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Leadership School held at White Memorial

By Heather Wyman

I was lucky to get the opportunity to join the Connecticut Chapter of the AMC for their recent Leadership Training School in Litchfield, CT. It all started when several people, including myself, posted a trip on the Yahoo! Berkshire Chapter Young People's site, and an "alert" was made by the Berkshire Chapter Head that ALL hikes, or kayak trip in my case, needed to be lead by "certified" hike leaders and follow AMC policy, etc, etc. What I noticed right away was that 1) This might not be such a bad thing. Knowledge is power, right?, and 2) Somewhere in the etc., etc., was a "reimbursement upon completion" statement. A win/win situation! The very next day I was filling out the registration form. Thanks to the creative ingenue of Dale Geslien, Education Head of the Ct. AMC, the three-day learning series was both informative and interactive. Part classroom-style, part outdoors, we learned the ropes of good, effective leadership. Some of the key points were effectively listing your hike, thorough trip planning, screening participants, leadership styles, safety, basic emergency care, and a cute "What Not To Wear:AMC" skit led by none other than Leo Kelly. Even though I may have had some of these skills, it was a refreshing enhancement to my current (hiking) bag of tricks, so to speak, and gave me the confidence to be able to know when to say "no". What a fascinating and unique group of people I met, and I certainly hope to see many of my new leader com padres again in the near future! Heather~

 

 

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Compilation Copyright © 2006, Connecticut Chapter AMC