The Mountaineers Leadership Conference - Mountaineers Tacoma Program Center

8:30am - 4:00pm  at the Tacoma Program Center. Find a tentative all-day conference schedule here. 

For over 100 years, The Mountaineers has enriched the outdoor community by helping thousands of people explore, conserve, learn about, and enjoy the lands and waters of the Pacific Northwest and beyond. We take pride in that legacy, and we we want to honor our volunteer leaders who make it all happen! 

For the first time ever, we are excited to offer two in-person days of professional development - one in Seattle and one in Tacoma - dedicated to thanking, inspiring, and empowering The Mountaineers current and aspiring volunteer leaders. Both conferences will offer equivalent content, with a similar line-up of presenters, expanding our reach and giving volunteers the flexibility to select the program that is most convenient for them. Learn more about our Leadership Conference at the Seattle Program Center on December 2, 2023. 

 The conference includes both esteemed outdoor professionals and seasoned leaders from our own community at The Mountaineers. A series of interactive sessions will explore the many facets of leadership – from forming compatible groups, to risk management through the lens of justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion principles, to expanding your outdoor advocacy skills, and more.

Registration for the Leadership Conference includes participation in a variety of speaker sessions and a catered social hour. Top Pot donuts, snacks, coffee, and tea will be available during morning registration. Hors d'oeuvres with beer and wine will be provided at the end of the day during the afternoon social hour. 

Foundations of LEadership or instruction prerequisite

After careful consideration and feedback from our community, and in an effort to make these programs more accessible to our membership, we have decided to remove the Foundations of Leadership and Foundations of Instruction course prerequisites for our Leadership Conferences. We do strongly encourage all conference participants to take one or both courses for a more comprehensive learning experience.

Presenters & Sessions

Find a tentative all-day conference schedule here. 

• Click here to view a list of the Tacoma Leadership Conference presenters
• Click here to view a list of the Tacoma Leadership Conference breakout sessions

Session tracks

A series of interactive sessions will explore the many facets of leadership through our two session tracks: 

• Experiential Leadership: Elevate your leadership skills through exploration of real-world scenarios and understand how practical experiences shape effective leadership strategies and skills.
• Equity & Inclusion: Dedicated to fostering dialogue and inspiring concrete steps towards building diverse, inclusive, and equitable spaces.