Leader Resources

covid-19 response guidance for leaders

Check our COVID-19 blog frequently for updated guidance on proceeding with or canceling/postponing trips, events, and courses.

Covid-19 Response Page

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Activities, Courses, and Events 
• Branch and Committee Resources
• Board Policies
• Create a Badge
• eLearning
• Essential Eligibility Criteria (EEC) & Service Animal Policy
• Financial Policies, Procedures, and Forms
• Land Manager Resources
• LeaderLines eNewsletter
• Leader Permissions & Benefits
• Leadership Development Opportunities  
• Posting and Managing Website Content
• Recording Volunteer Hours
• Safety Guidance, Harassment, and Problem Behavior
• Scheduling Virtual Content
• Volunteer Recruitment Tools
• Youth Programs

ACTIVITIES, COURSES, AND EVENTS

QUICK LINKS:

• Schedule and manage an activity. 
• Learn how to write a great activity listing
• Request a new or updated route/place.
• Schedule and manage a clinic or seminar.
• Schedule, manage, and edit a course with lectures and field trips.
• Schedule an  event.
• Schedule a  lodge stay.
• Schedule a Mentored Leader trip.
• File an Incident Report.
• Publicize and market your activities, courses, and events.
• Review your feedback as a leader.
• Remember to record your volunteer hours.
• Report a problem behavior or harassment with the Behavioral Complaint Form.
• Answer questions about our Privacy Policy, and how that impacts profile visibility and course/activity communications

For a basic overview of our activity, course, clinic, seminar, event, and lodge stay structure, please visit our Schedule & Manage page.

BRANCH AND COMMITTEE RESOURCES

For basic information to manage your branch or committee, please visit the Branch & Committees How-To page. For additional resources, please visit the Branch and Committee Administration page. 

QUICK LINKS:

• Please use the Committee Chair Directory to search for your branch or committee chair. 
• Committee Chairs: Keep track of your submitted leader applications.
• Our Shared Activity Resources folder is a place where our leaders can share materials (and view resources shared by others) relevant to specific activities or programs.

Use Basecamp, an online project management tool and platform, to coordinate committee and branch projects. We have basecamp projects for summit groups and branches and committees. If you're looking to join a group, contact the individual organizing the basecamp group. If you want to utilize basecamp to organize a project, contact Member Services.

BOARD POLICIES

Like all organizations, we have rules that guide our collective efforts. Please visit the Board Policies page for detailed information about our guiding principles.

CREATE A BADGE

Do you need to have a badge created? Badges are a great way to acknowledge and recognize volunteers, students, and members on their Mountaineers accomplishments.Volunteers can follow the process in our badge creation requests page to get a new badge made. 

QUICK LINKS: 

• Learn about our badge system
• Review our most common types of badges:
• Course badges
• Skill badges
• Leader badges
• Award badges

ELEARNING

The Mountaineers is invested in eLearning to complement our existing courses. Our goal is to work with all of our branches to create meaningful, engaging, and high quality eLearning lessons that will benefit current and future Mountaineers for years to come! Read more on the eLearning Information Hub and in our blog.

It is our sincere hope that our leaders will join us as an eLearning volunteer to be a part of these efforts. We need your help, expertise, and ideas! By completing the following forms, you can submit your ideas for new courses or sign up for our volunteer roster.

QUICK LINKS

• eLearning Course Request Form
• eLearning Volunteer Inquiry Form

ESSENTIAL ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA (EEC) & SERVICE ANIMAL POLICY

In May 2019, The Mountaineers Board of Directors approved two new documents to help prospective participants navigate their ability to participate in our programs. Visit our Essential Eligibility Criteria & Service Animal Policy page for more information!

QUICK LINKS:

• Essential Eligibility Criteria (EEC)
• Service Animal Policy
• View an in-depth Overview Presentation.

Read our blog with information for leaders.

FINANCIAL POLICIES, PROCEDURES, AND FORMS

The Financial Policies, Procedures, and Forms folder contains financial and policy-related forms for our volunteers, leaders, and contractors.

