Becoming Trip Leader
Trip leaders are the heart of what makes the Outing Club run. In return for the hard work of organizing and leading trips, trip leaders:
  • get to choose the time and location of the trip
  • receive heart-felt thanks, respect and affection from fellow participants
  • get priority treatment on trips with limited enrollment
  • get a ride to a place you've always want to visit but never before could because you are without a car
  • and accumulate social brownie points that can be converted into karma points for an auspicious next life

Anybody can volunteer to be a trip leader. Just follow the tips in this page to lead a trip.

The Outing Club meets at the beginning of each quarter at the Bechtel International Center on the campus. Please come to the meeting, meet the fellow members and propose your trips during the trip planning session. Then, prior to the trip, typically about a week before, submit the trip description to the club as described below. (If you can't make it to the meeting, you can just submit the trip description).

Planning the Trip
Choose the location and route. There are lots of places in the Bay Area to go, so you have a lot of choices to fit the amount of time you have, level of difficulty you want, and the type of scenery you're looking for. It is not necessary to have done the trip before, but do make sure you get a good map. There are a number of resources for choosing hikes, including:
  • Past trip descriptions from the Outing Club's trip archive or calendar
  • bahiker.com and other websites also have some good trips
  • hiking guides, such as The Bay Area's 101 Great Hikes of the San Francisco Bay Area by Ann Marie Brown (Foghorn Press).

Submitting the Trip Description:

A trip description is full specification of the trip that includes all required information about the trip and a descriptive text. (Here is a sample trip description). Submit the trip description by using the trip form.

When you submit the trip description, the club president will review your submission and, if acceptable, will add the trip to the club calendar. The trip description will then be announced on the club's mailing list.

Managing the Trip:

Some trips require more careful planning than others because they involve cost, equipment, lodging, driving/flying, limited space, etc. For such trips, requiring RSVP is highly recommended. If the trip involves more than nominal group cost for carpools, it is advisable to collect each share from the trip members ahead of time, especially if the cost is high.

Trips that require the trip members to purchase/rent equipments/tickets/etc may still cost them even if the event is cancelled or rescheduled. You should take care in such trips to notify the trip members ahead of time of this possibility.

If you need advise in managing your trip or want to discuss with other trip leaders issues that you've encountered, please initiate the discussion in soc_leaders group. You will need to be a member of the group in order to read/post. To apply for the membership, go to soc_leaders page and click on "Sign in and apply for the membership" link. (You will need to create a google account if you don't already have one).

On the Day of Trip:
  • Show up at the meeting place (usually P&TS) on time, with directions and map of the hike. Help organize carpools.
  • Once everyone is at the trailhead, remind people that there are 2 rules:
    • Wait at every trail junction for the whole group
    • Don't leave until you have everyone who was in your car (unless you have made clear and specific arrangements otherwise).
  • Make sure everyone is back at the end
  • Have fun!
Liability Notes:
As a trip leader, you are covered by Stanford's liability insurance, and the university will back you as long as you don't do anything unreasonable. Two important guidelines:
  • You cannot force people to carpool together. If someone does not want to ride with a particular person, they can drive themselves or not go (in practice, I don't think this has ever been an issue).
  • The policy does not cover outdoor rock climbing, advanced mountaineering, survival exercises, hot air ballooning, or hang gliding.