May 2004
Major Excursions Newsletter
May 2004
In this Issue…
New policies
Relevancy of Club’s mission
Online updates
AMC website
Submission of a prospectus for online use
Revised application form
Mentoring program
MEC survey results
Use of medical and liability forms
Trip insurance
Reminder of meeting dates
Trip submission deadlines
Submission of pictures
Reading lists available for MEs
MEC contacts list
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New Policies Approved
At the Spring Gathering in April the following
policies were approved regarding including the
cost of leaders’ airfare and meals in the cost of
the trip, and how to list airfare costs in the
Outdoors. Please see the attached documents for
the details of each new policy. These policies
will be added to the ME Handbook.
Relevancy of Club’s Mission
The AMC’s mission statement reads as follows:
Founded in 1876, the Appalachian Mountain Club is
America's oldest conservation and recreation
organization. We promote the protection, enjoyment,
and wise use of the mountains, rivers, and trails of the
Appalachian region. We believe that the mountains
and rivers have an intrinsic worth and also provide
recreational opportunity, spiritual renewal, and
ecological and economic health for the region. We
encourage people to enjoy and appreciate the natural
world because we believe that successful conservation
depends on this experience. We fulfill our mission
through the three interconnecting pillars of the AMC:
conservation, education, and recreation.
There was discussion at the Spring Gathering
regarding the “educational” component of a
major excursion, both at the proposal phase and
throughout the trip. More effort needs to be
made to tie in the AMC’s mission statement
regarding recreation, education and conservation,
not only to comply with the IRS’s regulations
governing the Club’s non-profit status, but also
because a major excursion should be in line with
Major Excursions Newsletter
the Club’s mission. Furthermore, this aspect of
the trip is often what distinguishes it from other
commercial-run trips. To this end the mission
statement has been added to the revised
application form online (see next section) and
you are now asked to expand on how your trip
will meet the AMC’s mission of recreation,
education and conservation. There is a sample of
ways to do this online as well.
Online Updates
There are updates to communicate regarding the
Major Excursions website and the creation of a
Major Excursions section on Outdoors.org.
AMC website – Outdoors.org
In June the AMC’s marketing and
communications department will officially
launch a section of the AMC’s website dedicated
to Major Excursions. The benefits include more
effective marketing and the ability for
prospective participants to download your trip
prospectus as a pdf* file. This should
significantly reduce the amount of SASE
mailings and give participants instant access to
your trip information. Furthermore, once your
trip is full or has been cancelled for some reason,
a message can be posted to that effect. Trips will
not be published online until they appear in the
magazine so that people who are technologychallenged are not at any disadvantage.
Submission of a prospectus for online use
We will use the 50 word listing you have
provided for the magazine on the web and will
give the internet visitor the option to click
through to a PDF of your prospectus for more
information.
Participants will be able to download your trip
prospectus as a PDF* file (see next section) or
contact you as before if you do not wish to
submit one. You will have two choices for
submitting your prospectus for online use. You
can either use your own formatted document, as
long as it can be converted easily into a PDF*, or
you can choose to use a template that has been
created for this purpose. This template will be
available on Major Excursions website shortly.
In both cases, prospectuses should be forwarded
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May 2004
to Bob Goeke at goeke@space.mit.edu.
Submission of prospectuses does not need to
happen at the time your proposal submission.
Once your trip has been accepted you should
plan on creating it soon after so that it appears
online by the time the magazine publishes your
trip.
*Definition of PDF
Definition of PDF: Acronym for Portable
Document Format, the *PDF* file format created
by Adobe Systems, Inc. uses the PostScript
printer description language and is highly
portable across computer platforms. PDF
documents are created with Adobe Acrobat or
other programs and can be viewed with Adobe
Acrobat Reader and other PDF reader programs
which are accessible to most users and are free of
charge.
Revised application form
As mentioned briefly on the first page, the
section in the application that previously asked
you to list the “educational” component of your
trip has been expanded and now asks you how
your major excursion will meet the recreational,
educational and conservation mission of the
AMC. A sample of the mission statement
appears right on the form, and there is a link to a
separate document that gives you some
examples. Furthermore, there is a new section
that asks you to describe your accommodations
for your trip.
Mentoring Program
Many of you recently participated in an online
leader survey, which yielded a 50% return rate!
The information gathered will primarily enable
the MEC to encourage mentoring relationships
between leaders and co-leaders and match people
who have similar trip interests. Pam Madigan
and Erika Bloom have graciously offered to
oversee the mentoring program. If you are
interested in being a mentor or would like to be
matched with a new co-leader, please let Stacia
know (mecchair@amcboston.org or 781-2394005).
