Sara Ramsay
We’re entering uncharted territory. Mountaineers in-person programming is suspended until at least April 24 and a two-week minimum Stay Home, Stay Healthy order limits non-essential businesses and access to many of our favorite places. Schools are closed and many of us are at least temporarily out of work. These are big scary changes and we know that many of our members and volunteers will need to reprioritize their lives to care for their families. Others are finding themselves with endless free time and forbidden from doing the things they love outside.
we need your help!
If you are looking for meaningful ways to contribute to The Mountaineers community during these unprecedented times, we invite you to sign up for one of these fun and creative opportunities to help keep our community connected.
Connect with our senior members
If you’ve ever had a chance to chat with any of our 50+ year members, you understand the power of a single conversation. You feel simultaneously humbled by their stories, inspired to follow in their footsteps, and connected to something much bigger than you. Now, more than ever, that connection matters. Our long-time members are among the most susceptible to COVID-19 and we’re excited to harness the power of our community to connect with these folks and ensure they feel supported during this worrisome and often isolating time. If you’re interested in helping with outreach to some of our senior members, please sign up or contact development@mountaineers.org directly. This volunteer role will provide you with a unique opportunity to chat with longtime members on the phone and connect over stories about time spent outside in some of our favorite places.
help Create online curriculum
The world is going digital and in the last several weeks, many of us have transitioned both our work and personal lives to an online platform. The Mountaineers is no exception, and we want to provide both social and educational opportunities to our community!
Is there a seminar or course you’ve always wanted to teach? Do you have an idea for how to present one of your course lectures in a new format? Consider writing or reformatting your curriculum and sharing it with other Mountaineers as a way to stay active and connected. From how-to videos to coaching and feedback sessions to live lectures with small-group breakout, online learning can take a variety of forms.
Once established, online lectures can also reduce the strain on volunteer resources/capacity, and many of our volunteers are finding that they can be just as effective! Doing the legwork now to move course lectures online can pay dividends later for next year’s course.
Whether you know exactly what content you'd like to put online, or you just want to volunteer to help out with an existing online project, we want your help!
To help you get the ball rolling we’ve created a Creating Virtual Curriculum at The Mountaineers course on Google Classroom. The purpose of this course is two-fold in that we’re providing a list of tools and resources via a free and user-friendly format that you can then use to develop your own online curriculum. To access this course:
- Navigate to classroom.google.com
- Log in to your Google account. (You'll need a free Google account if you don’t have one already.)
- Select the + symbol on the top right and select "Join class"
- Enter the class code: lim5lkn
- Click "Classwork" at the top
This course is a work-in-progress and our goal is to keep things as streamlined as possible. In an effort to make things simple, accessible, and low cost, we’re opting to use the Google suite of tools wherever possible. This is one set of tools among endless options. If you find another tool that you like using, please share it with us via the feedback form in this Google course.
As a reminder, The Mountaineers also has professionally developed eLearning courses. These courses typically apply to a wide student audience across multiple branches. If you’re interested to work with our staff to develop a more robust eLearning course, please submit a request form.
Expand your skills through online learning
Over the last several years, The Mountaineers has slowly expanded our library of online courses and resources. Find recordings from past Leadership Conferences and Leadership Development Series sessions in our Resource Center. Create a reading and watch list from the resources shared by our Equity & Inclusion Committee. Take one of our eLearning courses! Did you know we offer a free online course about Safe Travel at High Altitude? Or that we recently updated our Low Impact Recreation Skills course? These are all awesome opportunities to learn and stay engaged.
Support our Reimagined Gala
The Mountaineers is launching our first online auction to accompany our Reimagined Gala. Browse our amazing line-up of auction items and consider getting in on the action! You can also share this opportunity with anyone in your personal networks who may be inspired to give. Our ability to continue providing mission-critical programs relies on the availability of limited resources and we appreciate your support as we continue to fundraise through these difficult times.
Host a virtual meet-up
Social media is full of uplifting examples of folks coming together online to stay connected with their communities during quarantine. From digital happy hours to online games to virtual moving screenings, there are numerous platforms and formats to bring people together. We encourage volunteers to step-up and organize one of these activities for your committee, course group, or SIG while our in-person connection is on pause. You can even list it as an event on mountaineers.org! Please sign up and staff will support you to make it a success.
Need more inspiration? Netflix (and Netflix Party) has several outdoorsy movies in their line-up, including Mountain and Dawn Wall, allowing folks to have long distance movie nights. Create and host online trivia through a platform like Zoom or Google Hangouts. Organize a book club of your favorite outdoor reads. Let us know what you come-up with!
Keep it local
While it is tempting to get outside and find social distance on our public lands, it is critically important that we stay close to home. Loving our public lands means leaving them be during this time of turmoil. But that doesn’t mean staying inside or idle! Many folks already use resources like local stairways to weight train for big alpine adventures. Lean on tools like our Urban Trails book series and Discovering Seattle Parks to find greenery near home. Share your training plan and favorite online resources with your Mountaineers community and help others fine creative ways to make the most of their time around home.
Stay busy, and help others do the same
For those of us who feel most alive in the outdoors, sticking around home can feel like a chore. Stay connected with the outdoors and your Mountaineers community through different avenues. Take advantage of some downtime to prep for your next big adventure. Share your tips and tricks for food dehydration and do some thoughtful meal planning for the coming summer. Clean and reorganize your gear. Have a helpful tip for someone trying to wash their sleeping bag or patch that pesky hole in their gaitor? Write a blog or create a quick online tutorial. You and your adventure partners will thank one another at the end of your next trip, whenever that may be.
Let's hear from you!
How else are you staying connected? Share your ideas and we’ll continue to update this blog with more ways you can help keep The Mountaineers community alive and well!
