October 2024 BOT Report

NOLS Employee Association Board Report – October 2024

Mike Titzer, NOLS Employee Association President

NOLS Employee Association Board Members: Ron Rash, Sarah Acuff

Mission: The mission of the NOLS Employee Association (NEA) is to communicate and

advocate employee views and to work within the NOLS community to promote the

school's mission and values.

Who We Represent: We represent the interests of current NOLS employees in four

categories: Location Staff, HQ Employees, Wilderness Medicine Faculty, and Field

Instructors. We represent the interests of employees below the “Community Leadership

Group” level. We give voice to employees who are working every day to bag rations,

repair gear, enroll students, process payments, and teach around the world in

classrooms and the field.

Number of Members: 213

NEA Appreciations:

The NEA would like to appreciate the NOLS Field Staffing Office (FSO). Under the

leadership of Anna Haegel, the FSO has made an effort to be incredibly transparent

about topics like who receives field work and why, how to fill out the new WRAP

effectively, and more. We appreciate that the FSO is trying to best support instructors by

being open and honest about factors that impact instructors’ livelihoods.

The NEA would like to thank Sandy Calhoun and the entire Executive Team for hosting

community forums this summer in Lander. The openness of the ET in answering

ongoing questions concerning the state of the school is important to the morale and

cohesion of the school,especially during these challenging financial times.

NEA Updates

● NEA New Board Members

○ The NEA is holding a vote for 3 new board members in

November/December, 2024.

● 2024 Flamingo Fund Projects

○ Teton Valley Branch – The employee-sponsored sauna is back under

construction, with employees continuing to build the structure throughout

the summer.

○ Patagonia: Employees at the Patagonia branch recently were granted

funds to build equipment storage racks. Each year, NOLS staff bring gear

to the Patagonia branch to use on personal trips or store in between

seasons. . As of now, there is no good storage area for this gear,

especially bulkier items like bikes, kayaks, etc. This construction project

will help more of the Patagonia staff to feel settled at the branch, and allow

more staff to make the most of the adventuring opportunities Patagonia

has to offer.

○ Be a part of the Flamingo Fund! If you’d like to donate to these projects

that enhance the well-being of our employees, please consider donating at

https://www.nolsemployeeassociation.com/flamingo-fund

● Meet-Ups and Engagements

○ We continue to seek out members’ and employees’ concerns and opinions

through online and in-person meetings, one-on-one chats at branches,

phone calls, and emails. We use what we learn from these conversations

to represent the majority view of what employees would like to see happen

at NOLS. We will continue this listening and advocating throughout the

summer, as we ramp up our busy US summer season at NOLS locations.

Requests and Ideas from Employees

Through our outreach, we have identified the following areas for growth areas that

NOLS could implement. We believe it’s important to advocate for ideas that represent a

“win-win-win” for NOLS employees, NOLS as an organization, and NOLS students. With

this in mind, we are mindful of the financial challenges that NOLS currently faces, and

advocate for ideas that don’t represent a significant cost burden to the school.

The Rocky Mountain Evacuation Office: The NEA would like to request directly to the

NOLS Board of Trustees for special funding for the Evacuation Department. To give

these first responders the support they need for their emotional/mental health. The

Evacuation Department is staffed continuously 7 days a week 24 hours a day as long as

a NOLS course is in the field. It is staffed with specially trained first responders that

respond to student issues from homesickness to fatalities. What would this look like:

Immediate funds dedicated to these employees to receive free monthly sessions with a

trained clinician in trauma related therapy. The monthly sessions would be capped per

employee per month for each of the employees in the evacuation office. This request is

different from the Employee Assistance Program (EAP) that is currently offered to all

NOLS employees. The reason we are appealing directly to the NOLS Board of Trustees

is: The NEA understands the current financial situation of the school. The NEA sees the

need for supporting the Evacuation Office as a risk management concern and as an

urgent need in supporting the NOLS evacuation office employees.

