WRMC Workshop Descriptions

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2009 WRMC Workshops


Color Coded Workshop Tracks with Example Workshops
	Program Management and Administration		Legal and Insurance
		Small Program Risk Management		Ask the Lawyers
		Urban Outdoor Program Risk Management		Insurance Coverage, Which do I need?
	Emergency Procedures & Crisis Response		Staff Hiring and Training Practices
		Theory Vs. Reality: Lessons Learned		Achieving Organizational Alignment
		Victim Relations		Risk Management With Volunteer Leaders
	Wilderness Medicine		Field Practices
		Medical Topics - New, Controversial and Old		Accidents in Outdoor Recreation Programming
		Common Teen Psychological Problems		Managing Risk while Afloat
	Emerging Issues		Pre-conference Workshops
		Legal implications of Prescription Drugs		Staff Claims, Management, & Funding
		Medical Directors in Risk Management		Conservation/Service Corps

Opening and Keynote Speakers

	[OPENING SPEAKER]	How can disability and wilderness meet while ensuring wilderness protection? Who has a disability? Why the interest in wilderness? What is required and what are the risks? Janet Zeller will explore these issues and more. Since joining the U.S. Forest Service in 1991, Janet has been involved in the development and implementation of accessibility programs and policies as the National Accessibility Program Manager. Prior to joining the Forest Service, she taught elementary school and then worked as an independent consultant and mediator of recreation and accessibility issues. She is a certified sea kayaking and canoeing instructor and a wilderness enthusiast.
	Wilderness Accessibility: The Right to Risk
	Janet Zeller


	[KEYNOTE SPEAKER]	Drawing on four decades of field experience and firsthand knowledge of risk management strategies employed through the Boy Scouts of America to the world’s elite mountain guides, Robert Birkby explores the often dramatic evolution of risk acceptance and management over the last hundred years and suggests intelligent ways for the industry to prepare for the challenges of the future. A longtime backcountry crew leader and instructor for the SCA, he also works with Berg Adventures International and has led trips for Mountain Madness. His books include current editions of The Boy Scout Handbook and The Boy Scout Fieldbook, a biography of climber Scott Fischer entitled Mountain Madness, and Lightly on the Land, the SCA’s manual of trail construction and maintenance.
	There Are Lions Out There: Risk Management in an Age of Challenge
	Robert Birkby

Program Management and Administration
The Program Management and Administration track addresses a number of issues pertinent to program managers including , communicating your program’s risk to parents, international programming, risk management in smaller programs. New this year are sessions on ,unaccompanied student travel and a risk index evaluation for programs.

	System Complexity Index: Organizing Risk Planning	The emerging systems based approach to risk management planning has altered the way we conceive, organize and implement risk systems. The System Complexity Index Risk Analysis (SCIRA) is a tool to objectively measure the stability of an organization’s risk management systems, and provides a completely different means of interpreting and managing risk events. By measuring the parameters of coupling and complexity, risk potential can be approached from a ‘macro’ level, as opposed to the existing hazard based approach, and is of use to administrators down to field level staff.
	Jeff Jackson


	Navigating Risk in International Locales	What do we know; what do we think we know; and what do we need to know about operating in international locales? This presentation will survey the hazard landscape and then review the available research and best practices. We will discuss specific prevention and mitigation strategies for info acquisition, transportation, medical care and communications. We will look at international operations through a number of lenses with an eye to making the best use of our limited time, personnel and time.
	Bill Fredrick


	Small Program Risk Management	Wilderness risk management in the smaller program setting offers up a special set of opportunities and challenges. For this session, an initial overview will be followed by a group discussion of specific strategies that have proved useful to other smaller programs.
	Christopher Barnes and Justin Talbot


	Urban Outdoor Program Risk Management	Urban Outdoor Education programs often have unique challenges and risks associated with them that don’t usually occur in the backcountry. This session will help identify, through a mixture of case studies and interactive conversation, the unique challenges of urban programs. Both one day and multi-day programming will be examined. In addition, a variety of participants and activities will also be discussed. Approaches to managing the risk in an urban environment from the SCA and the REI Outdoor School will be shared.
	Rebecca Bear and Nancy Oswald

Emergency Procedures and Crisis Response
Using the wealth of experience in this group of presenters the Emergency and Crisis Response Track addresses crisis plans, crisis/field incident and post incident response. New this year is a workshop on victim relations.

