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Our primary means
of communication is our newsletter, Trail Notes, which we
publish around 9 times a year, as needed (no rigid schedule).
Trail Notes includes announcements of upcoming trips and articles
about recent trips. From time to time, we include information about
events that WNC is not organizing but that might be interesting to our
members—IGLOO events, for example. We also announce WNG trips as
requested.
Our trips are led
or coordinated by volunteers from among our members. A member who
wants to lead a trip contacts our newsletter editor, who is a sort of
de facto trip coordinator, to provide the information needed to
announce the trip. The editor then includes information about the
trip in the next issue of the newsletter. The newsletter will
describe the general nature of the trip - day-hike, bicycling, skiing,
for example—trip timing, and how to contact the trip leader for
details and arrange to participate.
We do not have a
formal trip-leader certification, although experienced trip leaders
advise newer trip leaders as requested. Consequently, trip
participants have to know their own limits, and they have to be
ultimately responsible for their own well-being. We do count on trip
leaders to offer reasonable information about the particular
requirements of a particular trip—whether we need to carry water,
whether we can rent skis. When practical, trip leaders will also
assist members in coordinating travel and obtaining necessary
equipment for a trip. For example, a canoe-trip leader can help two
individuals connect so that they can jointly rent one canoe, rather
than two, for the trip. Trip leaders are in the ideal position to
help members arrange a carpool to a trip starting point.
We generally have
an annual meeting to take care of the purely business things that
don’t resolve themselves otherwise. We’re not all work and no play,
though: We try to include a short hike in the day, too. |
