and Greet activities are a good way to create sparks between group members that do not know one another and between those that do know one another already. The purpose behind these types of activities lies within the balance of letting the group get to know one another, but also having them leave the game or set of activities wanting more information about each other. Activities that fall under the "Meet and Greet" category are activities and games are ones that focus on group awareness. Trip leaders can capture a lot of information about their group members by playing a simple name game.

1. Human Map

Equipment:None

Time:~10 min

Brief description:

Create a human map to show where people consider their home. Indicate North, East, South & West, then allow participants to position themselves to create a map.

An interesting way for people to get to know one another is to learn about the geographical distribution of where people come from.
Ask participants to create a human map, by standing to indicate where they consider home. Indicate North, East, South & West, then allow participants to position themselves to create a map.
Ask the person who is the furthest what their name is and where they come from. Proceed to ask each major cluster where they come from. In this process, participants may refine or improve their map.

Optional: To extend the activity, ask participants to create a human map to show:

Where their mother/father was born
Where they would ideally like to live
The farthest place you've travelled

2. Two Truths and One Lie

Equipment: none

Set-up time: none

Game Length: 10-30mins

# of Players: 2+

Rules/Directions:

The rules and directions follow are quite simple. Each person playing the game takes a turn sharing two truths about him or her and a lie. The rest of the group is then given the chance to determine which of the three "truths," is in fact, a lie. This allows group member to share some interesting information about him or herself, as well as get a little creative at the same time.

Game Variations:

This game can easily be played in teams if you have a large amount of people where teams switch off and keep a collective score. Another variation I have done and worked well for the group I had was to ask each person to write down the most interesting oddball fact about him or herself, and put the fact into a hat. Once you have collected all the facts group members can take turns drawing a fact out of the hat. They are then given the chance to tell the story about the fact they drew as if it were their own. Whether or not the fact is reality their own, the goal is to convince the rest of the group that it really is true. At the end of the game when everyone has "acted" out or told their story, go back and see what facts meet up with what person.

3. People to People

Equipment: none

Game Length: 5-20 min

# of Players: 5+

Rules/Directions:

Each player should find a partner. Once everyone has found a partner the facilitator calls out parts of the body for the pairs to match up. i.e. right foot to left elbow; each pair has to touch player one's right foot to player two's left elbow or vice versa. Once everyone seems to have accomplished this call, add on maybe 2 or three more calls for the groups to work on. i.e. nose to shoulder; while still holding the first call the players must now touch nose to shoulder as well and so on. Once everyone starts falling over and laughing, call "people-to-people" and everyone switches partners and the game repeats itself with new calls. (Be careful with the body parts you call to keep from inappropriate "moves")

Game Variations:

Jump into the action if there is an odd number and have whoever is left over be the new "caller.” You can also turn this into a competitive game if you eliminate people who fall or laugh, etc.

4. All My Friends and Neighbors

Equipment: A few less chairs than the amount of people playing or place markers like spots or pieces of paper. Something to use as a place marker for each individual (a nametag, a napkin, a note card).

Set-up time: none

Game Length: 10-30mins

# of Players: Works well in small or large groups (12-60 people)

Rules/Directions:

Ask participants to form a shoulder-to-shoulder standing circle and then have each person take a step back. Give each participant a placeholder, which he/she should place at his or her feet.

The leader takes a place in the center of the circle.

The facilitator says: “This activity is similar to the game of musical chairs that you played as a child. As you will notice, there is one less place than there are people in the group. That is why I am in the center of the circle. Therefore, I will begin in the center of the circle, but my task is to try to find a place on the outside of the circle and have someone else end up without a place. The way I am going to do that is to make a statement that is TRUE for me. For example, if I am wearing tennis shoes, I might say ‘All my neighbors who are wearing tennis shoes.’ If that statement is also true for you, then you must come off your place and find another spot in the circle. I could also say something like ‘All my neighbors who love to swim,’ and if that is true for you on the outside of the circle, you must move and find a new place. You may not move immediately to your right or left and you may not move off your space and return to it in the same round. Let us do this safely. No running. No body checking, kicking, or pinching. OK. I’ll start.”

When you think people have had enough, simply say “OK, this is the last round.” Give a round of applause to the last person who ends up in the center.

Car Games

When a trip leaves home base headed for their destination, more often than not, there is somewhat of a long drive ahead. Whether the drive lasts one hour or ten, trip leaders have the opportunity to spend quality time with their participants. Why not utilize it? Think of how fun trips are when you feel like you are sharing that adventure with friends. By using your driving time to ask questions, play games, and share some laughs. You are not only creating memories, but you are also using your time in the car to read your group.

By doing so, you are setting yourself up to adapt the trip successfully, however you see fit, to meet the expectations of your participants. It is far too often that trip leaders waste this valuable time allowing participants to play on their phones, listen to i Pods, or simply stare off into the horizon in an awkward stare. Maybe they do this because it is easier than starting a discussion or a game or maybe they do this because they do not realize the many ways you can facilitate a trip outside of the traditional settings.

leave your participants paying for a boring ride in the car when you can be taking some initiative

to spark conversation, laughs, and memories.

The following were examples used to illustrate this message and provide a foundation for our

participants:

1. The Movie Game

Equipment: none

Set-up time: none

Game Length: 20 min to 2 days

# of Players: 2+ (can also be played in groups for beginners)

Rules/Directions:

The game begins with player one choosing an actor/actress. Player 2 then needs to decide whether or not to accept or decline based on the actor/actress player one chooses. (This keeps player one from choosing super obscure actors that will end the game too quickly. The goal is to choose someone that many people recognize and save the hard ones for later.) Once player two accepts, the game has begun. Using the actor that has been selected, player two must name a movie that that actor has played any part in (i.e. If player one chooses Tom Hanks and player two accepts, player two can say Apollo 13).

The next player (player three and so on, if there are many players or player two again if you only have two) then has two choices as to how they would like to play next. They can either 1) name another movie with that actor in it (i.e. Forrest Gump) or 2) name another actor in the previously named movie (i.e. Gary Sinise). If a player cannot think of any more movies or actors according to these rules, then they risk being eliminated (A movie or actor can only be used once. i.e. According to our example the next player cannot go back to Apollo 13 just because both of our actors play a part in both movies). To be eliminated from the game, the next player must be able to continue the game by again saying a movie or actor. Play continues this way until all players are eliminated but one.

Game Variations:

This game can be quite easy or quite hard depending on the experiences of your group members. To make things easier or extend the game, play in teams rather than individual partners. You can also play the "challenge" version of this game. A challenge can be called by any player. When one player calls a challenge on another, they are tempting their target player into somewhat of a two person dual. If the challenged player accepts, those to player duke it out by naming movies or actors back and forth until one player is stumped and the other can finish them by naming one additional name/movie. If the challenged player chooses to deny the challenge, play continues as usual. This can be a lot of fun when playing individually with more than two people.

2. Celebrity/Alphabet game

Equipment: none

Set-up time: none

Game Length: 5+ min

# of Players: 2+

Rules/Directions:

Player 1 begins the game by choosing a celebrity. Player 2 then uses the name that player one chooses to continue the game. Player 2 must choose another celebrity whose first name starts with the same letter as the previously mentioned celebrity's last name. i.e. If player one chooses Brad Pitt, player two must choose someone whose first name starts with the letter "P.” Players continue to take their turn choosing celebrities in this manner until all players are eliminated except one, the winner.

A player is eliminated if 1) they cannot think of another celebrity or 2) if they repeat a celebrity name that has already been used in the game. In the case, that someone chooses a celebrity who goes by only one name (i.e. Madonna) play continues on the first letter of that name.

Game Variations:

To make the game more interesting you can add the reversal and skip rules. If a player chooses a celebrity with the same letter beginning their first and last name then play reverses (i.e. Mike Myers). If a player chooses a celebrity with three or more names then a player is skipped for every name more than two (i.e. "Philip Seymour Hoffman" would skip one person) Another way to mix things up would be to play with musicians and band names, movie stars, etc. You choose the category.

3. Scavenger Hunt

Equipment: Paper and pen

Set-up time: 5-10 min

Game Length: 5 min or the entire trip, it is up to you

Rules/Directions:

It is quite simple really. Have anyone who wants to play make a short list of things you want to find along your journey. Combine the lists and start searching.

Game Variations:

To make this competitive you can have a master list made of items as stated before but tear each item separately and put them in a hat. Have each team take turns drawing out of the hat until all items are assigned to a team. See who can find all of their items first (or most of their items if the game does not end). As simple as this game is, think of how many people collect license plate states on their trip and how this is simply a modification of that kind of fun.

Some of the items compiled include:

hammock
snowman
prisoner
moss
cows
hay
corn maze
worlds’ largest something
cave
ropes course
in-ground swimming pool
lake
"cement zoo"

4. Other activities that could occur during the driving portion of the trip include:

Road BINGO, made by your group, customized to your trip
Would You Rather Questions, a book series from David Gomberg and Justin Heimberg
Catchphrase, a game by Milton Bradley

Initiatives & Group Challenges

Initiatives or group challenges can be physical or mental. As leaders, we may be able to use the physical challenges as «energizers» for the group to raise morale or to transition from one activity to the next. Mental challenges may be used when are not actively managing often also used at camp, middle of trip, lunch stops, as they help the group to get to know one another better, build “inside jokes,” and help pass “down time.”