	Theory vs. Reality: Lessons Learned in Crisis Response	As practitioners, receiving the call that someone has been critically or fatally injured on one of our programs is something that we all dread. Even though most of us will never receive that call, we must be both mentally and organizationally prepared in the event that it comes. Through personal experience of several fatal incidents both in the field and management response, the presenters will provide valuable lessons from these tragic events that you can apply immediately, whatever the size of your program. This is most certainly not a ‘war stories’ session; it is about sharing what we wished we knew before and soon found out afterwards, in the hope that you will be better prepared to achieve the best possible outcomes from such a tragic event.
	Deb Ajango and Kirk Shimeall


	Crisis Management	A case study, lecture, and discussion on the NOLS Crisis Management Plan and experience.
	Drew Leemon


	Why Victim Relations is as Important as Public Relations	Victim Relations is a key component of any crisis management strategy. A crisis that negatively impacts people results in victims at some level. How an organization responds to the specific needs of these individuals can determine the amount of good will perceived from the organization as well as future litigation potential. This presentation is an orientation into the nature, value and implementation of Victim Relations.
	Will Marling


	Conducting Internal and External Incident Reviews	After a significant accident or near miss occurs, conducting an internal incident review is critical to enhancing your organization's risk management program. In addition, when a program experiences a fatality or life threatening or disabling injury, the common practice is to conduct an external review. This session will examine a process for conducting internal incident investigations, the decision to launch an external review, the role and make-up of the external review team and, finally, the "ground rules" for the external review team.
	Jed Williamson and Jay Satz

Wilderness Medicine
This track explores the challenges inherent in asking staff to make complex medical decisions in remote environments with limited actual patient care experience and well as the increasing frequency of behavioral issues in non-therapeutic programs.

	Medication Management of Adolescents in the Field	Using lecture and case study, this presentation will look at the issues of programs managing participant medications, one of countless tasks that field staff must accomplish each day. We’ll look at pre-course medical review, gathering information on medications and guidelines for how to assist and document an adolescent’s medication therapy. This session will include a discussion about the subtle differences between administering medications, dispensing medications, and assisting with medication therapy.
	Mark Vermeal


	Medical Topics - New, Controversial and Old	This session will endeavor to make some practical sense out of the medicine that many of us are called upon to deliver in unconventional settings, far from organized help. The focus will be on: 1) new and old technologies and procedures that can have an impact on wilderness medical care, 2) common problems that continue to pose difficult diagnostic and management dilemmas, and 3) new and emerging topics.
	David Johnson


	Common Teen Psychological Problems encountered on Wilderness Expeditions. Recognition, Medical Options and Practical Application of Outward Bound Behavioral Techniques	How to recognize common psychological problems of teenagers on wilderness expeditions with practical hands-on practice of field intervention.
	Dr. Lynn Yonge and Katie Cartier

Legal and Insurance
Our Legal and Insurance track presenters worked hard to develop a series of focused, non-redundant offerings to address current legal and insurance issues in wilderness risk management. This includes an insurance panel, an advanced legal topics session and last year's popular mock trial.

	Insurance Coverage, Which Coverages do I Need?	What coverages do I Need? Most Programs know they need Liability, but what about Directors and Officers, Employment Practices Liability,Hired Non-owned Auto. There are 100's of insurance coverage's out there so how do you know which to buy? In this session we will discuss in laymen's terms what each of the coverages are and how to figure out how much coverage you need. This should be helpful for all sizes of programs.
	Cole Schlack


	Insurance Panel – the Insured, Broker, Insurer, and Lawyer’s Perspectives	Learn how to be prepared and what to consider in securing and maintaining appropriate insurance coverage for wilderness and adventure programs. In this session, presented by an insured, their lawyer, a broker and the insurer (carrier), hear the inside story from four unique perspectives on important aspects of the insurance process. Panel member presentations will be followed by an extended question and answer session. If you need insurance, want better insurance, or just need to understand insurance better – join us for a lively discussion.
	Christopher Barnes, Catherine Hansen-Stamp, John McManamon, Doug Killeen


	Ask the Lawyers	This moderated session will allow audience members to ask questions of the panelists regarding legal issues which may have arisen in the course of the conference, or otherwise. Time permitting, the panelists will enlarge on earlier discussions of legal issues, and raise others that may not have been addressed.
	Charles (Reb) Gregg, Cathrine Hansen-Stamp, Frances Mock, Wilma Gray, Tony Clapp


