AORE Annual Report 2014 | Page 4

Letter from the

Executive Director

"While the landscape has changed in the last two decades, AORE’s mission remains centered on advancing the profession and people who serve the field of outdoor recreation and education. "

Dear Members,

In 2014, AORE Board of Directors and the National Office (now recognized as the AORE Leadership Team) conducted a comprehensive Membership Survey. Through extensive data collection, board meetings, professional consultation and web based focus groups with the membership, the AORE Leadership Team has identified four key focus areas that will guide the Association through the 5-year Strategic Plan. These four areas are: Advocacy, Organizational Health, Relationship Engagement, and Education.

It is important to recognize that AORE today is built upon the shoulders and efforts of many who have led to this point. We are excited to embrace the current Strategic Plan but recognize that we have only arrived at this point thanks to the decisions and actions of past leadership since we started down this path in 1993. While the landscape has changed in the last two decades, AORE’s mission remains centered on advancing the profession and people who serve the field of outdoor recreation and education. To that end, we adopted the 2015-2020 Strategic Plan at the AORE Annual Conference in Portland, Oregon.

AORE is a network of professionals who are committed to the field of outdoor recreation and the conference is a celebration of the growing strength of that network. As members, we all grow and benefit as a result of the increasing strength of AORE. That strength comes from our growth in membership, services provided by the national office, the enhancement of our national presence and the annual conference.

With the membership approving the 2015-2020 Strategic Plan, AORE continues to move its mission forward under four guiding pillars; Advocacy, Organizational Health, Relationship Engagement, and Education. In the report, we have outlined some of the major accomplishments in each of these pillars achieved in 2014.

Our mission is to continue to make AORE a valuable and necessary resource for all those involved in outdoor education. By focusing on these four strategic pillars, we are working to ensure that we achieve the mission our organization undertook over 20 years ago in advocating to advance the field of outdoor recreation.

Jeannette K. Stawski, CAE

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