1. Minute Mysteries/Riddles:

Rules/Directions:

Minute Mysteries are riddles that take less than a minute to tell, but many minutes to guess the answers. Players must ask as many «yes or no» questions necessary to obtain the solution to the riddle.

Riddle*:

The telephone rang in the middle of the night and the woman woke up. When she answered it, the caller hung up. The caller felt better.

Solution:

It was a husband calling from overseas to see that his wife arrived home all right. Hanging up before three seconds elapse results in no charge to the calling party. He could not call person-to-person because the local operators did not speak English.

(*For more riddles, visit http://www.math.umass.edu/~diehl/mysteries.html.) (Diehl, 2010)

2.Camouflage

Equipment: none/self

Set-up time: none

Game Length: 5 min or the entire trip, it is up to you

# of Players: 2+ (the more, the merrier!)

Rules/Directions:

This game is played like a game of "hide and seek," except that the "finder" must stay in one set place during the "seeking." The hiders must make sure that some part of their body/clothing is able to be seen by the seeker, but blend into their surroundings, thus Camouflage.

3. Other activities that could occur during "down time" or at camp include:

Knot Tie, an activity challenging participants to seek solutions "out of the box"
Virtual Juggle, an activity centered on focusing group attention and goal setting
Waa!, a game of hand signals, Ninjas, Fireballs, Snakes, and Bears
Green Glass Door – plus derivations
Finger fencing
Butt jousting
Push game
Leg wrestling

Debriefs and Group Closings

Debriefs can occur at the end of a day, experience, or trip with the purpose to wrap up experience, or aid transference of an experience.

Draw trip (visual representation)
Bag O’ Metaphors
Homemade Chiji cards
Decorate and replant Spider Plants to demonstrate our link as living part of shared experience

Make up your own activity!

The last 30 minutes of the presentation were reserved for small groups to make up their own activity or to adapt an existing activity.

The activities designed by the participants of the workshop are posted at «The Big Bags of Tricks Project»

https://sites.google.com/site/bigbagoftricksproject/

Conclusion

According to Shooter, Paisley, & Sibthorp (2009) "...outdoor leaders [have the ability to] encourage healthy, constructive relationships between themselves and participants... [this] might be a vital step in understanding the process through which participants realize outcomes" (cited from Mayer, Davis, & Schoorman, 1995). If outdoor leaders choose to prepare unique activities for their groups ahead of time, or choose from their "bag of tricks" by assessing the group in the moment, their group may have a more positive, memorable weekend trip.

As outdoor leaders, we should remember the same activity and/or game may be used for a variety of purposes, such as (1) group energizer, (2) morale booster, (3) to build group culture, and (4) to build an individual's comfort within the group and help break down "barriers." Leaders must be observant and learn how to better "read" their groups, so as to lead activities that work on themes such as "cliques," "apathy versus helpfulness," and when the group needs a "Maslow break" (i.e. food, water, shed or gain a layer, bathroom breaks, space for mental breaks, etc.). As easy as this is to type, being an observant leader takes practice.

When facilitating games and activities for participants on a weekend trip, leaders should consider the gear they are already packing for the trip, such as paddles, climbing rope, helmets, tents, bandannas, as all of these items may be used as props in different activities. If the trip has extra space in their van, leaders may choose to bring extra props for their group activities, such as a ball, a pool noodle, or PVC pipes of different lengths. Leaders have the option of choosing activities and games that are prop heavy and require the packing of extra items, or leaders can plan their activities around the individual and group trip gear provided. Either way, choose activities specific to your group, make them fun, meaningful, spontaneous, and purposeful.

Sources

Most games and activities are passed on by “word-of-mouth” and during an outdoor experience. Many of the people and places we learned how to play and lead the activities in this article either do not work in the same place, or we learned the activities from in-house facilitation trainings and on-the-job experiences with co-facilitators. Therefore, we have a long list of employers and trainers that prepared us to be group facilitators, and few academic sources for use in this article. Academic/Professional References

Diehl, Michael (n.d.). Minute Mysteries (a.k.a. lateral thinking puzzles). Retrieved April 30, 2010 from http://www.math.umass.edu/~diehl/mysteries.html.
Merriam-Webster Dictionary (n.d). Game definition. Retrieved April 8, 2010 from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/game.
Nicolazzo, Paul (n.d.). Instructor Skills and Competency versus Program Design. Retrieved April 8, 2010 from http://www.outdoored.com/Community/wikis/articles/instructor-skills-ampcompetency-versus-program-design-a-delicate-balance.aspx.
Shooter, Wynn; Paisley, Karen & Sibthorp, Jim. (2009) The Effect of Leader Attributes, Situational Context, and Participant Optimism on Trust in Outdoor Leaders. Journal of Experiential Education. V31:N3.

Employers and Trainers

The Adventure Center at Belmont, Belmont, IN.
Bradford Woods, Martinsville, IN.
Camp Ondessonk, Ozark, IL.
Conservation Outdoor Recreation and Education (CORE) Program, Bloomington, IN.
Fritz Harbridge, Owner of Team Effect Inc., Nashville, IN.
Indiana University Outdoor Adventures, Bloomington, IN.
Jill Price, Independent Group Consultant, Wilkes-Barre, PA.
National Outdoor Leadership School, Palmer, AK.
Northern Illinois Operation Snowball, Oregon, IL.
Taft Campus, Northern Illinois University, Oregon, IL.
YMCA Camp Tecumseh, Brookston, IN.

18-Oct-10 3:00 PM

Oklahoma State University’s Outdoor Adventure and Saint Cloud State University’s Outdoor Endeavors Present Dr. Frank Lupton: A Conversation with a WEA Founder

Lewis Patrick - noemail@weainfo.org — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 14:00:00 GMT

Patrick Lewis, Ivan Bartha & Emily McKenzie

Motivated by curiosity for the history of outdoor recreation and education and believing in its importance the impetus for this conversation stemmed from a desire to hear directly from those involved. This project employed a digitally recorded conversation to provide a first-person account of the events associated with Dr. Lupton’s story. The goal for our conversation was to gain a deeper understanding of the events in Dr. Lupton’s life that preceded his involvement in the WEA and led up to his specific role in the inception of the WEA. Our hope for the conversation was to learn how and why the WEA was created and also to hear how and if the WEA impacted Dr. Lupton’s life.

Following our January conversation, we condensed three hours of recordings into a forty minute story. The resulting story is our interpretation of the conversation and reflects our biases. In our review of the conversation, Dr. Frank Lupton got in the way of history and consciously chose to make a difference in the lives of students and future outdoor leaders. His commitment (along with the other founders) to a cause beyond himself is emblematic of good exhibition behavior and has made a difference. We hope this video will provide an opportunity to learn about one of WEA’s founders and the events associated with his story.

The full DVD shown at WEA 2010 National Conference on Outdoor Leadership is attached to the link pasted below. The authors hope the DVD may help supplement current outdoor education resources and would love to hear thoughts and reactions to the DVD. Finally, Dr. Lupton would like to remind everyone, “The sun is shinning, the birds are singing, it’s a great day to be alive.”

Please find the video at: http://vimeo.com/12180554

Patrick Lewis and Emily McKenzie are currently graduate students at Oklahoma State University working on their PhD and Masters degree respectively. Ivan Bartha is the Coordinator of Experiential Programs at St. Could State University. Questions and comments can be directed to the authors at the following email addresses:

Patrick Lewis- Patrick.lewis@okstate.edu

Ivan Bartha- ilbartha@stcloudstate.edu

Emily McKenzie- Emily.mckenzie@okstate.edu

18-Oct-10 10:00 AM

Spring Courses on the Western Slopes of the Tetons

Maurice Phipps - noemail@weainfo.org — Sat, 16 Oct 2010 03:00:00 GMT

By Maurice Phipps

WEA courses have been taught in the Jedediah Wilderness Area of Wyoming for over thirty years, most often when the head office was in Paul Petzoldt’s Lodge in Alta at the entrance to Teton Canyon. WEA recently gave up the UFS Permit but it may be possible that the Forest Service is setting up some temporary days that may be available. Years ago WEA courses were 30 days long starting in June -- which meant that they included spring mountaineering. When talking about spring mountaineering, one would normally be including snow techniques. Global warming has affected the amount of snow so if you wish to include snow work for your course, then carefully consider your dates.

Western Carolina University (WCU) has been teaching courses in this area since 2000. In that year, expecting deep snow up at 9000 feet, we were disappointed to find less than one inch up at Skinny Dip Lake perched on the edge of the Wigwams Cirque – an old favorite spot from the Petzoldt days. Something of a misnomer, Skinny Dip Lake in spring has usually been covered in ice and snow. An August trip a long time ago revealed why the lake was so named – it was the only lake up there that you could immerse yourself in for more than a minute! The Skinny Dip Lake camp site is a favored one in Spring as it is well situated at around 9000 for a summit day of Table Mountain which has probably the most spectacular view (only obtained from the summit) of the lower forty eight states. There are also excellent snow slopes in the cirque to practice ice axe techniques.

