Working Parties

Criteria for the Working Parties

It is essential that the selection process for the working parties allow them to be representative. These standards are documented with the least possible impact to the enjoyment of the activity. For this reason the working parties must represent knowledge of the areas being included in the standards but also of the diversity of the available resources in the sector.

Ideally, working parties of 7-10 individuals were selected based on the following requirements.

Planning

The planning section of the activity standards contains the considerations, documentation and pre activity aspects of conducting an activity session. Each working party must therefore include representation of commercial (Company Manager or Director), non-commercial (Community Group Manager or Executive) and educational groups (School Council, VOEA member, Head Teacher) appropriate to the activity as these groups are known to associate different value to some aspects of this section. Hence this component required three working party members.

Responsibility Of The Guide

Ideally, each working party would include at least one commercial and one non-commercial leader. This was to ensure representation at the ground/field level. These working party members were senior leaders or entry-level guides and brought current practical knowledge regarding certification, people management, decision-making ability and the practicality of emergency plans among other valuable input. This component therefore required two working party members.

Equipment

In order for the activity standards to document current minimum acceptable equipment requirements. It was important that a representative on the working party has current knowledge of a comprehensive range of equipment and that current knowledge of national and international standards can be shared and explained. Often, equipment expectations are based upon best practice and are not realistically achievable for groups of limited resources (as such they are too advanced or expensive to be considered minimum requirements).

This component preferably required one working party member but these skills may be incorporated as shared responsibility between one or more working party members.

Environment

Where possible, a representative from Parks Victoria or from the Department of Natural Resources and Environment attended the workshops to provide activity specific information for discussion.

This component often required further consultation with Parks Victoria and/or the Department of Sustainability and the Environment.

General Experience

Three additional spaces on each working party were taken by activity specific experts (where available/appropriate) who brought broad experience in relation to group programs for the activity. These individuals provided additional views, had equal say and were often crucial to the decision making process.

All aspects of the standards were introduced, discussed and the inclusion or exclusion of individual components often decided by vote.

Contact us for further information about the AAS project, and copies of completed Standards are available from Victoria ’s Outdoor Recreation Centre.

Selection / Nomination of Working Parties

The selection of the working party members will be by nomination and compliance with the above requirements. The nominations will be received in two ways.

Nomination Path One

The Outdoor Recreation Centre - Victoria Inc. will contact the peak bodies which represent each activity. The peak bodies will be asked to nominate the nine individuals they deem most valuable to the process, the nine nominations must include

Three individuals suitable for the planning component as per criteria above
Two individuals suitable for the responsibility of the guide component as per criteria above
One individual suitable for the equipment component as per criteria above
Three activity specific individuals to bring general expertise as per criteria above

Nomination Path Two

The Outdoor Recreation Centre - Victoria Inc. invites everybody who will be influenced by the decisions made in these documents to send an email to the ORC staff before Wednesday 2nd October 2002.

It is essential that the subject field contains the words “AAS Working Party” and then the name of the activity for which you are interested.

In the main email field we would like to know

What qualifications you have
How many years you have been involved in the activity
How you are involved in the activity now
A short explanation of your background relevant to the activity
Your full contact details including phone number

Please provide information relevant to the project in order to facilitate the selection process. Individuals may nominate themselves or others but if nominating someone else, we ask that the person be consulted first to ensure that they can commit to the time required and that the information included accurately represents the individuals industry expertise and level of interest.

Clarification of Nomination Process

The nomination process is not a voting system. Selected individuals will be included purely for the experience they can bring to the working parties. It is clearly in the best interest of the industry that this is the case.

Nominees can request that they be included in the first consultation phase and not be included in the working party.

Any individual who does not send in a nominee form can still have some input to the final document when it is posted on the ORC Inc. website but it should be made clear that only small adjustments are expected to be made at that stage.

Time Commitment for members of working parties

The Outdoor Recreation Centre - Victoria Inc. is well aware of the pressures and commitment required within this industry. We appreciate that many of the nominees to the working parties may be volunteers or small business owners. For these reasons we have developed the above method to maximise the potential for consultation and feedback with the minimal inconvenience possible.

We propose that any member of a working party will require 2-3 hours in the initial week (in own time) to review the information provided and to familiarise themselves with the aims of the project.

The workshops will require attendance from 10am till 5pm but may run longer, they will be held at the Outdoor Recreation Centre located at 332 Banyule Road, Viewbank, Victoria and a full lunch will be provided on the day.

Following the initial documentation at the workshops, further time depends on the level of satisfaction achieved by the first draft or by the complexity of outstanding issues.

A total of 15 – 20 hours may be required to ensure that the final documented activity standards truly meet the requirements of the industry.

Time Frame for Selection of Working Parties

Working Parties for White Water Rafting, Caving and Mountain Biking will be confirmed by Friday 4th October 2002 and the workshops for these activities will be held during the week starting Monday 14th October 2002. Details of any changes effecting the project will be posted on the ORC inc. website as soon as they can be confirmed.

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