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Outdoor Leadership Development Committee

• Club Outdoor Leadership Requirements & Guidelines
• NY-NoJ Chapter Leadership Development & Safety
• Leader's Liability, Leadership Instruction Paper
• Club Recreational Activities and Liability Insurance

The AMC Outdoor Leadership Development Committee (OLDC), acting under the athority of the AMC Board of Directors, recently approved and distributed a Leadership Requirements and Guidelines leaflet and a policy statement on Recreational Activities and Liability Insurance to all units of the Club that sponsor outdoor activities. Sponsoring units include the Club's Major and Interchapter Excursions Committees, Chapters and their activity committees, as well as the volunteer managed facilities committees. These documents are being implemented within each Club unit, and are being distributed to volunteer leaders.

The OLDC is also making these documents available to all members and participants in our activities through several means, and this WWW page is one. We are confident that the publication and distribution of these policy statements will help to maintain our present high quality of activity leadership and may help to reduce the likelihood of future unpleasant incidents.

We view the Leadership Requirements and Guidelines as an extension and reinforcement of the several outdoor leadership training programs and courses offered by the AMC and the Chapters. However, these guidelines are not intended as a substitute for the experience and judgement of the leaders. Experienced leaders may well have good reasons for deviating from these guidelines. Each unit of the Club is encouraged to maintain their current high standards of leadership and to require additional training to improve leadership skills.

The statement on Recreational Activities and Liability Insurance has been collected from several sources, many that are not normally available to new leaders or to leaders who lead only Chapter activities. It also includes some new policies regarding the listing of trips in today's computer/communication environment.

We invite any comment or suggestion to improve or supplement both of these documents. Please address these in writing to the Chairs of the OLDC subcommittees responsible for the preparation of each document in order to be considered for inclusion or reflection in future revisions; OLDC intends to review the documents for possible revision annually. Please address comments on the Leadership Requirements and Guidelines to: Joseph A. Kuzneski, 5 Russett Road, Middletown, RI 02842 < >. Submit comments on the Recreational Activities and Liability Insurance policy to: Alex Kosseff, Outdoor Leadership Development Coordinator, AMC, 5 Joy Street, Boston, MA 02108 < >.

We know that nearly all AMC volunteer led activities are excellent, enjoyable events that are conducted safely. We want to make certain that the Club has done all that it can to maintain a wide varity of high level activities and oportunities to enjoy the Great Outdoors.