Outdoor leaders are professionals who:
- have specialised knowledge and undertake extensive training.
- care deeply about their work and its impact
- provide a service for the public good (doing good for the community does not preclude a professional making a living)
- are members of a community of practitioners
- They may or may not be paid (eg scout leaders)
- They are trained (not a hobby, like taking mates out on the weekend)
- They lead or train dependent groups (not like some bushwalking clubs made up of interdependent groups)
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Envisaged makeup of membership:
• Education – curricular and extracurricular: Outdoor Education, Environmental Education, Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme, Residential outdoor schools, Wilderness Studies high school subjects, nature immersion and nature play eg “Bush Schools” Wild Ground, The Nature School, Blackwoods, ROSA
• Education – institutions and RTO’s (TAFE, Higher Education, Research, Teacher Training)
• Youth and Community – volunteer and not-for-profit organisations eg Scouts, Guides, Pathfinders and more military style eg cadets, etc
• Recreation-based counselling, Nature Therapy and Adventure Therapy
• Clubs and special interest groups (bushwalking, uni clubs, fitness groups, photography, etc)
• Health and lifestyle improvement (those that do not fit under sport/fitness.) eg. Wild Women on Top, Summit Sisters
• Outdoor sports/competitive events/outdoor events (those that do not fit neatly under sport/fitness) eg Paintball/Skirmish, Ultra Trail Australia, Tough Mudder, Adventure Races, Orienteering/Rogaining
• Team Building (Facilitation, group/personal/leadership development)
• Adventure tourism, eco-tourism, nature-based tourism, voluntourism eg. ski touring, surf camps, multi day hikes, climbing instructors, cave adventures, bush tucker, wildlife tours, and sooo many more….
• Outdoor artificial amusement venues eg. indoor climbing gyms, tree top adventure parks, high ropes courses, cruise ships, Paintball/Skirmish
• International experiential/adventure educational programs eg. World Challenge, Antipodeans Abroad
• Indigenous and other cultural experiences eg Muru Mittigar, Blue Mountains Ancestral Pathways
• And potentially:
o Equipment / Service providers (including wholesale, retail and hire)
o Armed Services (police, army, navy, airforce)
o Technological partners – mapping software, apps, bloggers, geocaching, research, product development
o All of the normal business services that layer over the top of any business, but with an outdoor bent: risk management, logistics, sales, hospitality, etc