Other great spots though are Battleship Mountain, Alaska Basin, Hurricane Pass and Granite Basin, though none of these places should be attempted in the snow season without prior reconnoitering and expertise in snow techniques to include ice axe, rope, snow belays, traveling on snow, camping, cooking in snow kitchens and an understanding of avalanche and moats. On our last trip when there was a lot of snow, we found snowshoes to be just extra weight for all but about two hours of the whole trip of 10 days. However the earlier in the season trips are planned, the bigger possibility that they may be of use but are limited to flatter sections of trail.

Our most WCU recent trip (2008), planned early (May 26th) because of the previous year’s exceptionally poor snowfall brought a surprise with 160% of normal snowfall – whatever “normal” is now. So instead of too little snow, we had too much, in fact more snow than I have ever seen for spring in the Tetons for 26 years. At the request of the Forest Service we changed our plans some to stay in Teton Canyon a couple of days as there had been significant snow fall the prior week creating more avalanche danger. Needless to say, it snowed or rained every day of the course but we completed the Steward course which was more focused to travel in this alpine region using snow techniques than a general Steward Course curriculum. We did summit Table Mountain and saw drifts more reminiscent of the Sahara Desert and holes so deep we couldn’t see the bottom. Students rated the course very highly. The spectacular scenery never fails to inspire the students and they never fail to inspire us with their enthusiasm even when things turn tough in this outstanding place.

For groups planning to use this area in the snow, some information from our most recent trip and experiences over the years may be of use - so here are some thoughts toward that end.

Permit

The UFS permit should be applied for very early. Be especially conscientious about filling out the required details of the permit. We also did a service project, documenting visitors that we saw whilst out there for the UFS. Over the years, they have been very helpful but do have a say in the requested routes and campsites. We made special efforts to point out that normal restrictions may not apply for example where some camping areas are off limits because of impact – as we were expecting those sites to be under several feet of snow. I sent several pictures from past trips to illustrate this.

Planning

There is an ENORMOUS amount of planning to ensure that you have “the right amount of equipment in the right place at the right time”. You are also working with three bureaucracies – your own, WEA, and the UFS, all with plenty of paperwork. A modified PERT chart can be found in an attachment which shows the steps required in planning.

We also had assistance from BYU Idaho because of my connections working with them when they were Ricks College many years ago. This solved our transportation problems from Idaho Falls Airport and a place to outfit and return for clean up. This year the two instructors and expedition doctor flew out early to reconnoiter our first proposed campsite and shop for food and gas. There is a huge new supermarket where we spent about $1000 on food and Yostmart Outdoor Store provided butane. We didn’t like the idea of the equipment truck taking out a large amount of gas. Three students drove out with the tents, stoves, ropes, ice axes, etc., for which we reimbursed gas costs. They made the trip into an “Out West Trip” stopping at other places like the City of Rocks and Yellowstone as part of a larger adventure for them.

Pre-trip meetings

We had two pre-trip meetings. The first meeting was to answer questions, show slides and actually show clothing and boots. The second meeting was just prior to the trip and we taught some basic situational leadership theory and how it would be documented in personal journals. They were given the field book and journal which have lots of WEA and technical information.

Equipment

All specialist equipment was provided including tents, food bags with cooking implements, butane stoves (one per person), bear bag lines, ice axes, snow pickets, snow shoes, maps, compasses, ropes (100 feet of 9mm), wooden boards for cooking insulators, weather radio, solar charging unit for cell phones, expedition first aid kit, and shovels (one per cook group). Groups cooked in pairs except for the instructors and doctor. If you are buying equipment, beware of “back orders”. We ordered three shovels from Liberty Mountain in February for the end of May delivery and three months after the expedition I still had not received them. This meant renting shovels. This also means that you must have a good cushion in your budget for this kind of thing (see also equipment and flight changes). We had a substantial amount of gear from past trips so the cost of equipment this year was minimal. It was budgeted into the field trip fee part of the costs.

Clothing personal equipment and boots

A complete list can be found in the attachments. Students brought their climbing gear – harness, three screw gate carabiners, 12 feet of webbing, two prussic loops and a helmet with them but were for the most part loaned from the university. Always pack in extras in the equipment truck for folks who forget them. Even with two sets of extras, we had to buy an extra helmet and use a Swiss Seat! We try and forbid down bags because getting them wet creates a potential hypothermia problem as you cannot dry down in the field, however there will always be someone who brings one. This brings us to the old adage “words mean nothing”. The sleeping bag demand usually hits someone’s “cloaking device”. Another one is booties. We insist in some kind of booties and of course man-made fiber would be better but is less easily found. We demand booties and over-boots. . In years past just booties were good as it got quite cold in the evenings when we were standing around on the snow or sat around in snow kitchens cooking. These days the booties get wet with the warmer temperatures so waterproof over-boots are a necessity.

It is great to be able to get mountaineering boots off in the evenings as when every day is on snow unless the boots are plastic, they leak. The students who leave their ‘cloaking devices’ on when this advice is given are usually later referred to as “men on the move” trying to keep their feet warm in the evening. The third issue that student’s don’t hear is about mountain boots. They actually need to see the type of boots – ones that have good lateral rigidity so steps can be kicked from the side and not slide off. The climbing is not that technical that totally stiff soled boots are needed. Good old-fashioned leather boots like my ten-year old Montrail boots are great. They were impregnated with silicone when they were made and I have sprayed them again several times so they really are quite waterproof even in several days of climbing in snow. Anything else doesn’t appear to work especially Gortex. If you treat Gortex, then it will not breath. No Gortex boots are waterproof. None! Plastic boots would keep feet dry but are less comfortable and expensive if the students are buying them just for this trip. So for the “bootie-less” cold wet feet it is a warm up on someone else’s belly or interesting improvisations with crocs, socks and plastic bags. No matter how much the boots issues are stressed, some students will act as if they were not there to hear it. This has been so over the last eight years.

Flight Arrangements

As we travel from North Carolina, some of us fly and some drive. If a pick-up is arranged from Idaho Falls or Jackson airport, then pre-trip information has to be given that includes the flight they need to book into the destination so only one pick-up is needed. This year one group of students changed their mind about driving a few weeks before which necessitated a BYUI van and considerably more cost - again this caused us to “dib” into our cushion once again. Of the four trips that we have done over the last four years, nobody actually arrived late for an airport pick-up, though there were some near misses.

Re-supply or Sherpas?

For a full two-week trip a re-supply of food and cooking gas would be necessary. In the past, we have descended to Teton Canyon from the Wigwams Cirque (Skinny Dip Lake) and had someone deliver the re-supply. In 2004 it was during a storm and lots of sleet. We rigged tarps over some of the campground tables but it was a tough re-supply. The 2000 and 2002 re-supplies were pleasant sunny experiences. This year as we had a shortened course of ten days, the plan was to have some volunteer “sherpas” carry our food up North Fork about two miles and 1000 feet to the first camp site as we didn’t want to descend for a re-supply. Ten days of food is 20 pounds per person, add this to an already very heavy pack and figure in that we are at 7000 feet in the canyon having just flown in from a low altitude. This would mean a “killer” first day. This plan changed unfortunately.

We had the “sherpas” there ready to go, but the Forest Service requested that we stay down in Teton Campground a couple of days because of the recent heavy snowfall. So, we waived goodbye to our “sherpas” and stayed those two days teaching cooking, bear bagging, group dynamics etc., and taking a hike up Alaska Basin. When it came time to head up North Fork, we decided to leave the food in the campground bear containers and send half the group back upon reaching the campsite. Normally the campsite was below the snowline – a nice spot on a Roche Moutonee (rock outcrop). This year it was way above the snow line so the half of the group that remained fixed the bear bag lines and constructed snow kitchens as we planned on staying here for two days. Fixing good bear lines can take a couple of hours. It was a big day for the students making two trips to get the food.

Snow techniques

Over the years at this time of year, we have never needed crampons. We did take snowshoes because of the huge amount of snow this year but only used them for the last hour to the Roche Moutonee Camp on our first ascent day. Overall the sense of the group was that we didn’t need them and they were just extra weight. We took two snow pickets and this year only used them for a belay on the lake. The only place we could get down to water was on Skinny Dip Lake, about four feet down. Underwater, there were another four feet of snow and interestingly no ice. Anyone falling into that hole would have been a “goner”, so we rigged a belay with a snow picket and had a rule about there always being two people when getting water. A previous year, we used the pickets as fixed belays to descend a steep snow slope down into South Leigh Canyon.

Next to Skinny Dip lake is a perfect slope for practicing ice axe technique. We have used this each year except in 2000 when we had to hike higher to find snow as it was later in June. Across the cirque the slopes below the ridge are good for teaching the sliding middleman axe and rope technique. To access these slopes requires crossing a moat over the creek flowing out of the cirque. The same spot has to be crossed when doing Table Mountain except instead of heading for the ridge you traverse round into the basin below Table. This traverse is just above the tree line but a fall would be onto a very steep slope into the trees below, so some protection is needed. The sliding middleman is a good technique here as it is quite fast but still protects everyone.

