Last Update:  01/07/17

We are now using a membership system for our website.  So what, you may ask, does this mean for you as an organizer or instructor?

• You still go to our Trips Page to submit a trip/class proposal and to post your trip report. The trip submission form is a little different (and “features” an annoying scroll-bar-within-a-scroll bar), but the information is pretty much the same.  You should receive a copy of what you submit in each form.
  

• The combined trip roster and waiver is found on the Documents page as usual.  You need to bring one and have people fill it in before the start of your paddle.

• A Board member (or delegate) will put your trip/class on the calendar as usual once it is submitted by the form

• Make sure you and your co-organizers sign up for your trip as soon as it is posted!  If you don't, you will have to turn away people who think they have a slot to stay on the correct side of the Activity Policy.
  

• As each person signs up for your trip/class, you will get an e-mail letting you know they have signed up.  If the participant chooses to include it, the e-mail will include the participant's e-mail, phone number, and emergency contact information (should you need them) in the message.  You will also get their wet-exit certification status in this e-mail
  

• • At present there is no good way to make all the member information you might need to know as a trip organizer easily visible to you. The current workaround is the information included in the e-mail you get when someone signs up.
    

• While the new website will automatically keep track of who signed up for your trip (in order of sign-up) and a waiting list, you still have ultimate control over who goes on your trip (and are encouraged/required to screen those you do not know). You also need to manually manage the actual attendee list just like the “good old days.”   Using the system to cancel someone from a trip, move someone from the waiting list to active status, or find out who is on the waiting list, cannot be done by organizers.  Members are allowed to cancel themselves, however, using the instructions in the e-mail they get when they successfully register for a trip.  

• • The exception to this is cancellations of attendees to paid events, or cancellation of entire paid events.  For attendees of paid events you need to:
  • 1. Ask an administrator (Trips, Education, or Events board members) to cancel that person from the event (or to cancel the entire event if appropriate).
    2. E-mail treasurer@oopskayak.org asking that the cancelled event attendees are refunded their event fee (give the attendee names to be refunded and date of the event).
       

• At present you will need to manually enforce the policy that only members who are Wet-Exit certified may go on your trip. The e-mail you get when someone signs up will indicate whether they are a board member, trip organizer, and (most importantly) wet-exit certified. You will have to turn down people who are not wet-exit certified unless you can help them get certified before the trip or it is a level 1 trip and they do not use a spray skirt or close-top kayak.
  

• Wet Exit Certifiers:  After wet-exit certifying someone, please alert safety@oopskayak.org and education@oopskayak.org with the relevant information.
  

• Please see the the sticky topic at the top of the Trips or Trip Organizer's forums for suggestions on your trip report. You are also encouraged to direct people to your trip's forum posting if you talk about your trip on the listserv (which we will continue to use for the foreseeable future).

• I've also created a "Locations" forum.  If you know an area well, I encourage you to post information (separate from trip reports) that others can use to decide whether to paddle there, what they will be getting into, facilities, etc.