MWGO held its Annual Gathering on Sunday Oct 27, 2024 at Evans Notch Lodge and by all reports it was a great success. The format was a bit different this year as we moved the Quarterly Board Meeting to its regularly scheduled 4th Tuesday via Zoom, which made the morning available for activities reminiscent of the Rendezvous that was held in the earlier years of the organization. Evans Notch Lodge provided a great lunch, which was enjoyed around the wood stove in the lodge. Our afternoon started off looking a little more like a postal center with 3000 postcards being stickered with address labels and stamps, but also included an “Un-Conference” (a chance for those in attendance to raise and discuss concerns, ideas, and more), and of course the Annual Meeting itself. Those in attendance agreed it was a very successful day by all measures… everyone learned a thing or two by sharing our skills and experiences in the morning, we have several great ideas of features and events we can incorporate in the coming months to help build a community of guides, and we added four new members to our board and officially voted in two existing members. Oh yeah, and we also prepped 3000 postcards that are now in the mail to guides far and wide! Read on for more details about the day!
After the obligatory meet and greet with coffee, we started our day with several lightning sessions sharing and refreshing skills, gear, and knowledge. With just 20 minutes in each session, it was a chance to hone old skills, refresh those not so often used skills, learn the basics of new skills, and share some gear recommendations and guiding experiences.
It was clear from those in attendance that gatherings and opportunities like these lightning sessions can help us all stay fresh and learn something new from shared experiences with others in the guiding community. Thank you to all those who shared their knowledge with us at the gathering and for those who weren’t there, we have some ideas for skill sharing that you’ll hear more about soon!
Thank you to Jen Clark of Evans Notch Lodge for providing lunch and the gathering space for the day!
After lunch, we gathered back around the table for an Un-Conference, a chance for participants to raise and discuss topics, concerns, and ideas with the group and for themes to form on the fly rather than being dictated ahead of time. There were several tips, ideas, and concerns raised, but the themes quickly became evident: we learn from each other, we enjoy spending time together, and we want to do more of it! It was noted that while many of us take our Wilderness First Aid refreshers every few years, we often don’t get enough practice and don’t think about it enough to keep ourselves current and fresh with our skills. To that end, you can expect that MWGO will provide opportunities for guides to keep their minds fresh when it comes to wilderness first aid skills. This may take the form of a “Medical Minute” in our eNews and/or a periodic virtual gathering of guides to practice a tabletop scenario or review and critique a past incident. Future MWGO events and gatherings may also provide an opportunity to practice those scenario skills in person. Similarly, MWGO would like to provide more of the “lightning sessions” that were shared at the meeting but in virtual form in periodic online gatherings. These brief opportunities to share skills, tips, and more provide not only valuable learning opportunities, but also excellent networking opportunities. MWGO would also like to provide periodic virtual affiliation group gatherings, mentorship and/or apprenticeship opportunities, and in-person gatherings or trips for guides where we can learn from each other real-time without clients!
Our gathering wrapped up with our Annual Meeting, which included all of the annual business of the organization. The short version is that our finances are in a good position, we’ve made a lot of progress in the past few years to re-energize the organization and increase our activities and visibility, our membership drive is kicking into high gear, and we have lots of great ideas to continue and expand the good work of the organization in the year ahead. All of this work takes people, and to that end, we officially welcomed Paul and Kevin to the board (they’ve been with us for a bit, but now it’s official), and we added Joanne, Christina, Kim and Vlad to our board. MWGO is a fully volunteer organization and we are always thankful for those who volunteer their time and efforts to help keep us moving forward and also always eager to welcome additional volunteers who can help us increase our capacity to serve the guiding community!