We also used the sliding middleman to descend once off the summit of Table. Normal years, we hike down from the summit to the edge of the large cornice where there is a great glissade. Three or four glissades later will bring you back to the traverse into the Wigwams Cirque. This year the snow conditions were too hard higher up or too soft further down, so we were plunge stepping most of the way back. The other snow technique that we taught was the boot axe belay, which is useful for lowering someone on a steep slope. We actually used this to lower someone who hadn’t the confidence to glissade off Battleship Mountain in 2002. Another technique that we used in 2002 was prussiking as we set lines up through a cliff band to climb out of the Roaring Fork Valley which required a lead, then fixed ropes for the group. They found it hard to prussic efficiently, so advanced practice with this is a good idea. If they try and climb without actually using the rope to pull on, it becomes a slow process. We used fixed ropes this year to climb up the steep snow slope to Skinny Dip Lake. This required four fixed 100-foot ropes. This was a big day with the big packs and 8 days worth of food. Some students found this to be the toughest thing we did.

In addition to snow techniques we teach “three men on a rope” which is basic travel over steep ground (rocks) with a rope. This year we did not use this at all, in 2004, we used this to get to the top of the Wigwam’s ridge after we stepped off the snow onto talus to reach the top of the ridge.

Camping

The regular WEA way applies with the camping only this is serious bear country - they are coming out of hibernation at this time, along with moose and mountain lion. We have seen cougar tracks in the cirque and bear tracks. The most bear tracks we have seen were in Roaring Fork in 2004. We have had the policy of having a “tent city” – everyone camping close. Everyone had a bear spray canister this year. We have eyes on the back of our helmets – someone said that it may fool the cougars for a second or so. Social visits to the bathroom were encouraged. We always camped well uphill of the food lines. Getting food lines high enough was hard as with the weight on the thin lines, they would stretch out even though we though we had them very high and trucker hitched for tightness. This meant digging the snow base away about four feet so the bags were high enough. Perhaps the answer is to carry 9mm bear lines…. but that is more weight. Doing the right thing with food hanging is a must however.

Camping on snow necessitated taking four season tents. In 2000, we took some three-season tents that collapsed under the weight of the snow we had in a storm. Everyone slept warm. We did have 4am starts for the days we were doing summits, in fact 3:45am one day as the group couldn’t hit the trail by 5am on the practice day. Lucky for us we had those extra fifteen minutes as all we had on the summit of Table Mountain was 15 minutes before the storm came in and obliterated the view of the Grand. Once up to the Skinny Dip site at 9000, we could travel with daypacks.

Cooking

We did Total Food Planning, which the students seemed to enjoy. We could have saved some weight by taking freeze -dried food and this would be a definite consideration for future trips. Regular food however is very much less expensive. The Driggs supermarket does not stock freeze dried food – it is available at Yostmark but of course at great expense. We took some nine by nine inch varnished wooden boards to use for cooking on the snow as an insulator to stand the stoves on or on which to place cups of food.

The students enjoyed making snow kitchens, which in turn made cooking a lot more enjoyable. The cooking areas were always situated downhill of the tent area. Good organization skills were required in that some evenings we were cooking the evening meal, breakfast and lunch for the day after.

You may have to spend some time in camp – bank on some storms where you can’t move so you need some spare days. In 2002 we had a four-day storm while we were up on the snow at Skinny Dip Lake – this prevented us from climbing Table Mountain during the first week. We rigged a large tarp, built a large snow cave and spent a lot of time covering the rest of the WEA curriculum and making hot chocolate. Take large quantities of hot chocolate!

Water

The only place that we have camped where there wasn’t water from a stream, lake or melting snow was on the side of Battleship Mountain. Here we made water “stills” to provide enough water to enable melting snow more easily and not scorching it. They consisted of black plastic draped over a large rock set to drip into a cook pot. Handfuls of snow were stuck onto the plastic and left through the day to melt.

Wildlife - bear cougar, ground squirrels, and porcupine

On the instructor reconnoiter the last time we saw four moose and a bear. The wildlife is serious. There are more and more incidents in the Tetons as bear have moved south from Yellowstone. This includes both Grizzly and Black bear. We teach appropriate behaviors for avoiding animals and what to do if there was any incidence. We were very noisy, in fact this last group was the noisiest group I have ever taken out – in camp and on the trail. They were naturally noisy in camp and on the trail we were shouting ahead all the time. We saw no wildlife once we left Teton Campground.

In past years we have had problems with critters going after salt on boots, ropes and wetsuits one time when we went caving in Darby Canyon. This year it was ground squirrels chewing boot tops and helmet straps. We made sure that ropes were always taken inside tents – not just under vestibules. One year, we climbed on Baxter’s Pinnacle after a course to find that we had to cut off about 30 feet of rope that mice or squirrels had chewed through. One year a porcupine nestled in on an air mattress in my old VE24. We had to pry him out with a stick. He left several quills in there but didn’t puncture the air mattress. We zipped up our door each time we left the tent after that.

Routes

This year we spent two nights in Teton Campground, two nights at the Roche Moutonee site at around 8000 feet in North Fork Canyon and four nights at Skinny Dip Lake. At Skinny Dip, we had a day on ice-axe techniques, a day on sliding middleman across the cirque, then climbed Table Mountain. The following day we descended back to Teton Campground. The original plan was to have crossed over into South Leigh Lakes, then back over the ridge into North Fork.

There is a trail from Teton Campground all the way to the Roche Moutonee at 8000 feet and normally there is no snow at this height during the first week of June. The campsite is where the trail crosses the creek, which is different to the map. On the left hand side of the trail up just past the roche moutonee in North Fork is an excellent boulder field for teaching rope work on steep ground. In 2000, we crossed the creek when there was a log bridge then crossed again a short way further up. In subsequent years when we have been there earlier in the year, the river has been too high with snowmelt for a safe crossing and so we have bush-pushed up through the talus, small trees and willow – back onto the main trail going up the valley. After a way, we cut across to the base of the steep slope below Skinny Dip Lake. You will probably be on snow at this stage. In 1982 we kicked steps all the way up to the Lake without a rope and it didn’t seem that steep. This year, it was steep and we set four fixed lines that were 100 feet each, using small trees as anchors. While looking down from these lines you can see the creek below in places but for the most part it makes a huge moat -- which could be a big problem. In prior recent years this steep slope has been a steep scramble with no snow.

From the campsite, there is just the small snow covered creek to negotiate to get up onto the ridge side of the Wigwams Cirque. The ice axe training slope that we usually use is just to the SW of the lake. The route up Table Mountain crosses the aforementioned creek, traverses above the tree line and drops about 100feet into the main valley. Just follow the valley up rather than contour around which will eventually lead onto a shelf which you follow to the right and then kick steps straight up to the summit rock. Stay away from the south side of the valley where there are huge cornices. Traverse to the right to find the trail up to the summit. Snow conditions permitting you can glissade for most of the way back to camp. If the snow is too hard or the skill level of the students is too low, then use sliding middleman to descend to less steep slopes. Use sliding middleman on the traverse above the trees to get back to the campsite. Rather than negotiate the steep slope back down into the valley from the campsite, where we fixed the ropes on the ascent, we worked our way through the trees to the left of the main creek. This is tricky with steep sections but can be done without roping up. As you get lower, post holing is a problem – not for us this year with the amount of snow we had but in past years this is the one place that we could have used snowshoes.

Other routes

In the eighties we used to do about a week’s shakedown in the Canyon using a couple of sites near the Boy Scout camp and then up near the cliffs on the left just before the bridge into Alaska Basin. The old tent sites were in the trees but with downfall over the years, these are unusable now. There are some small tent sites up in the cliffs bands and there is a meadow below for cooking and hanging food. We have used this site over the last few years to teach basics before heading up North Fork. There is good bouldering and rocky outcrops here that are suitable for teaching basic rock work and rappelling. There is an excellent advanced rappel site not far away at the side of the old mudslide back towards the trailhead. There are good tree anchors and the rappel is partially free and about 80 feet. Protection is needed against rope abrasion as the edge is very rough.

The above-mentioned site in the cliff bands, we used to call the porcupine camp and the water source there is Roaring Fork – a spectacular braided creek. Just the other side of Roaring Fork is an old sheep herders’ trail which can be accessed either through the swamp next to the meadow at this camp – a faint trail leads through the swamp to another meadow and the trail leads through it to round a huge boulder and upwards in small switchbacks that are extremely steep. This is an unofficial trail and probably would not be sanctioned now by the Forest Service. The trail can also be reached by hiking the Alaska Basin Trail past the first footbridge and then the meadow can be seen across the river on the left after about ten minutes hiking. The river has to be crossed, which at certain times is easy and others hard. On one trip, we used a Tyrolean, on another we used the swamp to avoid crossing, another time, we just waded across and the easiest in 2004 was when we hiked across on a huge snow bridge left by an old avalanche.

The sheep herders trail eventually leads to a rocky open clearing with trees that have plenty of claw marks. Above the clearing, the trail that leads towards Battleship Mountain is hard to find if there is snow. On a reconnoiter in 2004 we found many bear tracks and this valley seems to have a lot of evidence of bear. In 2002, we bush-pushed up the valley to a clearing higher up before a set of cascades on the river and used this as a base to climb Battleship Mountain and Table Mountain. From this clearing we continued on a mountain day up the valley and climbed through the cliff bands using fixed lines to get on the plateau to the west of Battleship Mountain. We then summited Battleship. There were fantastic views of the South, Middle and Grand. After glissading off of Battleship, we hiked to Hurricane Pass and looked at what is left of Schoolroom Glacier, then hiked along Hurricane Pass a short ways and dropped back down into the Roaring Fork Valley in what was known as “no sleep pass” and back to camp. This was a very long day. Rappelling back through the cliff bands would be a lot shorter. After a rest day on that course, we returned up the valley again but headed north to climb Table Mountain as we had been weathered out when we had been on the North Fork side. This was a comparatively easy day. We used the sliding middleman to ascend and descend the steep snow slope onto the shoulder near the summit.