Results of the On-Line Survey
As mentioned previously, we had 44 people
respond to the online survey in March. Data was
collected on leadership status, WFA certification,
willingness of leaders to take on new co-leaders,
and lots of useful information on what types of
trips people want to lead in the next few years,
Major Excursions Newsletter
and where. Not surprisingly, there was quite a
bit of overlap on certain locations, such as New
Zealand and US National Parks in the Western
United States. The MEC hopes to use the trip
data to match people up with similar ideas. We
also intend to help you plan unique trips and
avoid too much duplication.
Use of Medical and Liability Forms
Some of you have expressed concerns about
what happens to the medical and liability forms
after they are sent to Joy Street. Medical forms
are confidential and are used to gather
information that may impact a participant’s
ability to participate on a certain kind of trip. It
prepares the leaders in case of an emergency.
These forms are only reviewed by the leaders of
the trip and the Travel Programs Coordinator at
Joy Street. They are not (and should not) be
shared with anyone else. They are stored in the
trip file at Joy Street. All liability forms are also
collected and sent to Joy Street before the trip
departs. They too remain in the trip file.
Trip Insurance
After your trip is approved the Travel Programs
Coordinator will send you an acceptance packet.
This will include a letter with your trip number,
recent policy updates, and any comments about
your proposal that was brought up at the MEC
meeting. Furthermore, the packet will also
include the AMC’s recommended travel
insurance. You should highly encourage all of
your participants to purchase the trip insurance.
The AMC has negotiated with one company and
has customized the insurance to include several
of the activities that are typical to major
excursions. Ultimately it is the participants’
decision to use or not use this insurance, and
they also have the right to shop around, but make
sure they understand that they may not receive
the same coverage.
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May 2004
MEC Contacts List
The following is a list of current MEC members
and how to get in touch with them.
Reminder of MEC Meeting Dates
Stacia Zukroff, Chair, Member of MEC Leader
Subcommittee, mechair@amcboston.org, 617795-1651
The remaining dates for MEC meetings in 2004
are: June 6, 12-5pm in Belmont, MA and
October 23, 8:30-noon in Woodstock, CT (this
will be held at the Fall Gathering). If you would
like to attend one of these meetings, please
RSVP to Stacia at mecchair@amcboston.org or
781-239-4005.
T Walley Williams, Past Chair, Member of
MEC Leader Subcommittee,
vze2g9bb@verizon.net, 617-484-1877
Trip Submission Deadlines
Bob Bentley, Treasurer, bentleyyr@h2otest.net,
508-866-3057
This is a reminder that trips must be submitted at
least two weeks in advance of the meeting in
which you would like the proposal approved.
This means October 9th for the Fall Gathering.
Submission of Pictures
Stacia is collecting pictures to be used in various
AMC publications, printed and online. If you
have a picture you wish to submit, please send it
to Stacia as a JPEG, GIF or TIFF at
mecchair@amcboston.org. It should be good
quality, and preferably a group shot rather than
of scenery. If it is used for commercial
publication then you will be asked to get
permission from the people in the picture. There
are some examples in this newsletter submitted
recently.
Reading Lists Available for MEs
We have established an agreement with
Longitude Books (www.longitudebooks.com )to
provide a reading list for any Major Excursions
Leader who would like one. If you are interested
in providing your participants a list of books,
maps and field guides related to the destination
of your Major Excursion, please contact Heidi
Reilly. Longitude Books will provide a 'reading
list' free of charge, credits toward future book
purchases can be earned if anyone purchases
from your referral. A hard copy sample of a
Longitude reading list will be included with the
hard copy of this newsletter, which will be sent
to you by mail.
Major Excursions Newsletter
Jan Taylor, Member of MEC Leader
Subcommittee, jliztaylor@rcn.com, 781-8621897
Erika Bloom, Member of MEC Leader
Subcommittee, ebloom1@comcast.net, 508-9963290
Rob Funk, Member, RobHFunk@aol.com, 860429-4956
Betsy Goeke, Secretary, betsyg@space.mit.edu,
781-729-8484
Bob Goeke, Webmaster, goeke@space.mit.edu,
781-729-8484
Joe Kuzneski, Member, jkuzneski@atlantic.net,
352-592-3186
Pam Madigan, Member of MEC Leader
Subcommittee, pmadigan@att.net, 508-359-6789
Trish Niece, Member, MCS810NF@aol.com,
203-265-9584
Heidi Reilly, AMC Staff Member,
hreilly@outdoors.org, 206-617-523-0655 x356
Lynne Zimmerman, Member,
lynnesz@megalink.net, 207-824-3763
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