‘COMES A TIME’

There I was cleaning up my flat and throwing out everything that wasn’t absolutely necessary so I could travel light on the next move to I don’t know where when I came across an article I had saved from several years ago. Written by Ray Holingsworth and titled ‘Crossroads’ the article summed up the frustration and torment often felt by outdoor instructors that have been around the game too long. Ray put into words what many of us constantly feel but rarely say for fear of being perceived as weak, negative or even a traitor to the outdoor education cause. The article covered most of the issues, heavy workloads, long periods’ away, poor pay and conditions, the constant personal and financial demands of gaining and maintaining qualifications and the seasonality of employment. Due to these issues Ray had come to a crossroad where a decision needed to be made, stay or get out? There comes a time when all of us in outdoor education will have to make that decision, lack of finances, health, transient lifestyle, a change in philosophy/ideology or just plain had enough you will at some time be faced with having to make that decision. Look around, how many older people (over age 35) do you see working full time or sessional in the field? Next to none, why, because they have all come to that crossroad where they made the decision to get out. They tallied up the issues, weighed up the pros and cons and got out. But now we have more issues to add to the tally, more than 100 graduates every year (in Victoria alone) from some kind of outdoor education course competing for what little work there is. The average “life span” of an outdoor instructor is three years, I wonder why that is? Insurance premiums going through the roof which is putting hundreds of adventure recreation companies out of work. Widespread litigation and liability laws and actions which are nothing short of absurd if not insane and the slow but imminent demise of industry bodies and qualifications due to the National Training Competencies. What’s wrong with the National Training Competencies you ask? It really depends who is implementing them and how. Besides poor funding and resources, ambiguous curriculum, insular training and assessment, limited implementation hours and lack of instructional integrity there is also the compounding effects of shady managerial practices by administrative staff who have little if any experience or qualifications in outdoor education. All of this amounts to an extremely poor attempt at developing professionals for our industry. I look back over Ray’s ‘Crossroads’ article from six years ago and see that nothing has changed, in fact they are getting worse. I can even see a similarity between loggers and the forests, outdoor educators and the outdoor industry. We keep using and abusing our natural environment to sustain our own employment but we try and justify this by self righteously proclaiming that it’s about environmental awareness, minimal impact, personal development and challenge. When was the last time you worked on a program that had the time, appropriate resources, professional and educationally effective ratios and flexibility to achieve objective and comprehensive outcomes that are consistent with our self righteous claims? I would suggest that keeping to the logistics of group rotations, vehicle movements, equipment transfers and arrival and departure times were the only real objectives and focus. So where does that leave us? I know where it leaves me, comes a time when you have to make a decision to stay or get out and I’m getting out. I can no longer justify the imbalance between what we claim we are doing and what my beliefs and philosophies about outdoor education really are. Like most other industries outdoor education is becoming “bogging down” in its own insular politics and views that are generated by short sited administrators bent on empire building. I no longer see the openness, inspiration, energy or integrity that once made this an exciting and innovative industry to work in. So good luck outdoor ed. cause you’re gunna need it.

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Yes you're right, for some reason I just didn't see it. I hope you don't make the same mistake "over 35"! 

Hi Johnsy
I posted our message before i read your article.  You are sooo right. You can lose hope very quickly, so I can empathise with you.  But I don't believe giving up is the way to go, for all those out there who love what they do I believe it is time to fight for it.  Outdoor adventure is the way of the future as you said Insurance is killing alot of industries, so companies are looking for people to train their people and take the liability off of them, so if we can all get it together, form some sort of Association/Forum that has reasonable membership fees we could challenge those who seem to control us (governments, insurance companies) and also get the proper recognition and catorgorisations formed.
Regards
Corporate Commando

Thanks for your comments Corporate_Commando,
Firstly I didn't loose hope quickly, it took nearly 20 years, and secondly I think the last thing we need is another forum. There has been endless forums and meeting and groups formed and authorities and so on but I do not see too many problems being solved I just see more and more parochialism, cronyism and as I mentioned empire building. My feelings are that this is a result of O/D Ed becoming fashionable. As soon as something becomes fashionable it attracts a particular following that tends to be a little too self-serving. However, the beauty of fashionability is that it will eventually become unfashionable, hopefully resulting in O/D Ed eventually finding a level of sanity and reality that seems to have escaped it for now.
Cheers,
Johnsy   
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It will be a brave act to name and highlight those exploiters of the "do it for the love"  brigade employment. 
but it needs to be done, so does a regulation body of some sort.

Once again Johnsy, thanks for the insights.  Okay, rather than playing the shame game how about playing the praise game? 

Are there any Outdoor Ed. or Guiding employers (past or present) who do look after their staff well? 

Who are they and what do they do? Lets focus on the positives and try to promote them!

Cheers,
Evan

If you are in O/Door Ed that would be the only way you could afford a car, by winning it! And I don't think winning one necessarily says anything about your success in O/door Ed "subie do" 
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You are absolutely right "Imnotbitter". I just finished reading an internal document from the said player that states a drop/reduction in salary is a sacrifice one makes to live your beliefs and philosophies! Holly crap aren't we already sacrificing enough without doing it for peanuts as well? You know what they say about paying peanuts? In addition, I spent the last couple of years coordinating a TAFE course in O/D Ed. and I spent a lot of time cautioning and informing my students of the common pitfalls of the outdoor Industry. Because of this many of them have gone in with their eyes open but were still burnt, burnt through mismanagement and (from some of the stories they have told me) burnt through abuse, a complete lack of organisation and professionalism. Some of them are already walking away from the industry, what a tragedy when I saw so much talent and commitment from them. This is what I find most disturbing. The main philosophy of O/D Ed. is about personal development, reward and meaningful challenges that helps develop participants to be better and more constructive community members while at the same time staff are being used, abused and discarded like they don’t even matter. I find this disparity incredibly hypocritical, a hypocrisy that has gone on too long and is too apparent to disregard any longer. But what are those of you who are still in the industry going to do about it??????????????

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