In 1983 with Petzoldt, we headed out of the first clearing on the sheepherders trail up to camp on the side of Battleship. We cut over to camp in the plateau area and spent a couple days there including a summit day. We then went over to Hurricane Pass and bivied there in an absolutely still night. The next day we dropped down into the top of the South Fork valley and hiked to Table Mountain, climbing the south side, which was mainly exposed large boulders (with full packs!). We then glissaded down to the small valley above the tree line below Table Mountain and camped there before heading to Skinny Dip Lake. This was a great circuit that may be off limits with access now. The route to get up Battleship may have to be via Alaska basin.

In 2000, we did the Skinny Dip Lake activities and then hiked down to Teton Campground and back having re-supplied. We then climbed over the small pass that is at the head of South Leigh Canyon. There was a small cornice that was easily surmounted and then we used a fixed line to get down the other side and traversed north to a cirque just south of Littles’ Peak. I think there were 14 waterfalls cascading into the cirque. We were still on snow. From here we climbed Little’s Peak which was rock scrambling and some easy snow slopes. We later descended into South Leigh Canyon for a pick up at that trail head. We camped down in the South Leigh on the way out –on the grass and with the mosquitos! It is a long way out.

Outfitting

I have had the luxury of using Badger Creek Outdoor Center in Tetonia through my contacts with Brigham Young Idaho University. Other groups have used the campground in Teton Canyon. In the early eighties, we outfitted in Victor through Petzoldt’s Teton Outfitting Company and of course out of his lodge in Alta. There may be other options – I always liked the look of the Tepee Lodge, which was being sold the last time we visited, which is very close to Teton Canyon.

Summary

This area is incredibly good for teaching wilderness activities. The terrain is spectacular and varied requiring mountaineering techniques such as river crossings, rock scrambling, rock climbing, rappelling and snow techniques. The best time for variety in routes would be in the spring when impacts would be less because of snow cover. The wilderness techniques should also extend to cohabitation with wild animals besides wilderness mountaineering techniques. It is also a historical root of WEA – where the original WEA courses were taught based from Alta. Check for permit availability before doing anything else and if successful, then in my mind, there is no better place for teaching wilderness education courses given that you would be allowed to travel across country.

15-Oct-10 11:00 PM

Developing a WEA Program for High School Students

Mary Williams - noemail@weainfo.org — Sat, 16 Oct 2010 03:00:00 GMT

Developing a WEA Program for High School Students

Presented by:

Matt Scholl – Manice Education Center Director, Christodora

Mary Williams – Executive Director, WEA

Background & Need:

The WEA’s mission is to professionalize the outdoor leadership industry and has targeted higher education and those organizations and individuals working and training professionally in the field of outdoor leadership. The impetus for this presentation and the concept of developing a program targeted at high school students was born of a conversation about how the WEA can reach out to high school students through camps, summer programs, and through the secondary education system. Current support for this program comes from organizations that had a history of serving high school students with WEA programs in prior eras, current WEA affiliates who find interest and merit in promoting the early development of outdoor portfolios, and interested third party organizations currently working with high school aged students.

Concept:

Initial conversations between the presenters led to the idea of creating a program aimed at introducing High School Students to the WEA and the WEA’s curriculum in order to introduce the outdoor industry as a potential career field to a younger target group, and in turn recommend WEA Accredited Institutions for their pursuit of higher education. After some brainstorming, the initial concept was to design a program where organizations wishing to offer the program (camps, schools, etc) would become Organizational Members of the WEA. The field based programs would be taught by WEA Certified Outdoor Leaders who would provide students with a learning experience from individuals trained in the WEA curriculum while simultaneously providing opportunities for OL’s to obtain Field Leadership Days to enter into the IROL. Students would receive certificates of completion for their experiences and the WEA would collect rosters to keep track of the number of students going through the program.

This initial concept began appearing structurally comparable to the Leave No Trace Trainer and Awareness Workshop programs. This example allows for the conclusion that guidelines could be created similar to what Leave No Trace provides for their Trainer Courses and Awareness Workshops. Similar format requirements and restrictions should be implemented, yet minimal enough to provide flexibility for the program to succeed and appeal to a variety of organizations. Related minimal restrictions on course content should also be considered and defined by the WEA with consideration to the enablement of participating member organizations to adapt their current program structures to meet these boundaries

Things to consider for developing a successful program:

Purpose: The purpose of the program must be clearly defined with all other components working towards this purpose. A purpose statement would need to be defined. The purpose must be meaningful and relevant to the organizations working with high school students, to the students themselves, and to the WEA’s core mission.

Structure: The structure must be simple to manage from all aspects. The WEA National Office does not have any extra resources to spare, making the necessity of a framework that can be administrated without burdening the larger, existent WEA structure essential.

Liability: What are the liability concerns for the WEA? It is likely that the WEA would need to be listed as an additional insured on the Organizational Member’s Certificate of Insurance as well as have a waiver in place for participants to sign. Given that the majority of high school students are minors, there would need to be processes in place so that parents could authorize the permissions/waivers. Additionally, with minors being involved, it would be up to the Organizational Member hiring or contracting any Outdoor Leaders to conduct the appropriate background checks and ensure that the hiring requirements they maintain are upheld. The majority of onus for liability of program practices should be placed on the Organizational Member.

Cost : Any new programs developed by the WEA must generate enough funds to cover the expenses of the program (materials, man hours, etc) put in by the National Office. It needs to be inexpensive not only for the WEA to operate, but the expense to the Organizational Members offering the programs must be minimal to make it accessible to students and to encourage participation. Funding options include nominal per/participant fees, grants obtained by the WEA, grants obtained by the individual Organizational Members, and program sponsorship. Identifying a target number of new Organizational Members that join for the specific purpose of being able to offer a High School focused WEA program could be developed to justify and absolve the costs to the WEA potentially through the increase of Organization Membership Fees.

Next Steps:

Concluded next steps for developing a program for high school aged students would be to conduct several surveys to determine if further development of this type of program should be included in the WEA Strategic Plan’s next scheduled revision (2011). Populations and purpose of surveys would include:

1) A wide range of programs that work with high school students through outdoor focused programming with the intent of gauging the level of interest and support for a WEA High School Program.

2) WEA members and stakeholders to examine the perception of need and relevance to the WEA’s mission and vision.

3) Current OL’s to determine the interest level from Outdoor Leaders in leading these learning experiences and potentially using this to gain Field Leadership Days for IROL.

Ideally, the significant purpose of these surveys would be to determine the potential benefit not only to the WEA but also to the larger industry. In turn, this would aid the WEA in ultimately deciding if its core mission and purpose supports this type of programming. Funding options need to be explored more thoroughly to ensure feasibility and sustainability. If appropriate support emerges, both an administrative framework would need to be developed as well as the determination of program types/formats/content to be piloted.

15-Oct-10 11:00 PM

Outdoor Risk Management Training Tool – The development of Critical Adventure Scenario Exercise (CASE)

Guan-Jang Wu - noemail@weainfo.org — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 20:30:00 GMT

Outdoor Risk Management Training Tool – The development of Critical Adventure Scenario Exercise (CASE)

Guan-Jang Wu, Assistant Professor, National Taiwan Sport University

Yun Chang, Teaching Assistant, National Taiwan Sport University

Introduction

In recent years, risk management has become one of the most discussed issues in the field of outdoor adventure due to the increasing accidents around the world, including Taiwan. Organizations' efforts continue to be made to re-examine every detail of operation and policy with the goal to minimize unacceptable risks (Swarbrooke, Beard, Leckie, & Pomfret, 2003; Martin, Cashel, Wagstaff, & Breuning, 2006), yet accidents still happen. Consider two recent accidents.

In Taiwan in 2007, a teacher took his students on a river tracing course without appropriate equipment, such as life jacket and helmet. During the trip, six students fell and were trapped in a whirl pool unexpectedly. One of the students who was trying to help the others drowned. In 2008, another accident took place during a backpacking trip. A female participant developed acute mountain sickness on her way to a summit. Her guide let her descend by herself, without any other guide's assistance. The female participant got lost on her way back to the campsite and was never found.

These two accidents not only point out the importance of risk management in the outdoor but also indicate that the decision-making ability of outdoor leaders is very important. We know that making wrong decisions can greatly affect, even cost the lives of our participants. Paradoxically, most outdoor leaders develop their decision-making skills by making mistakes in their outdoor experiences. Therefore, in addition to accumulating decision-making skills by experiences which can take time, future leaders need something more efficient, flexible, and practical, such as a training tool for learning decision-making skills.

Our research set out to develop a training tool─Critical Adventure Scenario Exercise (CASE)─that can be used to develop decision making skills and address risk management considerations. The purpose of CASE is to improve Taiwan outdoor leaders’ decision making ability by means of studying and discussing real, critical incidents that took place in the field. Moreover, CASE also includes expert opinions in each scenario for readers to understand the rationales behind each decision. Most importantly, CASE includes insight views from key persons involved in the incidents, which help leaders to be empathic and caring. CASE can be a practical training tool for outdoor leaders to exercise their decision making skills. This paper introduces the development of CASE and its applications.

