2021 Seattle Leadership Conference Breakout Sessions
This year we are excited to be hosting two smaller Leadership Conferences: November 20 in Tacoma and December 4 in Seattle.
- Click here to read our presenter bios.
- Check back soon for a printable version of the 2021 Leadership Conference schedule.
The theme for this year's two conferences is Coming Together. We've heard your resounding desire to come together as a community. Community is one of The Mountaineers five core values, and we're excited to acknowledge your collective impact to our community. This conference will offer a series of interactive sessions that explores the many facets of leadership, including: Equity & Inclusion, Risk Management, Group Facilitation & Instruction, and Conservation & Advocacy.
WElcome session
TOM VOGL
8:30-9:00 | Goodman Auditorium
MORNING SESSION 1
STRATEGIES FOR INSTRUCTION: LESSONS FROM RESEARCH AND EXPERIENCE
GROUP FACILITATION & INSTRUCTION TRACK
BEN BROWN
9:15-10:30 | Goodman A
This session is intended for anyone who instructs with The Mountaineers! We will draw on some of the points introduced in the excellent book, "Make it Stick: The Science of Successful Learning" to apply research-based principles and practices to our Mountaineers lessons and courses. In preparation for this session, please think about a class or course you have taught recently, and reflect on how you taught it-- especially if you ran into challenges with instruction or with students retaining new learning! This session will heavily utilize small-group discussion and reflection.
TITLE TBD
Equity & Inclusion TRACK
Serene Chen
9:15-10:30 | Goodman b
Description TBD
TITLE TBD
Conservation & Advocacy TRACK
The Mountaineers Carbon Footprint Reduction committee
9:15-10:30 | cascade a/b
Description TBD
MORNING SESSION 2
Breaking the Halo: Empowering Students in Outdoor Education
Risk Management TRACK
Katja Hurt
10:45-12:00 | Goodman A
Following the death of a climbing student in 2018 (on a non-Mountaineers climb), Katja and a small group of climbers found several contributing thinking errors and a need to better prepare and empower students to confront heuristic traps. "Breaking the Halo" offers a simple, universal approach to confronting complacency, assumptions, and communication breakdowns between students and instructors.
Hope and Fear: connecting with the stories of the people we serve
GROUP FACILITATION & INSTRUCTION TRACK
Jason Hardrath
10:45-12:00 | Goodman b
Description TBD
The Assumption of Risk Defense in Real Life
Risk Management TRACK
Brian Augenthaler
10:45-12:00 | cascade a/b
You know the phrase “assumption of risk,” but how does it apply when a lawsuit is filed? Find out in this small group exercise led by outdoor recreation attorney Brian Augenthaler. Attendees will be provided with the legal underpinnings and elements of the assumption of risk defense and then broken up into the small groups to discuss real life cases. We will then reconvene to share predictions of how the court ruled and close with a discussion of what actually happened.
AFTERNOON SESSION 1
Leadership Awareness: Cultivating a Growth Mindset
GROUP FACILITATION & INSTRUCTION TRACK
Tracy Rekart
1:00-2:15 | Goodman A
Let’s begin with the question, what is the most important aspect of being a leader? A search of the internet provides you with words: integrity, positivity, or inspiration. These may be characteristics you possess, yet when you apply them to that person or this activity, your leadership offers less than stellar results. The real key to leadership is not a word it is a skill: a deep and abiding curiosity about the other person or people around. Join Tracy to leverage skills you already have and practice them in a new way to change the trajectory of your leadership path by one degree, where you end up a more effective, beneficial, and even inspirational leader.
TITLE TBD
Equity & Inclusion TRACK
Serence Chen
1:00-2:15 | Goodman b
Description TBD
Do You Know What You Don’t Know: How Macroaggressions and Bias Impact Programmatic Risk Management
Equit & Inclusion and Risk Management TRACK
Robin Chiles and Chris Hagen
1:00-2:15 | cascade a/b
As outdoor educators, we are required to execute on a daily basis using good judgment and decision-making skills in stressful situations. This includes both physical and socio-emotional risk management. During this presentation, we will explore how our own personal biases as supervisors and educators can create blind spots in our programmatic risk management. Once we begin to self-assess and audit our programs with an understanding of this knowledge, we can then start to mitigate programmatic risk through a cultural humility lens.
AFTERNOON SESSION 2
TITLE TBD
Conservation & ADvocacy TRACK
Betsy Robblee
2:30-3:45 | Goodman A
Description TBD
Teaching Methods to Maximize Student Retention
GROUP FACILITATION & INSTRUCTION TRACK
Andy BAsset
2:30-3:45 | Goodman b
Ensuring your students retain what you teach can be challenging as an Instructor. This session will look at ways to structure a course, look at different delivery methods, and things to avoid in instruction.
TITLE TBD
TBD TRACK
SPEAKER TBD
2:30-3:45 | cascade a/b
Description TBD
Lunchtime
Lunch will be a time to give attendees the flexibility to move around, mingle, and learn from the vendors and sessions that we’ll have available.
Open seating for lunch will be available in the Goodman Auditorium.
Vendor & Partner Tables
Lobby | 12:00-1:00
Visit with our vendors and partner organizations to learn more about their products and programs!
Retro Rewind: Movie Screening from the Archives!
Cascade A/B | 12:10-12:50
Looking for something different over lunch? New this year, we’re excited to offer a short selection of films from the Mountaineers Archives! Special thanks to Lowell Skoog of the History Committee for sharing these fun blasts from the past.
- The Boys on the Cliff - This is a short newsreel-style film about mountain safety, filmed by Bob and Ira Spring. The film was produced as a companion piece to an August 1961 story by the same name in Reader's Digest magazine.
- Skiing Cascade Wilderness - This 30 minute film illustrates skiing in the Lyman Lake area above Holden near Lake Chelan in 1956. Chuck Hessey and friends visited this area many times in the 1940s and 1950s, staying for weeks at a time in a snow survey cabin that stood near the lake.
- This is Self Arrest - This short film was made on Mt. Rainier, above the east side of Nisqually Glacier, in 1967. It was produced by Al Stenson and narrated by Jim Whittaker.