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Jeff
03-19-2008, 14:34
I had a very informative talk with an employee of the Green Mountain Club. She came across as a dedicated and motivated staffer.

How many of the other Maintaining Clubs have full time staff? Obviously the Appalachian Mountain Club does. Any others?

Skyline
03-19-2008, 14:51
I had a very informative talk with an employee of the Green Mountain Club. She came across as a dedicated and motivated staffer.

How many of the other Maintaining Clubs have full time staff? Obviously the Appalachian Mountain Club does. Any others?


Potomac Appalachian Trail Club has a paid executive director and a very small paid staff at its headquarters. Everyone else is a volunteer.

briarpatch
03-19-2008, 15:01
The Georgia Appalachian Trail Club is an all volunteer organization with the exception of the Caretaker at Springer and the Ridgerunner, who are seasonal employees.

Jeff
03-20-2008, 07:57
So many local maintaining clubs are underfunded. It sometimes requires a paid staffer to coordinate donations and gifting programs. With that said, I still feel 95% of my contributions to the Green Mountain Club go to protecting the trail and very little into "administrative" costs.

Cookerhiker
03-20-2008, 08:18
My guess is that the NY/NJ Trail Conference has paid staff but I'll let someone from them weigh in.

weary
03-20-2008, 08:28
I had a very informative talk with an employee of the Green Mountain Club. She came across as a dedicated and motivated staffer.

How many of the other Maintaining Clubs have full time staff? Obviously the Appalachian Mountain Club does. Any others?
Maine Appalachian Trail Club hired a 20 hour a week, "volunteer coordinator" a few years ago. She handles correspondence, assists the President and applies for badly needed grant money, since we have a budget of $220,000 this year and only collect $9,000 from our 600 members.

In addition to maintenance activities, MATC employs a trail crew for major rehabilitation projects, and five shelter and trail caretaker/ridge runners

Otherwise, unlike most of the maintaining clubs, maintenance is mostly all we do. Hikes, outings and such in Maine are mostly organized by the Maine Chapter, AMC.

Weary

Peaks
03-20-2008, 08:32
I had a very informative talk with an employee of the Green Mountain Club. She came across as a dedicated and motivated staffer.

How many of the other Maintaining Clubs have full time staff? Obviously the Appalachian Mountain Club does. Any others?

FWIW, I've been working with GMC staff on the ATC 2009 bieneal conference, and am very impressed by the quality and dedication of their employees.

Skyline
03-20-2008, 09:41
Some of the larger AT maintaining clubs would be lost without a small backbone of paid staff. Even the volunteers (mostly) recognize this, and I haven't noticed a whole lot of animosity or jealousy toward them in the club I volunteer through, PATC. Like Jeff's experience with the paid staffer at Green Mountain Club, I've always found PATC's paid staffers to be dedicated, knowledgeable, helpful, and enthusiastic about the Club's mission. Some of them, I know for a fact, also get out in their spare time and do the same volunteer stuff the rest of us do.

The only club where I've heard significant rumblings in this regard is AMC, and their lavish-by-comparison Boston HQ ,top-tier salaries/benefits, etc. Maybe they, too, need this--I dunno. AMC has a lot on its plate and maybe they need to offer high salaries/benefits/working environment to attract the caliber of people needed to manage that big plate. And maybe not.

This is not unlike the situation many volunteer EMS and fire squads find themselves in. A core of dedicated volunteers donate thousands of hours per year, plus maintain their skill levels, and sometimes even purchase their own uniforms/equipment. But due to other commitments, they cannot "cover" the needs of their unit 24/7. In that case, they hire a few paid technicians or firefighters to cover the weekday daylight hours when most of them must work their paying jobs. Those volunteers are usually very grateful for those few paid employees. Likewise, some units hire a full time administrator to deal with the day-to-day minutiae that EMS techs and firefighters might not have the time, temperament, or skills for; the volunteers generally understand and support this.

Peaks
03-21-2008, 08:49
AMC is much more than a trail maintaining club. So, let's not even try to compare them with the other trail clubs.

And please, let's not turn this thread into a debate about AMC.

Skyline
03-21-2008, 10:31
AMC is much more than a trail maintaining club. So, let's not even try to compare them with the other trail clubs.

And please, let's not turn this thread into a debate about AMC.