QUICK LINKS:

• Volunteer Reimbursement Request
• Insurance Coverage for Leaders
• Cancellation and Refund Policy
• Independent Contractor Packet

LAND MANAGER RESOURCES

The Mountaineers has compiled various resources to help with planning your activities and courses on local, state, and federal lands.

QUICK LINKS:

• Facilitated Access Permitting
• Parking Passes & Wilderness Restrictions
• Group Size Norms
• Permit Documents

Information about applicable permitting is also available in individual Routes & Places listings.

LEADERLINES ENEWSLETTER

Leader Lines is a monthly newsletter specifically curated for The Mountaineers' leaders! It is a great place to learn about changes to our website and policies, as well as an awesome resource of continuing education and tips to be a more effective leader. LeaderLines is also one of the primary ways that we notify leaders about new volunteer benefits, recurring reminders, and upcoming events such as Leadership Development Series, Leadership Conference, new courses, and Volunteer Appreciation Dinner. 

QUICK LINKS:

• Not receiving LeaderLines? Visit your My Profile page and select "My Preferences" to opt into the Leader Lines newsletter.
• Browse past issues of LeaderLines in the LeaderLines Archive.

Have an article, blog post, or leadership opportunity for an upcoming edition of LeaderLines? Email Member Services at info@mountaineers.org to share your idea!

LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT OPPORTUNITIES

An organization-wide effort focused on leadership development opportunities and continuing education for our volunteer leaders. 

OUTDOOR LEADERSHIP COURSES 

No matter your level of experience, The Mountaineers has a variety of Outdoor Leadership courses to help you hone the skills you need to be a more effective leader. 

FOUNDATIONS OF LEADERSHIP & INSTRUCTION COURSES

We are especially excited to debut our two new eLearning Courses in summer 2022: Foundations of Leadership and Foundations of Instruction! Designed for our current and future volunteer instructors, with a goal of fostering diverse and passionate connections throughout The Mountaineers. These two courses are for current or aspiring volunteers who are proficient in one or more outdoor activities, but are interested in learning more about leading and instructing in the outdoors.

• Take the Foundations of Instruction eLearning course
• Take the Foundations of Leadership eLearning course

RESOURCE CENTER

The Mountaineers hopes to inspire the ongoing growth of our programs through various leadership development opportunities. Please browse past presentation materials and recordings for additional information and ideas in our Resource Center!

LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE

The Mountaineers Leadership Conference is a one-day conference  at the Seattle Program Center in Magnuson Park. The program includes both esteemed outdoor professionals and seasoned leaders from our own community at The Mountaineers. A series of interactive sessions explores the many facets of leadership – from honing our decision-making skills, to pedagogy and better teaching, to the "soft-skills" of facilitating positive group dynamics.

The Leadership Conference is an annual event, typically held on the first Saturday in December. Registration opens mid-September. Please keep an eye on our activity calendars and email info@mountaineers.org with any questions!

LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT SERIES

The Mountaineers is excited to offer an ongoing Leadership Development Series to provide high-quality, continuing education opportunities for our volunteer leaders. Starting in February 2019, The Mountaineers is offering a series of standalone seminars to cover a wide variety of leadership topics. Sessions will be planned in the fall, winter, and spring of each year. Check out our past seminars to learn more about what topics we’ve offered to our volunteer leaders. 

VIEW UPCOMING EVENTS

Have an idea for a presentation? Please contact Member Services at info@mountaineers.org.

LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT FUND

Each year, The Mountaineers designates funds to support the professional growth of our leaders. These funds are made available to individual leaders – as well as small groups of leaders – to support their attendance at conferences, workshops, courses, and other programs outside of The Mountaineers that are relevant to their volunteer leadership. Read more about the Leadership Development Fund and apply for a grant!

POSTING AND MANAGING WEBSITE CONTENT 

Please follow The Mountaineers Publications Style Guide when posting or managing any content on the website.

QUICK LINKS:

• Learn how to update and maintain branch and committee pages.
• Add new mentored leaders to the committee roster
• Visit our Schedule & Manage pages for help with courses, activities, and events.
• Learn how to post a blog.
• Learn how the Private, Pending, Published, and Shared by Committee states are used to control permission to view website content.
• Learn about our future website enhancements (and continuous improvements) on our Technology Blog, or suggest a new feature in our UserVoice feedback system.