Use Expedition Behavior to Inform Our Approach to Financial Cuts: It is no secret

that people at all levels at NOLS have recently needed to make difficult decisions in

order to ensure our school is more financially healthy. We respect the immense

intellectual and emotional challenge that this presents, and appreciate the hard work

and thought that decision-makers at NOLS have put into ensuring the school’s longevity.

Thank you for all that you are doing in this regard, and for maintaining an optimistic and

creative attitude during a time that we can imagine is quite stressful.

As the NEA, we want to represent the impact that these decisions have had on our

employee community, while still recognizing that these decisions are allowing the school

to move forward.

A criticism that we continuously hear from NOLS employees is that decision-makers at

this school are doing so using a “corporate mentality.” In digging into what employees

mean by “corporate mentality”, we’ve discerned that this means a sole focus on profit,

with a lack of care for the people impacted and the health of the community at large. It

also means operating an organization using the “status quo” of business practices,

without an understanding of the uniqueness of the NOLS community: that our

community is held together by intersecting ties of deep trust, forged in extremely joyful,

challenging, and vulnerable environments. People come to this work because of a deep

belief that NOLS has the potential to change people’s lives for the better, and that we

hold one another’s leadership and impact to high standards. We believe that the board

and the Executive Team are coming from a place of care and are rooted in Expedition

Behavior when making these decisions, and are thinking about the uniqueness of

NOLS. Therefore, we want to ensure that their actions and decisions are being

interpreted in that light. With this in mind, we advocate for the following to be considered

when making financial decisions at NOLS:

● Note: we consider “affected employees” to be those directly impacted by a

decision, whether through their own loss of employment, the loss of employment

of their supervisor, or the loss of employment of someone whom they closely

collaborate with.

● Let affected employees know in-person, to the extent that this is possible.

● Be transparent about the timeline and options for all affected employees.

● If possible, listen to affected employees–see if there are other viable options,

hear what they are thinking and feeling about this decision, hear what they need

in making this transition, etc.

● Look for employment opportunities on par with the compensation and

responsibilities that they currently have within NOLS.

● Be transparent in your use of leadership skills. Show the community how you are

upholding our values when making these challenging decisions.

Create a NOLS Certification for Expedition Leadership Skills: NOLS field instructors

are some of the world’s premiere teachers of expedition leadership skills. We all know

that these skills are even more important in today’s world as leaders need to bring

together diverse, disparate teams to work towards common goals. A rollout of an official

NOLS Expedition Leadership Certification could help NOLS field instructors and

students prove their skills in the workforce through a tangible certificate, while providing

a needed source of revenue to NOLS from students seeking a professional certification.

· Historical context: In the 1990s and early 2000s, guide-company owners

would look for perspective guides with NOLS or Outward-Bound experience. This

changed for virtually every guide service in the USA between 2005 and 2010

when the American Mountain Guides Association (AMGA), who had been

offering a certification process since 1993, marketed their product as an effective

measurement of an individual’s competence. Today, the vast majority of guide

services and many university outdoor programs, hire guides with AMGA

certifications. ·

Benefit to Employees: This certification would allow NOLS employees to

easily demonstrate their expedition leadership skills to organizations external to

NOLS, helping them increase their career prospects and advancements in

different industries.

· Benefit to NOLS: The professional certificates market is projected to

grow 8% a year over the next five years, with a projected market volume of

US$8.9bn by 2029. With most of this growth concentrated in the U.S., NOLS can

capture some of this market by attracting students looking for professional

certificates that prove their small-team leadership skills.

· Benefit to Students: Students could more easily quantify what expedition

and small-team leadership skills they learned while on their NOLS course to

prospective employers.

In conclusion the NEA would like to thank Sandy, the NOLS Executive Team, and the

NOLS Board of Trustees for allowing us to advocate for all NOLS employees at this

time. Sincerely, thank you.