This is true. I did say they have a lot on their plate, which would possibly account for what some think is an excessive top tier salary structure and fancier digs for a HQ. Possibly.

weary
03-21-2008, 10:50
This is true. I did say they have a lot on their plate, which would possibly account for what some think is an excessive top tier salary structure and fancier digs for a HQ. Possibly.
The digs are in a fancy location. But the buildings are nothing special. The last time I was there, the building had no elevators and steep, narrow stairways connecting crowded offices. But it's been the AMC headquarters for a century or so. It has too many traditions and memories to be abandoned.

And it is far more than a trail maintenance operation. They run a vast "hotel" system with units in very difficult locations. AMC constantly begs for money to keep all its activities afloat.

Like it's fancy headquarters operation, some of the "hotel" units have too many traditions and memories to be abandoned.

Weary

LIhikers
03-21-2008, 12:06
My guess is that the NY/NJ Trail Conference has paid staff but I'll let someone from them weigh in.

They do have paid staff. Also, keep in mind that they build and maintain many more trails than just the AT. I believe the number is approaching 2000 miles of trails that are located in several different regions of the state.

Cookerhiker
03-21-2008, 15:50
My guess is that the NY/NJ Trail Conference has paid staff but I'll let someone from them weigh in.


They do have paid staff. Also, keep in mind that they build and maintain many more trails than just the AT. I believe the number is approaching 2000 miles of trails that are located in several different regions of the state.

The PATC (http://potomacappalachian.org/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1) maintains 1,200 miles of trails including 240 miles of the AT. We have 5 staff and, I believe, about 6,000 members.

peakbagger
03-21-2008, 16:25
Randolph Mountain Club is not an official trail maintaining club but they do help out quite a bit on the Northern Presidentials in the whites (they maintain all the trails on the North side of the ridge to the AT from Jefferson to Madison but not the AT). If you get in trouble anywhere near there, RMC ers will make up most of the rescue crew. They also have a nice alternative to high priced AMC huts (albeit off the trail a bit and no reservations). They have a year round caretaker that stays at Grey Knob cabin on MT Adams, a paid summer trail crew and a seasonal trail supervisor.

Appalachian Tater
03-21-2008, 17:42
They do have paid staff. Also, keep in mind that they build and maintain many more trails than just the AT. I believe the number is approaching 2000 miles of trails that are located in several different regions of the state.Yes, many. http://www.nynjtc.org/committees/staff.html

There have been open positions from time to time including recently. http://www.nynjtc.org/employees/index.html

Cookerhiker
03-21-2008, 18:08
Randolph Mountain Club is not an official trail maintaining club but they do help out quite a bit on the Northern Presidentials in the whites (they maintain all the trails on the North side of the ridge to the AT from Jefferson to Madison but not the AT). If you get in trouble anywhere near there, RMC ers will make up most of the rescue crew. They also have a nice alternative to high priced AMC huts (albeit off the trail a bit and no reservations). They have a year round caretaker that stays at Grey Knob cabin on MT Adams, a paid summer trail crew and a seasonal trail supervisor.

Section-hiking the White Mts during my poorer days in 1982, I stayed at one of the RMC shelters - The Perch. The location was reasonably convenient; as I recall, it lay less than a mile off the trail and not too far downhill. I was grateful to avoid one night's fee in the huts (in this case, Madison).

But man, the black flies were awful - probably the worst I ever experiences. It was early July.

shelterbuilder
03-21-2008, 19:29
Blue Mountain Eagle Climbing Club (Reading, Pa.) does NOT have any paid staffers - even our ridgerunner is a volunteer. Our officers and committee chairpersons handle projects and budget requests - even grant proposals are written by our volunteers. Over the years we've been fortunate to have a number of very capable, dedicated members who have been able to step up and deal with the changes in the way things get done for the trail.

Although personally, I'd vote for paying someone else to operate the composting toilets, so that I could go hiking instead! :eek:

ki0eh
03-23-2008, 21:13
Blue Mountain Eagle Climbing Club (Reading, Pa.) does NOT have any paid staffers - even our ridgerunner is a volunteer.

Wow, I would have said that SATC and CVATC are pretty far from having paid staff - but then I remembered they do chip in a little bit for the ridgerunner and CVATC semi-pays the guy who runs the mower too.