	Fundamental Legal Issues	In this interactive session we will cover the basic legal principles which must be understood to protect an organization's clients and itself - including areas of exposure to legal claims, your duty of care, negligence and defenses to a negligence claim, the doctrines of inherent and assumed risk, avoiding liability by the use of releases and indemnities, and special issues associated with minors. Current cases of interest will be discussed and audience questions are encouraged.
	Charles (Reb) Gregg


	Use of Participant Agreements - Releases, Acknowledgment of Risks and Related Issues	In this interactive session, Cathy will discuss legal and practical issues associated with use of written participant agreements with participants and guests. She will highlight the value in using these documents as risk management tools, and will key in on current case law to discuss how courts view these written documents in the adventure and recreation program setting. Significant issues include: dealing with minors, releases, indemnity and assumption of risks.
	Catherine Hansen-Stamp


	Risk Management Issues in the Digital Age	An interactive session designed to promote understanding of the new realities of risk management and legal considerations in the digital age, from pre-program communications to the courtroom. Information technology and the world wide web have transformed the speed and nature of our ability to communicate, exchange information, market and influence, with profound impacts on the way in which programs manage risks and consider legal issues. Presenters will discuss a diverse array of topics including electronic communication pre/during/post-program and after a critical incident, with consideration given to the instantaneous spread and permanent nature of digital information.
	Catherine Hansen-Stamp and David Concannon


	Mock Trial	Wilma Gray and Tony Clapp will present a Mock Trial of an actual case that went to trial, involving a wilderness outdoor adventure program that was sued for negligence. Plaintiff is a client who participated in an activity/trip and who sustained injuries. The witnesses include a family member, co-participant, program director and trip leader. Participants will be selected from the audience to assist in presenting the evidence, to act as witnesses, and (for 2 brave souls) to play the roll of the attorneys for the defendant and the plaintiff. Liability, causation and damages will all be disputed and the presentation of evidence will focus on those using the standard of care in the recreation industry. At the end of the evidence, the remainder of the audience will be divided into small groups to act as juries and to deliberate, considering all of the evidence and testimony that they have just heard and to render a verdict. Those verdicts will be compared to the trial verdict, in a discussion about the actual case and outcome.
	Wilma Gray and Tony Clapp


	Hands On Discovery Workshop and Practice with Depositions	Discovery is the critical part of every civil lawsuit. This session will prepare you for assisting attorneys to respond to written discovery, anticipating electronic discovery requests, and finally to prepare for a deposition. Participants will be divided into small groups to work on preparing written discovery responses, using their own program experience to respond. The entire group will discuss the language used in the written responses in order to learn what is appropriate to be written and how that can be twisted or interpreted by lawyers on the other side. We will cover what is "e-discovery" and how to be prepared for invasive discovery requests for electronically stored documents, up to actual impounding of computer servers. We will focus on what is a deposition and the rules of a deposition. We will select and coach volunteers from the audience to play the roll of an attorney asking questions, with volunteer witnesses responding. The audience will critique both the questions and the responses.
	Wilma Gray and Tony Clapp


	Managing Legal Issues After a Serious Incident: What do you do; What do you say?	Responding to a serious incident requires focused attention to the injured, the family, other course participants and staff, the media, local authorities, and land managers. How do you deal with these people and what are the legal issues to be considered? How can you be compassionate and thorough, yet smart about the possibility that what you say and do might be used later by someone who sues you? What evidence should you collect and how do you do that? How much of what you collect and record will be available to someone who sues you? This presentation addresses these and related issues and what to expect if a lawsuit or criminal proceeding is filed.
	Frances Mock

Staff Hiring and Training Practices
This track focuses on staff, our on the ground risk managers who make numerous critical decisions every day. Some of the topics to be addressed include training staff to be risk managers in the field, using case studies as a tool, managing staff injury claims, volunteer leaders and designing an effective staff training.

