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By Kellie Gerbers
AORE Board of Directors Member
For those of you who know me, it’s no secret that most of my AORE-related time and energy has been spent advocating on behalf of students and college outdoor programs for the past several years. While these goals are still very near and dear to my heart, I had an opportunity to meet and interact with several members at the 2016 Annual Conference who were not affiliated with college outdoor programs, and these interactions had a pretty significant impact on my perspective on the Association as-a-whole.
In short, AORE and its membership are changing. Our 2017 conference hosts represent a municipal recreation program. We have Board members representing our Association who work in the retail industry, as consultants, and in state government positions. The shift in membership and Association goals to advance the needs of entities beyond the college sector does not have to be met with an “either/or” mentality. Both sides of membership (college and non-college) can learn from each other and leverage the other’s resources to advance their programs and staff.
As one member astutely pointed out to me at the conference, there is a finite number of college outdoor recreation programming jobs available to the surplus of graduates that AORE puts into the field. Many of these graduates will need to look outside the collegiate outdoor recreation industry if they want to continue to work in this field. Military morale, welfare and recreation (MWR) programs, private guiding entities, non-profits, retail companies—these are the future employers of many of our students and young professionals, and our college-affiliated members need to be receptive of the resources they can provide (and reciprocate, in turn).
From time to time we hear from new and potential non-college affiliates that the membership and conference can’t provide subsequent value for their investment because it is so heavily rooted in college-specific issues. This is why AORE embarked on a very specific outcome of its 2016 Annual Conference and for each conference in the future:
Ensure representation and engagement from the following settings:
• College/university/junior college (e.g., outdoor recreation programs, academics and administration)
• Communities/municipalities (e.g., parks, recreation and conservation programs)
• Military (e.g., on- and off-base morale, welfare and recreation programs)
• Other not-for-profit programs (e.g., non-governmental organizations and public land agencies)
• Manufacturers and service providers (e.g., certifications, trainings and equipment)
(From AORE Annual Conference Outcomes document. Want to learn more? Email [email protected].)
Looking ahead, my challenge to our membership is to expand our presentations and services to serve more than the default college-population. Here’s an example: if you’re planning on submitting a proposal for the 2017 on staff development, why don’t you partner with a colleague that works in a different outdoor sector to create a wider reach? If you’re submitting a presentation in programming, how can you ensure the content of your presentation reaches beyond an 18-24 age range? A question for college programs: what are your needs that our peers may be able to address? Many of us do the same work for a slightly different audience, but our challenges and needs are largely the same. We operate climbing walls. We facilitate challenge courses. We order equipment. We constantly find new ways to market and fund our program offerings.
As we move into 2017, I hope we can recognize and celebrate our Association’s history and foundation, rooted heavily in college outdoor programming, and also embrace the new faces and industries represented in our membership.
Embracing All Outdoor Recreation Programs from MWR to Non-Profits