Is your course or committee using a Facebook (or other social media) group as a way to stay connected? Check out our Social Media Moderator Guidelines.

RECORDING VOLUNTEER HOURS

Volunteer hours are associated with activities, events, and lodge stays. They may be entered in bulk or  you may select specific individuals and attribute specific hours based on that member's contribution. Members can also add volunteer hours that aren't captured elsewhere, such as course or committee admin work. Recording your hours as a volunteer is important for a number of reasons!  To name a few, The Mountaineers use volunteer hours to administer our annual volunteer reward and recognition programs and students applying to take advanced courses often need to submit a report of their volunteer hours. 

The Mountaineers is founded on the principle of volunteerism, and accurate volunteer hours paints a stronger picture of our programs for prospective donors and grant funders.

QUICK LINKS:

• Learn how to track volunteer hours
• View all of your volunteer hours and record hours that haven't been captured elsewhere on the "My Volunteer Hours" section of your My Profile page.
• Learn more about recording volunteer hours on our Recording Volunteer Hours page.

SAFETY GUIDANCE, HARASSMENT, AND PROBLEM BEHAVIOR

Please visit the Safety Committee page for complete information about our safety programs and procedures. 

QUICK LINKS:

• How to handle an incident on your trip.
• How to file an Incident Report.
• Learn about the organization's Emergency Contact procedures, and know when and how to use the Mountaineers Emergency Line.
• Include this 5W's on Incident Reporting  presentation in your activity/course training materials.
• Read our Member Code of Ethics.
• Review our Board Policy on Prohibited Behavior.
• How to report a problem behavior or harassment with the Behavior Complaint Form.
• Download and print our #SafeOutside wall display for display at your course, event, or activity, to share these resources with attendees.

SCHEDULING VIRTUAL CONTENT

We've gone digital! As The Mountaineers moves more of our programming online, check out these resources for specific considerations related to creating and scheduling virtual content.

Quick Links

• Zoom Meeting Request and Large Group Add-on Form. Please use this form to request a new Zoom meeting link for your online meeting, or to request that your existing Zoom meeting be upgraded to accommodate up to 500 participants. 
• Zoom Tutorial for Mountaineers Volunteers
• Content Creation Tools
• Pricing Guidelines for Online Programs
• How To: Virtual Event Best Practices
• Sample Language & Templates
• Volunteer Success Stories

VOLUNTEER RECRUITMENT TOOLS

As volunteer leaders of The Mountaineers, you are one of the many reasons our volunteer-base grows each year. Adding new volunteer energy helps us stay fresh, ensures our volunteers are representative of our broader membership, and helps reduce burnout. As a way to make it easier to recruit new volunteer leaders, we’ve put together a list of tools available when recruiting new volunteers. We're always looking to bring new volunteers into our community!

Curious how to help match a volunteer with a volunteer role based on their interests and availability? Check out the volunteer roles best suited for different interests and availability below.

To view a larger version, click on the  "pop-out" button on the top right corner of the image 

YOUTH PROGRAMS

We offer year round clubs, summer and break camps, family programs, after school opportunities, and youth partnership outreach programs called “Mountain Workshops”. Learn about getting involved with our Youth Programs.

QUICK LINKS:

• Policies and Forms: Youth Forms and Handbooks are now online, along with online leader tools to view and print important youth-related information.
• Anyone who volunteers with youth on a regular basis must be a Mountaineers Qualified Youth Leader. Learn how.
• For additional information, please review this PowerPoint Presentation of these new online features.  

NEED MORE HELP?

Can't find what you're looking for or need some additional assistance? Contact our Member Services Team at info@mountaineers.org or 206-521-6001.

HAVE AN IDEA?

Tell us about it! Log on to feedback.mountaineers.org, our feedback and help desk system powered by UserVoice. It's for everyone – all of our volunteers, leaders, members and guests – to add, review, comment on, and vote for ideas. This helps us prioritize future projects with your ideas in mind!