Re: [Paddlewise] Club Safety

From: Dave Kruger <dkruger_at_seasurf.com>
Date: Thu, 05 Mar 1998 20:40:15 -0800
Sarah wrote:

> I guess what I was trying to get at, not very successfully, was this:
> 
> if a club has organizers/coordinators rather than trip leaders, in part
> because the club doesn't want to be responsible or liable in the same
> ways that a commercial guiding company would be, how much control does the
> club have over what goes on in trips? 

Others have described the horrific dynamics of trying not to "regulate"
group paddles when members of a club do not know each other well enough
to know each other's capabilities.  I think the bottom line is that
somebody (usually the trip coordinator) will end up "responsible" for an
uncooperative or weaker paddler on group paddling trips.  What can the
"coordinator" do -- abandon the poor sop?

That means, on a defacto basis, someone becomes the fall guy -- no
authority to decide if an individual can go, but the responsibility when
things go sour.  I would NEVER put myself in that position.  I have
buckets of experience leading trips on the snow (XC-skiing, climbing),
and occasionally have been put in the "no-win" situation described above
(long story).  Now, I get really "agro" when someone tries to cajole me
into "leading" a group whose composition I can not control.  Not a
chance.  Life is too short.

-- 
Dave Kruger
Astoria, OR
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Received on Thu Mar 05 1998 - 20:51:44 PST

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