	Leading Beyond Invincibility, Group-Think, and Other Catastrophic Attitudes	The role of "the human element" as an antecedent to outdoor accidents is well documented. Attitudes such as egoism, casualness, and hurry do more to cause and complicate outdoor accidents than the capriciousness of natural forces. This workshop will explore some of the psycho-social dynamics at work in a few of these dangerous attitudes, and then propose leadership strategies (preparation and management) to address them. The ultimate goal is to help develop leaders who are more aware of the dynamics of dangerous attitudes, and better prepared to mitigate them before they cause a disaster.
	Dr. Lester Zook


	Risk Alignment Series: Achieving Organizational Alignment Through Staff Management	The distance between establishing and accomplishing visions, goals and missions is filled with treacherous obstacles. These obstacles often spell disaster on the successful outcome of even the most noble endeavors. Under the Risk Alignment Series: Achieving Organizational Alignment through Managing Staff, we will identify four key areas of staff management, providing solutions for improving your impact and success rate in achieving desirable outcomes. Additionally, we will introduce you to the “Outcometer” and its use in establishing processes, identifying potential threat areas, and charting execution.
	Rick Braschler


	Continuation of the Highly Certified yet Under Prepared Leader Discussion	This presentation is designed to be the next step in the process of understanding how we determine which qualifications are desirable and which qualifications are mandatory for new and continuing outdoor programming staff. There will be an overview of the current state of the industry in terms of how the industry typically determines staff qualifications/competency and then it will go into new potential ways to determine qualifications/competency using data-driven methods.
	Dr. Kent Clement


	Risk Management With Volunteer Leaders	Volunteer outdoor leaders are invaluable to many outdoor organizations, yet risk management training and supervision can be challenging with volunteers. In this workshop we will explore successful strategies to help your organization’s volunteers become better risk managers. We will include a variety of interactive activities, theories, and opportunities to network with others who work with volunteer outdoor leaders.
	Alex Kosseff and Brenda Porter


	Training Your Staff to be Risk Managers	A workshop and small group discussion, led by a very experienced NOLS program manager, on how to engage your field staff as risk managers.
	Liz Tuohy


	Developing Judgment and Decision Making in our Staff	This workshop will be a combination of lecture, discussion and small group interaction. Our assumption is that judgment and decision-making are vital to risk management. Our intent is to help us be skilled, astute and intentional coaches of decision-making. Our method is to present background info to make sure we all have similar structure and vocabulary, then to use this in role playing how we would coach our staff by evaluating both good decisions, and some that aren’t so good. Finally, we will close by reflecting on our personal decision-making habits.
	Tod Schimelpfenig and Liz Tuohy


	Designing and Managing an Effective Staff Training	Staff training is at the core of risk management; it is the primary method of managing risk in the field. Outward Bound has aligned staff training around three interrelated core concepts: accurate assessment, open and honest feedback and outcomes-based design. We will present these concepts and give participants tools to integrate them into staff trainings.
	Gretchen Ostherr and Josh Cole

Field Practices
This track evaluates specific practices and assessment tools as benchmarks for industry practice.

	Where Are the Instructors?: Benefits of Unaccompanied Wilderness Program Components	The Solo and Final Expedition are common and often powerful course components within many wilderness experience programs. Recent concern about the supervision of students when instructors are not present has raised concern about these program components. Join us for an engaging workshop presenting a summary of 8 years of research on the Solo and preliminary results from a recent study of the Final Expedition. In addition, benefits and programming strategies will be discussed.
	Andrew Bobilya, Ken Kalisch and Dave Sperry


	Managing Risk while Afloat	This educational session will provide participants with guidelines and tools for comprehensively evaluating three core aspects of a paddling program: participants, staff, and overall program management. Join the Safety Education & Instruction Department of the American Canoe Association (ACA) as we provide a range of insights to ensure that you understand all the risks that are involved once you float participants away from shore.
	Christopher Stec and Jeremy Oyen


	Accidents in Outdoor Recreation Programming	Do you know what the most common injury in outdoor recreation programming is? Examination of accident data as part of the risk management process allows administrators and field staff to make better informed decisions about actual program risks. This session looks at accident theory and industry trends. Information includes the most common types of injury, the activities that involve the most accidents, and others; and discussion of how this information affects decision makers.
	Jed Williamson, Aram Attarian, and Kathy Capps

Emerging Issues
Each year we profile issues programs are actively struggling to understand and evaluate such as the use of prescription medications on wilderness programs and the role of physicians as medical advisors.

