Video Resources: Challenge Course Skills

Organizations

http://www.acctinfo.org The Association for Challenge Course Technology, (ACCT) is currently the respected, governing body of challenge course programs across the country. The website is an informational resource for challenge course professionals, containing information on membership, standards, conferences, a newsletter, jobs, risk management, and accessibility. The organization strives to advance challenge course technology through industry and member research. The ACCT has worked to establish and guide the implementation and compliance of standards for design, construction, and use of challenge courses. Their work, combined with that of other industry leaders, will help to develop Experiential Education, Outdoor Education, and Adventure Education as respected professions.

www.aee.org The Association of Experiential Education, (AEE) is the organization that has brought experiential education and its related fields to the forefront in recent times. The organization sponsors regional and national conferences for experiential educators, accredits programs and facilities using a detailed and highly-respected criteria. The website has a links for job searches, resources for experiential educators, and access to their academic journal, The Journal of Experiential Education.

 www.aore.org The Association of Outdoor Recreation and Education (AORE) is a non-profit organization designed to advance professionals and students in the field of outdoor recreation and education and promoting the preservation of our natural resources. Members include university outdoor programs, non-profit agencies, military recreation programs, and community groups; together these individuals interact with public land management and policy makers. AORE holds an annual conference that focuses on issues relevant and of interest to such individuals. The website contains useful links for agencies dealing with conservation, Leave No Trace, university recreation, and risk management.

http://www.leahy-inc.com Another established team development organization, Leahy & Assoc., Inc. specializes in teambuilding programs through the wilderness and challenge courses and facilitator training workshops. Leahy and Assoc., Inc. also designs and installs challenge courses and sells related challenge course and initiative props online.

http://www.signatureresearch.com Signature Research is a full service Challenge Course Company that excels is staff trainings, construction, inspections and developing resources for individual courses.

www.pa.org Project Adventure is a leading organization in the experiential education and adventure education fields. They have helped publish many of the well known teambuilding activity resource guides, and have developed curriculum for integrating adventure education into the classroom from K-12, including a purposeful progression throughout the grades and activity instructions for the teachers. PA sponsors workshops on adventure programming, adventure-based counseling, portable adventure elements, and facilitation and technical skills; the site also has a link to their online prop and equipment store.

http://www.teamworkandteamplay.com Teamwork and Teamplay is an adventure-based training company that has developed several well-known and widely used experiential education tools. The site has an online store selling the popular Teamwork and Teamplay activity book and Raccoon Circles, an extensive book of activities and debriefing utilizing only webbing! The site also gives information about workshops, teambuilding programs, and equipment, as well as a bibliography of the organization’s resources.

Activities, Books, and Resources

http://www.fundoing.com/all-products.html The FUN e-Notebook is an online newsletter of challenge course/ teambuilding related information and activities. The neat thing about this resource is that you can easily add on your own activities and suggestions for the benefit of others and then continue passing the resource on.

http://www.teachmeteamwork.com The Teach Me Teamwork organization offers a free teambuilding activity newsletter; upon signing up you will also receive a free Teambuilding Games e-book. In addition to the newsletter, the website has information about the organization’s services, including: multimedia kits to purchase, teambuilding equipment, workshops, audio interviews and team assessments. These last listed items are not tools for facilitators to utilize, but services for clients. It is still helpful to see what sort of services and programs are offered at different places.

http://www.training-wheels.com  Training Wheels is a teambuilding organization run out of Littleton, CO. The website has an online store that specializes in complete “bag-o-tricks” sets that contain basic portable activity props, debriefing tools, and activity ideas. Training Wheels also sponsors a monthly newsletter that anyone may sign up for. This is a great publication consisting of a featured activity for each month and a listing of upcoming events and conferences for each national region.

http://www.businessballs.com/teambuildinggames.htm  Business Balls is a company that offers teambuilding programs designed for corporate groups. There is an extensive list of activities/ initiatives geared toward corporate groups, (but can be used for any staff group). It also includes potential processing ideas for the activities and general discussion tools.

www.wilderdom.com  Free activities among other things

Information

http://www.ropecourse.com/ropes_history.html This site is sponsored by Experiential Based Learning, Inc. The company focuses on challenge course design, building, inspections, peer reviews, training programs, and certifications. It is very helpful to learn about what all goes into the physical course to gain a better understanding of all the opportunities a ropes course offers. This specific page gives an informative history of challenge courses. 

 http://www.ropesonline.org  Focuses on ropes/ challenge course issues. Online discussion groups for accessing and submitting information & topics for discussion on issues such as activity ideas, safety, and debriefing. The site also has links to other related websites and posts articles about ropes/ challenge courses.

 www.outdoored.com Professional resource for outdoor educators, outdoor recreation professionals, and experiential education professionals. The site includes an extensive job search database, companies specializing in these fields, current research, risk management topics, schools, and articles focusing on these topics.