BOT Report, June 2023
NOLS Employee Association Board Report – June 2023
NOLS Employee Association Board Members:
Mike Titzer - NEA President, Field Faculty, HQ Employee
Sarah Acuff - Wilderness Medicine Faculty, HQ Employee
Elena Chin - Field Faculty
Ron Rash - Field Faculty, In-Town Staff
Community
We are mourning the loss in our community of two NOLS field instructors, Eli Michel, and Nafiun Awal, who were lost while attempting to climb the Moose’s Tooth in Alaska on a personal climbing trip. Many of us were close friends with these instructors, and are hurting with their loss. We have immense gratitude for the energy that they gave others, their dedication to their communities, and their positive impact on the people in their lives. This Spring, we are coming together as a community to remember them and honor their memories.
Non-Profit Updates
We have legally changed our name with the IRS to the “NOLS Employee Association” and have launched a new website: https://www.nolsemployeeassociation.com/
We are starting to fund employee-sponsored projects once again after a multi-year hiatus. We have recently funded a bouldering wall at the PNW location as well as helping to reimburse an instructor whose gear was stolen in her car. If you would like to donate to causes like these, please consider giving to the NOLS Employee Association: https://www.nolsemployeeassociation.com/join-us/p/make-a-donation
Message to the NOLS Board of Trustees
The NOLS Employee Association (NEA) appreciates and has empathy for the NOLS Board of Trustees for the difficult and challenging decisions that have been made concerning the overall leadership of the school. The NEA supports these decisions and is confident in the future of NOLS in achieving its mission of being the leading source and teacher of wilderness skills and leadership that serve people and the environment.
Current Issues Important to NOLS’ Front-Line Employees
Communication: We would like to request increased lines of communication between school decision-makers and front-line employees. We believe that NOLS has made great progress in increasing communication over the past 2 years, mainly led by the People Team and communication director, and hope that this progress has not stalled out. There is an increased level of anxiety among front-line employees due to all the changes occurring in such a short period of time at NOLS (Presidential search, strategic plan, pay/hiring freezes, missed revenue projections, seasonal branch closures, etc.), and clear/transparent communication is critical in these times to help reduce employee anxieties.
Accountability: We want leaders on the Executive Team (ET) to develop a “The Buck Stops Here!” mentality. We want leaders who accept responsibility for the consequences of decisions, the current state of the school, learn from and communicate mistakes made, and develop a growth mindset to move forward. When someone decides to take a leadership role in an organization, they inherit accountability for the current circumstances and cannot blame things on previous leaders or outside influences. We want more accountability, transparency, and growth mindsets from our leadership team. Remember: “The Buck Stops Here!”
Revenue Plan: We have heard and understand NOLS’ plan for short-term cost cuts to quickly help make the school solvent. Pay freezes and cost-cuts disproportionately affect lower-wage employees, and the morale and professional prospects of front-line employees is low, knowing that there are no opportunities for income growth or promotion within the next 1-2 years. To keep front-line employees on board, we need to know what NOLS’ plans are to increase revenue within current constraints. As business writer Robert Cross writes in his book Revenue Management:
“When companies change their focus from internal cost-cutting and downsizing to external revenue, productivity and morale dramatically improve. Successive rounds of cost-cutting and down-sizing send a gloomy message to both employees and customers: ‘We are pessimistic about our future in the marketplace.’ Focusing on revenue productivity, however, sends an optimistic signal: ‘Our products have even more value than we realized, and the market will reward us appropriately and allow us to grow.’”
We want to hear NOLS’ plans to improve our long-term revenue growth in the marketplace, not just short-term plans focused on cost-cutting.
Importance of People Team: NOLS is in the service industry, and our people are our greatest asset. We need to prioritize the work of the People Team at NOLS, as their work directly benefits employees, such as introducing avenues for conflict resolution via SpeakUp, instituting workplace safety training, starting Employee Resource Groups, and updating employee benefits with easier-to-use online signups. We are afraid that the People Team will become a lower priority for NOLS, as they have lost their position on the Executive Team, and no longer have a strong voice during meetings such as the monthly Community Forums. We fully support the work that the People Team has accomplished over the past two years, and believe that their work and communication had a direct impact on the improvement of NOLS employees’ Cognitive Performance Scale (CPS) scores. Our organization is only as good as the people working in it, and we want leadership that recognizes the importance of and empowers the People Team.