Want to be an assistant organizer?

This is not a hike, but a meeting for current organizers and those who want to be organizers.

The location will depend on how many RSVP, likely either Risky Business or my house. I'll get that information out to the attendees once it's decided.

This is a meeting for everyone who either is currently an organizer or wants to be an organizer. There has been an active discussion going on about how to deal with long waitlists, and the consensus is that the only way is to have more hikes. To do more hikes, we need more hike leaders. We need people doing beginner hikes, intermediate hikes, advanced hikes, morning hikes, day hikes, night hikes, weekend hikes, etc.

First thing - if you are currently an organizer and want to stay an organizer, you don't need to do anything. I don't plan to remove anyone from the list unless meetup tells me i can't have more. I don't think that will be an issue, though. If it does come up, i'll send out some sort of message to the organizers first.

Second, if you want to become an assistant organizer, you should come to this meeting. We will discuss what the expectations are, what you can expect from me, what you can expect from the hikers, what general resources there are, typical problems, how meetup works when you're an organizer, etc. If you recently became an assistant organizer, this would probably be good, too.

If you can't come to this meeting, it doesn't mean you can't be an assistant organizer. I may try to do a second meeting like this, or we can talk separately.

A few people have asked me about organizing hikes, and i've either failed to respond entirely or failed to respond completely. If this is the case, it is NOT because i don't want you to organize hikes. It is because i'm busy and i'm forgetful. So if you still want to lead hikes, please come to the meeting!

There are a few basic requirements i have to be an organizer:

The first is abiding by the meetup etiquette post i sent out. This group is to be free from discrimination and harassment. We're at 6000 members as of today, and there is a wide range of ages, races, religions, political affiliations, gender identities, sexual orientations, etc. If you're leading a hike in this group, I expect you to be at the very least tolerant of all of these.

The second is an understanding and agreement of what level of responsibility you're taking on. You will be responsible for ensuring that the correct people are actually attending the hike. That includes checking for no-shows, checking for stow-aways (people not on the "yes" list who show up anyway), and turning people away if they're not supposed to be there. If you bring too many people into the state/national park or forest, you could wind up with a fine. Another big part of that responsibility is safety. If someone has a problem halfway through a hike, you're the one responsible for helping them get out or calling for a rescue. This is really rare (in about 400 hikes i've done, i've only been on one hike with a Sheriff's rescue)

Lastly, just understand that attending a hike and leading a hike are very different. There can be lots of unknowns that you've got to deal with.