Toronto Outdoor Club - How You Can Help

• Club Volunteers: The Toronto Outdoor Club team consists of the following positions. Some of these positions are currently occupied, and others are open. If you are interested in an open position, please contact Jenn Pammett at president@torontooutdoorclub.com to apply.
   
  • President (Position currently filled by Jenn Pammett):
    • Spearhead the planning and decision making activities for the club
    • Coordinate, train and coach members of volunteer team
    • Deal with member issues (ie. inappropriate behavior, conflicts)
    • Coach and train volunteers to perform their duties
    • Perform duties of open Positions as required
    • Manage the club waiver, rental agreement and other legal document verbiage
    • Answer e-mail inquiries sent to legal@torontooutdoorclub.com
    Skills required: Excellent communication skills. Professional yet friendly and approachable manner.
    Time commitment: About 20 hours/month, plus time required to perform duties of open positions.
  • Vice President (Position currently filled by Erik, Alison, Shannon):
    • Assist President with planning and decision making activities
    • Assist President in dealing with member issues (ie. inappropriate behavior, conflicts)
    • Learn/know how to perform all volunteer duties, and how to lead events
    • Assist in coaching/training volunteers to perform their duties
    • Assist President in management of legal documents, plus:
      • Store club waivers in a safe location
      • Record signed waivers in the club database
    • Assist President in performing duties of open positions as requested
    • Provide backup for President (e-mails, decision making, etc) when President unavailable
    Skills required: Excellent communication skills. Professional yet friendly and approachable manner.
    Time commitment: About 10 hours/month, plus time required to perform duties of open volunteer positions.
  • Safety and Equipment Coordinator (Position currently filled by Jenn P):
    • Evaluate events and assess associated risks
    • Ensure member safety is considered appropriately in the more advanced club events
    • Consult with club volunteers to ensure that safety concerns and issues are considered and addressed as required
    • Identify appropriate rental equipment availability and pricing from multiple rental sources in the Toronto area
    • Provide club members with information needed to acquire required equipment and answer member inquiries regarding rental equipment
    • Answer e-mail inquiries sent to safety@torontooutdoorclub.com
    Skills required: Knowledge of outdoor safety and equipment. Good organizational and communication skills.
    Time commitment: About 5 hours/month.
  • Treasurer: (Position currently filled by Shannon Houde)
    • Manage club finances
    • Receive member payments for events
    • Make event payments to service providers
    • Manage club PayPal account
    • Manage club donations
    • Manage club expense payments, such as web hosting, etc.
    • Manage club budget
    • Answer e-mail inquiries sent to treasurer@torontooutdoorclub.com
    Skills required: Some bookkeeping experience. Must be bondable.
    Time commitment: About 10 hours/month.
  • Communications Manager: (Position currently filled by Andrew Fell)
    • Answer questions posed to info@torontooutdoorclub.com, answering e-mails in a timely, friendly, and professional manner
    • Develop rapport and foster a friendly, comfortable atmosphere with people inquiring about the club
    • Distribute club newsletter on a regular basis (approx 2x/month) to club e-mail list
    • Gather, and potentially write, articles for the club newsletter
    Skills required: Excellent communication skills. Professional yet friendly and approachable manner.
    Time commitment: About 10 hours/month.
  • French Liaison:
    • Answer questions sent to our "francais" mailbox
    • Develop and translate web site content in French
    • Foster a positive relationship between the TOC and Toronto's Francophone community
  • Content Editor:
    • Static Content
      • Regularly review static web site content to ensure it is correct and up-to-date:
        • About TOC Pages: All
        • Membership Pages: "Membership Info" and "Rules" (not waiver)
        • Events Pages: "Payment Info", "Paypal Info", "Event Checklists", "Coordinator Checklist"
        • Other Pages: "Links"
      • Send required changes to Webmaster for web site update
    • Event Content Management
      • Review Event Details for completeness and accuracy of information. Inform coordinators of errors and/or edit/fix errors directly.
      • Review Event Details for spelling and grammatical errors. Inform coordinators of errors and/or edit/fix errors directly.
      • Review Event Write-Ups for spelling and grammatical errors. Inform coordinators of errors and/or edit/fix errors directly.
    • Member Content Management
      • Review Bulletin Board postings, Calendar Postings and Classified Ads for spelling and grammar. Fix as required.
      • Review Bulletin Board postings, Calendar Postings and Classified Ads for completeness and accuracy. Fix/expire as required.
    Skills required: Good organizational and communication skills. Excellent written communication skills. Good computer skills.
    Time commitment: About 10 hours/month.
  • Photo Historian: (Position currently filled by Rich, but more help welcome! )
    • Photo Album Management
      • Receive photos from event attendees
      • Review all event photos, selecting which ones to post in the photo album
      • Crop and enhance photos
      • Upload photos to Fotki service
      • Manage photo albums in Fotki, for example, rearranging photos to be in logical order as required.
    • Slide Show Management
      • Select photos to include on the slide show (on the TOC Home Page)
      • Crop photos and add date
      • Upload photos to the web site via FTP (they will automatically show up in the slide show)
      • Remove old photos over time/as required
    Skills required: Good organizational skills and computer/internet skills. Experience with photo manipulation software.
    Time commitment: About 10 hours/month.
  • Partner Data Manager:
    • Use the TOC Back Office web pages to enter and maintain data pertaining to TOC Partner organizations (ie. media partners, sponsors). For example:
      • Sponsor information records
      • Banner Ad schedules
      • Sponsored Events
      • Event data feeds to media partners
    Skills Required: Computer, internet and data entry experience. Communication and decision-making abilities.
    Time Commitment: About 10 hours/month
  • Webmaster: (Position currently filled by Webmaster, but more help welcome! )
    • Develop and maintain web site functionality (ASP/MS Access) and content with direction from club volunteers
    • Ensure integrity of club database
    • Ensure nightly clean-up routine runs properly
    • Regularly back up the club database to local machine
    • Answer e-mail inquiries sent to webmaster@torontooutdoorclub.com
    Skills required: Minimum two years ASP/Access experience.
    Time commitment: About 15 hours/month.
  • Volunteer Coordinator: (Position currently filled by Victor Corrales)
    • Recruit event coordinators from experienced and knowledgeable membership base
    • Train and coach event coordinators on club procedures for leading events
    • Assist new event coordinators with their first events as needed
    • Answer event coordinators' questions and/or put them in touch with the appropriate volunteer
    • Monitor events to ensure procedure is being followed properly by all coordinators
    • Follow-up periodically with inactive coordinators to ensure that the volunteer page stays current and up-to-date
    • Administer the Volunteer Training Program, under which volunteers can be reimbursed for approved training upon completion of an agreed upon commitment to the club.
    Skills required: Excellent leadership, coordination and communication skills. Professional yet friendly and approachable manner.
    Time commitment: About 20 hours/month.
    