The Accident Equation

In the late 1970s, Jed Williamson and Dan Meyer created a model explaining factors associated with accidents. Williamson and Meyer’s model (figure 1) states that most accidents occur when three types of dangers combine to create an accident potential: (1) unsafe conditions created by the outdoor environment: such as climate, terrain, and altitude, (2) unsafe acts performed by participating clients: such as lack of skills, unwilling to follow the instructions, and (3) unsafe errors made by instructors: such as lack of experiences and over confident. This model indicates that when each of these three danger elements grows, the portion of overlap will become greater, and the interaction of all three danger elements will lead to accidents (Priest & Gass, 1997).

Figure 1 The accident equation (modified from Williamson and Meyer)

Williamson & Meyer (1978). In Priest, S., & Gass, M. A., (Eds)., Effective Leadership in Adventure Programming. (p. 94). Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.

The idea of this model not only indicates the interaction between environment, client and leadership, but also outlines the various circumstances an outdoor leader may encounter. Outdoor leaders have to be aware of their clients when they perform dangerous behaviors to identify signals of their incompetence. Also, leaders have to be sensitive to realize that he or she might make a mistake in decision-making; and when the environments change, leaders must take appropriate action to prevent accidents. Faced with such diverse activities, clients, and environments, outdoor leaders have a great deal of things to pay attention to in the outdoor.

In leadership development, trainings future leaders in outdoor skills is only the beginning. To be a competent outdoor leader, future leaders need more experiences to help them make sound decisions. Therefore, developing the abilities to make sound judgments or decisions under different situations is crucial in this field.

Decision Making Process in the Outdoors

Making good decision and judgment is a crucial ability for instructors. Clement (2004) suggests that sound judgment is a lot like memory capacity, they both need training to expand thier volume. However, the difference between developing judgment and memory is that judgment can only be developed through reasoning and logical trainings instead of one's ability to memorize. As an outdoor leader, judgment can be developed and improved to an optimal level. One of the leading outdoor education organizations in America, the Wilderness Education Association (WEA) has developed steps to train their leaders in the “decision-making process:"

a. Recognize the context

Recognize the context is the first step of decision-making process, because most of the time, making a decision involves complicated circumstances and a series of actions. Many factors should be considered before making a decision: (1) the environment: temperature, altitude, and topography of the area (2) the group members: Age, gender mix, and ethnicity of the group (3) the relationships among group members (4) the objectives of the individuals, group, or agency sponsoring the expedition.

b. Identify and define the problem

Identify and define the problem helps individual or group to gain a clear recognition of an existing problem in order that the individual or group can take a course of action to deal with the problem.

c. Clarify and analyze the problem

The third step is to clarify and analyze all the factors that may influence the situation. The more information we take into consideration, the sounder judgment we make. There are five steps required to effectively clarify and analyze the problem: (1) Gather facts (2) Examine and distinguish assumptions from facts (3) Recognize constraints (4) Understand values (5) Consider group dynamics.

d. Generate options

After clarifying and analyzing the problem, leaders or the group should create ideas for resolving an issue or problem. They can maximize their options by brainstorming. After brainstorming select the best two to four options to optimize the desired outcome.

e. Make a decision

In this step, leaders or a group has to select a specific option. Therefore, they have to accept the consequence of their choice. It also means accepting the possibility that they might be wrong. However, the goal of making a decision at this time is to make a good choice with the information and resources at hand, not to make a perfect choice.

f. Implement the decision

Once a decision is made, everyone in the group should be responsible for specific tasks in order to achieve their ultimate goal. It means that everyone in the group must realize what is to be done and why it is to be done, and the leader needs to constantly monitor conditions and adjust his or her actions to the situation.

g. Assess the result

Assess the result is the last step of the process. Participants should reflect on their decision-making process and learn from it. With reflecting and discussing the possible adjustments that they could have made, participants can improve their decision-making skills in the future.

WEA use this decision-making process in their leadership courses (usually last for one month). The cases they use for analysis are based on what happened or is happening during their trip. Through discussing their personal experiences from the trip and various kinds of solution with this “decision-making process” model, it helps future instructors realize the process of decision-making clearly. For Taiwanese leaders, this training in decision making can be effective because it’s real, it’s timely, it’s here and now, it’s teachable moment, but the downside is that it is not cost effective. Prospective students will have to invest a significant amount of money and time for an overseas WEA course. Therefore, our idea is to develop a training tool to improve outdoor leaders’ decision making ability by means of studying real, critical incidents that are also efficient, economical and flexible.

The Development of CASE

A. Design

Two models contribute to CASE design. One is Critical Incident Exercise (CIE) training tool used by Tucker, Mik, and Wight (1995), the other is Smith and Allison's (2006) “Scenarios Describing Incidents Dilemmas & Opportunities.” CIE is a training tool which was designed to help participants achieve increased understanding of different backgrounds, human attitudes, expectations, behavior, and interaction in order to help them work effectively in the same working environment. CIE in cross-cultural training are brief descriptions of situations in which there is a misunderstanding, problem, or conflict arising from cultural differences. Through small group discussion and resource persons’ expert perspectives on the same case, CIE can provide participants with opportunities to learn how to work effectively when encountering problems and conflicts. CIE is based on the actual experiences of the writers or persons interviewed by the writers. Relatively easy to develop and to conduct, they never fail to engage participants at a meaningful, personal level in examining attitudes and behaviors that might be critical to their effectiveness in the role for which they are preparing (Wight, 1995).

Similar to CIE, in CASE, besides the participants’ names, the descriptions of environment, weather, and group dynamic in the cases are based on true stories. Currently, scenarios are based on canyoneering adventure activities. To develop the scenarieos the researcher e-mailed three cases to five professionals as experts to write down their thoughts, reactions, suggestions, and comments. We also interviewed the key person of the incidents. The key person is the person who suffered significant pressure or emotional turmoil from the incident. Next, after we collected expert opinion and the inner thoughts from the key person, we organized the data into scenarios.

B. Experts

This study invited 5 outdoor adventure practitioners with over ten-year experience. Their ages range from 34 to 45.

C. Method

In this study we use face-to-face interviewing with the leader of three scenarios. Based on the three scenarios, we developed an open-ended (free response) questionnaire for the 5 experts. They were asked to write down their expert opinion, such as thoughts and reactions toward the scenarios.

Steps to Use Critical Adventure Scenario Exercise, (CASE)

Step 1：Read one of the scenarios (see Appendix 1) and reflect on it individually. Put down some notes that summarize your thoughts and questions.

Step 2：Discuss your reactions and questions of the scenario within the group (could be one-to-one or in small groups).

Step 3：Read the suggestions and comments of experienced leaders (see Appendix 2) and compare your thoughts with theirs. (Then continue your small group discussion.)

Step 4：Read the key person’s inner thoughts (see Appendix 3) individually.

Step 5：Discuss with your group after receiving key person’s perspective. Any new thoughts? Would you change anything?

Step 6：Write down some final notes for future reference.

Conclusion

Novice instructors in the outdoor leadership profession suffer from insufficient experiences in the early stage of professional development. With CASE training tool, they can accumulate their experiences more efficiently through indoor small group discussion versus relying solely on adding to their personal experiences which cost more time and money.

CASE adopted actual experiences and trained participants to think ahead of situations they might encounter in the outdoors. The expert opinions and key questions provided by experienced and professional outdoor leaders also led participants to see problems through various perspectives. Learning the logical thinking behind an experienced outdoor leader can enhance the novice instructors’ ability of decision-making and risk management. The key person’s inner thoughts provide an important perspective to CASE because it encourages the cultivation of empathy which is critical to outdoor leaders.

CASE is still in its initial stage of development and efforts have been made to collect more cases from professionals. We hope to make CASE a practical training tool for outdoor practitioners in Taiwan.

References

Clement, K. (2004). Can judgement be learned? Outdoor Network, 15(1), 1, 33-37.

Drury, J.K., Bonney, B.F., Berman, D., & Wagstaff, M.C. (2005). The backcountry classroom: lessons, tools, and activities for teaching outdoor leaders. (2^nd ed.). Guilford, CT: The Globe Pequot Press.

Martin, B., Cashel, C., Wagstaff, M., & Breunig, M. (2006). Outdoor leadership: theory and practice. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.

Priest, S. & Gass, M.A. (1997).Effective leadership in adventure programming. (2^nd ed.). Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.

Smith, T., & Allison, P. (2006). Outdoor experiential leadership: scenarios describing incidents, dilemmas, & opportunities. Lake Geneva, WI: Raccoon Institute & Learning Unlimited., & Tulsa, OK: Learning Unlimited Publications.

Swarbrooke, J., Beard, C., Leckie, S., & Pomfret, G. (2003). Adventure tourism: The new frontier. Burlington, MA: Butterworth and Heinemann.

Wight, A.R. (1995). The critical incident as a training tool. In Fowler, S.M., & Mumford, M.G., Intercultural sourcebook: cross-cultural training methods. (pp. 127-140). Yarmouth, ME: Intercultural Press.

