Women Outdoors: Unleashed!

What is a Women Outdoors: Unleashed! Trip?

To those Women Outdoors members who traveled to New Orleans to work for a week building houses with Habitat for Humanity, it means a service trip that put us somewhere where we could help to change people’s lives. It can mean a trip that’s more intense than most in other ways, whether it’s a longer time commitment, a trip that carries you to exotic lands, or long-term training to accomplish a fund-raising marathon or long-distance hike.

Women Outdoors: Unleashed! trips are, in essence, more intense than the norm. They might involve far-flung travel, for example, or an intensive service stint. Some examples of trips that have already happened, that are now under discussion or that could come to pass if a champion steps forward:

• The 2007 trip to New Orleans to help rebuild homes with Habitat for Humanity.
• A rafting trip down the Colorado River in Moab, Utah, in 2005.
• The Wilderness Heals fund-raising hike for the Elizabeth Stone House in 2008.
  
• A tour of Latin America.
  

How do we make it happen?

The trips we’ve listed here are just a sample of what we, as a group of talented, energetic, motivated women, could accomplish if we set our sights high. Do you have other ideas for Unleashed! trips? Excellent, we want to hear your ideas!

So where do we go from here? As you can surmise, Unleashed! trips need more planning than most Women Outdoors trips. They need champions who are devoted to seeing them happen. They entail more logistics, whether it’s travel, lodging, or liaising with sponsoring organizations.

Women Outdoors is asking for champions to step forward and take ownership of an Unleashed! trip. That means researching such trips, dealing with trip logistics, recruiting Women Outdoors members to participate, delegating responsibility and whatever else a particular trip requires.

If you’re up to it, we’re up to helping you make it happen. We’re willing to use the Gathering to help you nurture your Unleashed! trip, whether it’s an informational workshop you want to present on your trip or simply a venue to pass out flyers to Women Outdoors members as you work to solicit participation.

So let’s do this: Start thinking about what you want to do with your life. Start thinking about the good that you can do others. Start thinking of the countries you’ve always wanted to visit and the cultures in which you’d like to immerse yourself. Start thinking of Women Outdoors as the organization of women who will happily walk with you, hike with you, and strive with you, to make your dreams come true.

Now’s the time to make it happen!

How to Plan a Women Outdoors: Unleashed! Trip

1. Contact us at SpecialEvents@womenoutdoors.org. We’ll be asking you for materials, so the first step you’ll want to take is to write up a brief letter describing yourself, your experience and the trip you're proposing. Helpful details would include your contact information, trip costs, possible dates, and other logistics.
2. Photos of past/similar trips, the locale, etc. would be helpful to illustrate this letter. Make sure you have permission to use the images of anybody who appears in your photos, as we’ll be posting this online and publishing it in the newsletter.
3. If you're not already a member, join Women Outdoors.
4. Attend your local planning meetings and go on outings to meet women and start to get a feel for who might be interested in going on the trip.
5. We will interview you about the trip via phone.
6. Whatever you provide us will run in the blog online as well as in the Women Outdoors Magazine.
7. Leverage the Gathering if the timing would make it helpful for your trip.  We can give you a time slot to present an informational session.  You might plan to present a slide show or other informational session. Any materials about the trip will be useful in getting women interested in participating. 
8. Direct any questions to: SpecialEvents@womenoutdoors.org.

Happy Unleashing!