    
• Event Coordinator
  Put on a TOC event by sharing with others the activities that you like the most or special skills you have. For many activities, you need not be an expert to organize something.  Members who are interested in becoming an event coordinator will go through the sponsorship process and have lots of support.
  
  Once you've chosen an event that you would like to organize, please review and follow the coordinator checklist to ensure an event is pulled off smoothly and consistently across the board. You must follow these simple steps to be allowed to carry through with your club event.

• A banner ad at the top right of TOC web pages. There are a total of 24 banner spots in our banner rotation, which cost $100/year each. A sponsor may purchase one spot (for $100/year), or as many spots as they want (out of the remaining available spots). If you purchase one spot, your banner will appear on at least 1/24 TOC pages (until we have full sponsorship, your banner will appear more frequently). Purchasing more spots will increase your coverage appropriately (two spots will make your banner appear at least 1/12 times, and so on).
• Your banner ad, link, and company description on our "Sponsors" page.
• Mention in our e-mail newsletters which are sent out approximately 1/month.
• The option to sponsor specific TOC events ($30/event) which will then have the 'voluntary donation' amount waived. The sponsorship for the event will be recognized with:
  1. A small icon on the calendar with a link to your company
  2. Sponsorship notation, banner with link and 'thank you' on the event details for that event

To become a sponsor of the TOC, or for more information about becoming a TOC sponsor, please contact the club President, Jenn Pammett, at president@torontooutdoorclub.com. See our current Partners and Sponsors.

Donate

The Toronto Outdoor Club is free to join and most of our events are free to attend.

The TOC volunteers are determined to keep it that way, but also must find ways to recoup some of the expenses incurred by the club. For example:

• Internet costs (ie. web hosting, domain registration)
• First aid kits and materials for event coordinators
• Research materials (ie. maps, books, etc)
• Advertising and promotion (ie. printing costs)

To keep it as fair as possible, we're asking for voluntary donations on a "pay as you go" basis. If you can make a donation when you attend our free events, simply give your donation to the event coordinator when you show up.

There will be a "suggested amount" posted for each event on the web site, but, of course, you are welcome to donate more or less than the suggested amount.

Voluntary Donation FAQ

Q: What is the voluntary donation money used for?
A: The TOC has a few unavoidable expenses, such as web domain registration, web hosting, internet photo album service, first aid supplies, and printing (i.e.business cards and waivers). At times that we have extra money in the bucket, we hope to use that money to do fun things like partially covering the cost of food/beverages at our anniversary party, subsidizing training for our volunteers, etc.

Q: Why voluntary donations, and why on a by-event basis?
A: The club must have a way to cover its expenses. The club volunteers feel that charging a set yearly membership fee would discourage people from joining the club. Also, charging a yearly membership fee would require incorporation of the club and bring with it a lot more red tape and expenses. So far, the fairest way we've come up with to finance the club is to ask people for donations on a 'pay as you go' basis.

Q: Do I have to pay the voluntary donation for every event I attend?
A: There is no obligation to pay every time. In fact, some people pay every second or third time that they attend club events. Some people prefer to give us a once/year donation (their choice of amount), which is also fine. Pay what you can, in keeping with the value you feel you receive from the club. The voluntary donations are what keep the club going at this point - it is our main source of income.
To ensure that regular participants do not end up paying more than they would if we simply had a yearly membership fee, the club volunteers have decided to cap voluntary donations at $20/year for members. Donations are, naturally, completely voluntary, but once a member feels that they've paid their maximum ($20, or an amount of their choice), the club no longer expects them to donate.