Appendix 1

[Canyoneering introduction]

Canyoneering is traveling in canyons using a variety of techniques that may include walking, scrambling, climbing, jumping, abseiling, and swimming. Although hiking down a canyon that is non-technical (canyon hiking) is often referred to as canyoneering, the terms canyoneering are more often associated with technical descents — those that require rappels (abseils) and ropework, technical climbing or down-climbing, technical jumps, and technical swims in the canyon. However, it is very important to prepare, plan, and receive proper training before venturing into technical canyons. Without appropriate equipment and training, canyoneering can be very dangerous.

[Background description]

Chen is an adventure education instructor. He took nine students to USA for outdoor leadership training. These students had training in backpacking, rock climbing, rivertracing, and rappelling. They also have leadership experiences in leading outdoor trips and ropes courses.

The main purpose of the expedition was to experience canyoneering and snowshoeing. Students have spent four months in preparing and planning the 20- day expedition. Besides logistic planning, students were required to go through fitness training for their expedition. These students had different level of experiences in rappelling in natural canyon environment. Some of them had taken a 3-day canyoneering workshop, while others didn’t. Therefore, canyoneering in USA would be a whole new experience for them.

For the USA canyoneering, Chen invited Bruce, who is a professional canyoneering instructor, to join for the training. Although students were accompanied by an experienced leader, Chen still wanted them to complete the canyon on their own. Chen and Bruce will only intervene when there is a safety concern.

[CASE No.1]

Mr. Chen chose Little Santa Anita canyon as the expedition’s first training site, where he is familiar with. The group consisted of eleven people including Bruce, a professional canyon instructor. According to guidebook, it would take seven to ten hours to complete this route. There are approximately twelve rappels and several pothole swimming. Without proper preparation, canyoneering in this canyon can easily turn to a disaster. This group did well since it only took them seven hours to complete. However, the group accidentally lost one rope in one of the canyon potholes. The rope was very expensive and an important equipment for their trip. Some of the group members tried to dive into the cold water to find the rope, but in vain. The pothole had limited visibility and the water was freezing cold. After several attempts, some members were getting hypothermia and the rope was still not found. Finally, they gave up retrieving this rope and used the back-up rope to finish the rest of the canyon. Before going back to base camp, Bruce gave them a new rope as a gift, so that they could continue their training. The group received a brand new rope, but Chen kept thinking about what to do next.

If you were Chen, What would you do? Please write down your personal thoughts and questions.

_____________________________________________________________________

Appendix 2

[Experts opinions from leaders in Taiwan]

“…losing rope is not a professional performance…before jumping into cold water, the group should examine other alternatives if they really lose this rope. Dive into cold water to find the rope should be their last resort.”

“Unless they need this rope for their following trips, or if they have a safer way to retrieve the rope, insist to find the missing rope is not necessary.”

“Getting hypothermia when finding the rope is more stupid then losing it. Before jumping into the cold water, the group should find alternative way to solve this problem and find the rope if they must. ”

“The most important goal for a training course is to teach student make sound judgment. Right now, maybe they don’t have the ability or time to solve this problem. At least they can learn from the experience and become more careful in the future.”

“Any artificial equipment should not be left in the natural environment. They should try to find it.”

Appendix 3

[Key person’s inner thoughts]

At that time, I was standing in front of the pothole. I had the rope bag in my hand and was trying to give it to another group member who was standing on the other side of the pothole. When I threw the rope bag to her, it didn’t make it across safely. The rope bag landed in the middle of the pothole and started to sink. I was in shock since I was afraid of the deep water so I couldn’t get down and get it right away. Besides I thought that the rope would float. I just stood there and watched it sink slowly to the bottom of the pothole.

When the rest of the group members came to that spot and realized what happened, they were trying to get the rope. We used a branch and tried to reach it and some of the more experienced students also dived into the cold, dark water try to find it, but in vain. Considering that we might get hypothermia in this cold water, the group decided to continue the trip and gave up retrieving the rope.

After we came out from the canyon, Bruce gave us a brand new rope so we could continue our trip. I felt really bad. If I wasn’t afraid of deep water and if I had swum to reach the rope bag before it’s too late, none of these would happen. I was the one who dropped the rope and it should be my responsibility to fix the problem. I was very grateful for Bruce’s kindness but at the same time I also guilty.

After that day, everyone was discussing whether or not, when, and how to find the rope. Due to my inexperience in canyoneering, I was afraid to suggest anything. I felt like a trouble maker and really hated myself. When the day came to find the missing rope, I felt very anxious. I was afraid that this search would be a failure. I prayed and prayed hoping that there was a miracle, but I was afraid that high expectation will lead to another disappointment. Watching the leader and some of the experienced members in the group diving into the water, I felt useless. It was my mistake but I didn’t contribute to the rescue mission.

Finally, one of the members found it. When the rope came out from the water, I was very happy. My eyes were brimming with tears. I also felt relief and the efforts were worthwhile. This time I felt immense gratitude to everyone. Though it was my mistake, everyone didn’t blame me and helped to find it. I was so grateful.

15-Oct-10 4:30 PM

What Can I Do With My Recreation Degree? Having fun like it’s our job.

Rachel Collins - noemail@weainfo.org — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 20:00:00 GMT

The Spaceship

Consider this scenario. The world has ended and there are 12 people on a spaceship headed to start a new colony on a new planet. The problem is there are only enough resources on the spaceship for 6 of the people to make it to the new planet. On the spaceship you have a Doctor, a Poet, a Farmer, a Leader, a Geologist, a Novelist, a Researcher, a Solider, a Musician, an Engineer, a Teacher and a Recreation Specialist. Who do you think are the most critical people that should make it to the new planet? It’s a tough question to ask ourselves, but if we want to be seen as valuable and relevant to the society and culture we live in, we need to see ourselves as valuable and relevant. How to do this becomes our challenge.

I know that deer in the headlights look, but only because I’ve seen it in the mirror so many times. I remember getting close to my college graduation and being so excited about all the opportunities before me, but at the same time knowing I had to walk away from a place that had provided me with so much structure and guidance. They were pushing me off the ledge into a place where no matter how much I wanted to, I couldn’t keep my training wheels. I asked myself all the questions every college grad asks themselves, and had to spend a lot of time wading through the answers. Did I want to go to graduate school? What kind of job did I want to work in? And once I figured that out, how was I supposed to go about finding that job? I felt like my friends with more conventional degrees had their professional lives laid out for them, but in a field as young and as small as outdoor leadership, I didn’t know where to start.

I asked a lot of questions, to a lot of people, and was incredibly grateful for the little bit of light that it started to shed into what my life would look like after college. So now that I have time to reflect on the whole experience, I wanted to commit some of this wisdom to paper in order to share it with other young outdoor educators in hopes that this information can be as helpful to them as it was to me.

Have a goal (and a plan)

It’s a good idea to set your sights on something, anything. It’s true what they say about the changing job market, we have to prepare for jobs that don’t exist yet, but that’s ok. Start thinking about things that you love doing and the type job you would ultimately like to have. Find out who is currently in those jobs and what qualifications they have and the path they took to get there. (Their resumes or vitas are great places to find this information.) I’m not suggesting that we completely parrot the people we aspire to be, but at least it gives you an idea of where to start and what to work towards. Set goals for yourself, and make them realistic. We don’t have to be the “Super Outdoor Educator” by the time we are 26 years old, but we should actively be engaging in the process of growing ourselves as professionals.

I know that looking this far ahead can seem over-committing, but it’s not. When mylittle brother was a sophomore in college he declared a major for the first time. We talked all the time about how since he didn’t know what he wanted to do with his life, he didn’t know what to study. I reminded him that, realistically, almost everyone changes their major and then upon graduating goes into different jobs than their major pre-scribed. Start yourself in a direction, any direction, and then decided if you want to continue that way or jump tracks and try something else. When you pick a goal and start working toward it the experiences you gain will most likely be valuable no matter what specific field or job you end up in. Goal setting and planning becomes a way to gain a direction and experience as you navigate the professional world.

Get a Mentor (or a few)

I have found time and time again the established men and women of this field love working with young professionals. These are the people who have been through the proverbial fire of becoming a professional and have wisdom to share with us. Find a person who shares the things that you are passionate about and has held positions that you could see yourself in. There is no one way to get where we want to go, and having someone who you can ask questions to becomes invaluable, especially when it is someone who knows who you are as a person and can speak to your specific needs. Most of the things that I am writing about today have come from professionals who I have relationships with who have been able to speak to me on a personal level about the direction I was and am going.

Certifications and Experiences

In the field of outdoor leadership there has been a long debate about whether we should focus our attention on gaining experiences or on gaining certifications to make us well rounded professionals. I think when all the arguments are boiled down to the essential elements what we can take from it is that they are both valuable. Employers in this field more and more are looking for applicants who have certain certifications (WFRs, LNT awards, ACA certificates, etc) to ensure that the applications meet standards of practice in the field. I’ve heard a lot of people say that they are going to wait and get their certifications when an employer will pay for them. In my experience this rarely happens for entry level positions. Find out which certifications are going to be useful to you as you start looking for jobs, and that are going to be realistic for you to maintain and keep current. Be strategic about which certifications you pursue, you don’t want to spend all your free time in re-certification classes if you don’t have to.

Employers also recognize that experiences with leadership and field time give young professionals context by which they can better make decisions and lead effectively. Sometimes a low or non-paying internship with a company for a season or two will give you valuable experience that will pay off later.