	Common Problems, Uncommon Solutions: The Land Managers and Users Perspectives	Land managers from the National Park Service, the Forest Service and other federal land agencies will face off with recreational land users to identify and confront the conflicts and misunderstandings that arise in land use to include issues related to access, risk management and liability.
	Jay Satz and Sara Newman


	Legal Implications of Prescription Drugs in the Wilderness	An organization whose policies call for the carrying and administration of prescription drugs must be aware of the laws governing these activities in the jurisdictions in which it operates. If the practices are found to be illegal or questionable, the organization has some tough choices to make - ethical, legal and cultural: continue as before, hopeful that the actions can be defended; or change its operations, perhaps putting students in jeopardy. We will explore the challenges posed by existing practices and laws, so that an organization confronted with choices in this regard can be better informed about its options and their legal implications.
	Charles (Reb) Gregg and Frances Mock


	The Role of Medical Directors in Risk Management	Healthcare providers (HCP), including physicians, are often involved in the risk management and operational activities of wilderness organizations. However, expectations for HCP involvement vary widely between organizations. Even within organizations, the expectations can be quite different for the clients, the organization's staff, the organization's leadership, and the HCPs themselves. This roundtable discussion will explore various models and critique their strengths and weaknesses. Possible topics include off-line versus on-line versus field medical direction, the role of telemedicine, midlevel providers, insurance issues, compensation issues, client expectations and medicolegal considerations.
	Dr. Seth Hawkins

Pre-conference Workshops
Our selection of preconference workshops allow participants to explore specific topics in greater detail with smaller groups. Participants can choose from half-day sessions to three-day courses.

	Using Case Studies as a Risk Management Teaching Methodology	This presentation will engage audience members through at least one in-depth case study (not used previously for this workshop) in order to help participants understand how case studies can be used to improve risk management planning and safety education. Through small group discussions and guided review, audience members will take part in a case study review and will then apply key concepts in risk management planning.
	Deb Ajango
	October 14 \| 1:00pm-5:00pm \| No Fee
	Program Management and Administration


	Emerging Legal Issues for Adventure Programs	This interactive session is designed for those who understand basics and would like a deeper look at relevant legal concepts and current case law. An important segment will focus on the practical value and legal impact of what programs say and write – including on their website, in staff manuals, incident reports and e-mails, and in staff conversations in or out of the field, with participants or otherwise. This seminar will also explore emerging trends in selected subjects including releases and indemnity, assumption of risks and the inherent risk doctrine, dealing with minors, defenses to claims of negligence and duty of care.
	Catherine Hansen-Stamp and Charles (Reb) Gregg
	October 14 \| 1:00pm-5:00pm \| $125
	Legal and Insurance


	When Judgment Is Crucial: Outward Bound USA's Instructor Judgment Training Workshop	“When Judgment Is Crucial,” Outward Bound USA’s Instructor Judgment Training Workshop, is designed to increase expedition leaders’ judgment and decision-making skills and uses Harvard Business School’s case study discussion method to facilitate in-depth group analysis of actual incident and accident cases. In addition, model processes for analyzing accidents' causes and for making critically-important decisions will be presented. This hands-on, “train-the-trainers” workshop will present how-to strategies, plus opportunities for actual practice in leading case study discussions.
	Jim Garrett
	October 14 \| 8:00am-5:00pm \| $100
	Program Management and Administration


	NOLS Risk Management Training	Using lecture, discussion, exercises and hands-on scenarios, this training will provide a structured approach and the tools to build a risk management plan appropriate for your organization.
	Liz Tuohy and Dave Yacubian
	October 13-14 \| 8:00am-5:00pm \| $565
	Program Management and Administration


	Wilderness First Responder Recertification with WMI of NOLS	Are your wilderness medicine protocols on the tip of your tongue or in the bottom of your pack? This three day scenario-based course is designed as review and practice of evacuation and decision making guidelines. It also provides wilderness medicine practitioners with current updates in the wilderness medicine field. This course may be used to recertify Wilderness First Responder and Wilderness EMT (wilderness portion only) certifications. You must possess a valid WFR certification of at least 72 hours in order to recertify through this course. It is your responsibility to make sure that your certification meets this standard. If you are unsure, please contact WMI before enrolling in a course. For more information please visit our website.
	WMI Instructors
	October 12-14 \| 8:00am-5:00pm \| $265
	Wilderness Medicine


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