Job Search Early and Unhurriedly

Just because you are still in school doesn’t mean you can’t start to get an idea of what is out there. Join a listserve or two that regularly posts job announcements. By casually looking through jobs I sometimes am surprised to find jobs that I find incredibly interesting and that I didn’t even know existed. For those jobs that you think you would like to one day have, look at the qualifications that they asking for. Ask yourself if these are things that you have or are willing to pursue. When I was looking at jobs, I found that for a lot of the postings I had the experience they were looking for, but didn’t have as much academic training as was desired. Because graduate school was something I was interested in pursuinganyway I decided to go to pursue graduate school before pursuing those jobs.

If a job looks interesting to you, and like something you would be qualified for go ahead and pursue it. Just because you are applying for a job doesn’t mean you have committed to take it. Sometimes the interview and application process itself can give you great feedback for the future. Also, while the employer is doing their homework on you, do your homework on them. I have found that job applications can sometimes appear more glamorous than they actually are. Use your network to find out who else has worked there and what their experiences were like. Talk to the people you will be working for and with and make sure that you ask the questions that are important to you, and get answered up front.

But what about graduate school?

At some point you may decide that you want to pursue graduate school, and whether you decide to do this right after your undergrad or after you have taken some time to work is up to you, there are advantages to both. This decision is personal, it depends on where you are in your academic career and whether or not the jobs you are looking to pursue will require you to go to graduate school.

By taking some time off from school and working in the field you gain valuable experiences that later will be value added to the learning that you do in graduate school. By having a bank of experiences behind you when you enter graduate studies you will find that your experiences from working in the field provide context to the theory that you study in graduate school. However, if you know that you are someone who might have a hard time going back to school once you have been out for a while it might be advantageous to go to grad school while you are still in the practice of writing papers and being in an academic environment. When I was looking at jobs after finishing my undergraduate degree in outdoor education, I found that I already had most of the experiences that prospective employers were looking for, but didn’t have a strong enough academic background to fill the job requirements. I decided to go to graduate school soon after finishing my undergraduate degree to better round out my qualifications for the field that I was hoping to be working in.

Whenever you decide to go to grad school look at a broad variety of schools and programs. You might think that one school has the perfect program for you, but often times there are other schools that have comparable programs and might have better funding opportunities or program variability. Also, I think one of the most valuable things that one of my mentors shared with me when I was looking at graduate schools was to make sure that I looked for a program that was going to teach me something new. Sometimes graduate programs that are the same as your undergraduate degree can really deepen you understanding of the field. In other cases they can be repetitive and it might be better to broaden your knowledge base by studying something similar but with a different emphasis. For example, I have a friend who also has a degree in outdoor recreation like myself from his undergrad. When we were looking at graduate schools I decided that I wanted to move more toward the educational side of outdoor programming, so I went to a program to study Experiential Education. My friend really wanted to go into organized camping so he decided to pursue an MBA for his graduate work.

The Long and Short of it

Outdoor leadership is a very young and diverse field, with lots of options and opportunities. Remember that all your experiences will build upon each other and work together to mold you into a unique professional that can fill a variety of different roles. The theologian Frederich Bechner said that our place of service in the world is that place where the world’s deep hunger and your deep gladness. You probably went into the field of outdoor leadership in the first place because you have had some experience that has drawn you there and embedded itself in you. Allow that passion to be your driving force and join that passion with the needs you see around you. Be methodical, be patient, and be passionate.

15-Oct-10 4:00 PM

Job Expectations of Outdoor Leadership

Genevieve Marchand - noemail@weainfo.org — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 19:00:00 GMT

Workshop summary

This workshop asked participants to look at their past and current job expectations concerning outdoor leadership. Veteran outdoor leaders were asked to share differences between their past expectations and current job demands. New outdoor leaders were asked to think about actions they could take to minimize burnout due to job demand stressors.

Introduction

The role of expectations in the lives of modern humans is generally seen in two ways. On one hand, some people try to avoid expectations, especially high expectations in order to avoid being disappointed (Dijk, Zeelenberg & Pligt, 2003). On the other side, having higher expectations is generally linked to higher achievements and increased work productivity especially in educational settings (Brook et al., 1989). For example, teachers who verbalize high expectation generally have students who achieve higher results.

The study behind this workshop looked at the roles of expectations towards job demand stressors in relation to job satisfaction of outdoor leaders working in wilderness therapy settings (Marchand, 2009). As outdoor leadership jobs become more well-known, so are the benefits and difficulties of this type of work. Benefits such as making a difference in the lives of students, personal growth and living in the wilderness are some of the reasons often cited for people to chose this type of work (Marchand, 2006). This type of work also includes difficulties, which can also be job demand stressors, meaning that they are aspects of the work that becomes stressfully demanding. Examples of this include balancing work and life outside of work, pursuing meaningful relationships, missing out on time with friends and family, being emotionally and/or physically drained and not having enough time to pursue other interests outside of work.

In the above study, findings showed that at least half the participants had either underestimated or overestimated their future job demand stressors. This could mean that outdoor leaders are not aware of all the job difficulties possible or that they lessen their importance (underestimated), or exaggerate them (overestimated) before starting their work. One important finding of this study was that outdoor leaders who had underestimated their job demand stressors also reported lower job satisfaction. Specifically, outdoor leaders who underestimated their job demand stressors were less satisfied with their pay, promotion, fringe benefits, contingent reward, coworkers, nature of work and communication. This aspect of the study is important since job satisfaction is one predictor of tenure (Bedeian, Ferris & Kacmar, 1992).

While this study was done with outdoor leaders working in wilderness therapy, the implications apply to any outdoor leadership areas. The workshop that follows can be used in a classroom setting, during employee training or by any outdoor leaders who want to raise their awareness of job expectations. It can be modified to fit the specific needs for your program, your employees or yourself.

Workshop Outline

Objectives
To create objectives for this workshop, take some time to think about your participants. Here are some potential objectives depending on who you are tailoring your workshop for:
Introduce the role of expectations to future outdoor leaders (ex: college students)
Introduce specific job demand stressors and the role of expectations to new employees
Review job demand stressors and expectations with experienced employees
Allow participants to create actions to mitigate job demand stressors

Section 1
The first section should be done individually then in small groups. If you are short on time, you could also do this as a group exercise only. Depending on your objectives, ask your participants to come up with expectations they have of job demand stressors specific to their area of outdoor leadership. With students, you will probably want to start talking about job demands before expectations. To facilitate this process, you may give participants areas of job demands to focus on:
Factors intrinsic to the job itself (ex: types of participants)
Roles in the organization
Relationships at work
Career development issues
Organizational factors (ex: schedule)
Home-work interface

Section 2
Depending on the participants, you can ask individuals to make a list of those job demand stressors that are most present for them. For those that have less experience, you can ask them to make a list of those job demand stressors that they expect to have the most difficulties with. Participants are asked to come up with a top three and share it with the group, or write it on a board.

Section 3
In this section, participants who have more experience can reflect on the differences between their earlier expectations and their present level of job demand stressors. A discussion can also be initiated regarding differences between participants of the workshop. New outdoor leaders are invited to make a plan of action to help with the possibility that their expectations may not reflect the reality of their job demand stressors. For groups that have a mix of new employees and veterans, allowing time for discussion, questions and sharing of ideas can be highly beneficial. New outdoor leaders have reported that they appreciate and want more time with veteran outdoor leaders when training (Marchand, 2009) and this can be a great opportunity to do so.

In both instance, becoming aware of previous or future expectations can make a difference in job satisfaction of outdoor leaders. As we trained outdoor leaders to become proficient with technical skills, educational skills and relationship skills, we may want to incorporate knowledge and skills to deal about job demand stressors. The goal of this workshop is not to eliminate job demand stressors, but rather to raise awareness on the role of expectations in outdoor leadership, and hopefully help individuals with some of the unusual aspects of this profession.

References

Bedeian, A.G., Ferris, G.R. and Kacmar, K.M. (1992). Age, Tenure, and Job Satisfaction: A
Tale of Two Perspectives. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 40, 33-48.

Brook, J., Nomura, C., & Cohen, P. (1989). A network of influences on adolescent drug involvement: Neighborhood, school, peer, and family. Genetic, Social, and General Psychology Monographs, 115 (1), 303-321.

Van Dijk, W., Zeelenberg, M., & Van der Pligt, J. (2003). Blessed are they who expect nothing: Lowering expectations as a way of avoiding disappointment. Journal of Economic Psychology. 24, 505-516

Marchand, G. (2009). The Relationship Between Newcomer’s Expectations of Job Demand Stressors, Job Satisfaction and Psychological Well-Being: A Study of Field Instructors in Wilderness Therapy. Unpublished Doctoral dissertation. University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.

Marchand, G. (2006). Difficulties of field instructors in wilderness therapy. Unpublished master’s thesis, California State University, Chico, California.

15-Oct-10 3:00 PM

International Conference on Outdoor Leadership

National Office WEA - noemail@weainfo.org — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 20:16:30 GMT

International Conference on Outdoor Leadership

February 21-23, 2011 - Estes Park, CO

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Join us in Estes Park, CO this coming February for a conference experience to remember. The 2011 International Conference on Outdoor Leadership is the 24th annual event hosted by the Wilderness Education Association and we want you to be a part of it all!

Become a member and register at the discounted rate!

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Important Dates:

Nov 3 - Workshop Track Proposals Due

Nov 5 - Program Symposium Submissions Due