Trails symposium on lookout for more than a few good men
Posted on Monday, April 28, 2008
The National Trails Symposium wants you.
Now and in November — but you can start with now.
American Trails’ 19 th National Trails Symposium — billed as a huge gathering of people who love trails and have the knowledge and money needed to make them better — won’t bring its horde of experts, officials and merchants to Little Rock until Nov. 15-18, but already organizers are grabbing everyone they know by the elbow and tugging.
“We’ve got quite a few signed up already, but we need tons more,” says Coreen Frasier, one of the planning team’s designated volunteerwranglers. She and fellow committee member Claibanne Williamson aren’t sure how many people they need — 500 ? 200 ? But they know they don’t have enough yet.
“People aren’t signing up yet because they say, ‘Oh gosh, that’s not until all the way to November.’ But we need people now,” Frasier says. “We need volunteers especially for the weekdays.” Working people often have to arrange for a weekday off months in advance, she notes. Hence the push for recruits several months ahead of time. Also, some of these people will want to practice their skills at trail celebrations scheduled throughout the year to mark the 75 th anniversary of the state parks and the grand openings of new trails.
And a few of the volunteers could be hard to find, requiring special skills such as solid knowledge of one-way streets in downtown Little Rock, or the ability to make signs and brochures or create audiovisual programs or to cajole a laptop to play such a program on one of those big-screen TVs.
Already the symposium has recruited a broad coalition of the willing and the assigned. Frasier is one representative of Bicycle Advocacy of Central Arkansas (BACA ) on the symposium’s larger planning team, which also includes representatives from federal, state, municipal and county governments, recreation clubs and trail-building nonprofits, outdoorsy businesses and volunteer groups with interests in every imaginable legal use of trails — paved, unpaved, made of water...
A list of team members at www. american trails. org / 2008 / team. html includes more than 50 names from entities as diverse as the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department (trails coordinator Steve Weston ), the Trail of Tears Association (Jerra Quinton ), the Rock Crawlers 4 x 4 Club (Gary Wainwright, Andy Guschke ), the Ozark Highlands Trail Association (Bob and Dawna Robinson ). “We’ve been meeting since last June or July,” Frasier says, “and we’ve had four or five meetings since then, most of them being local-type people in a conferencecall-type deal” with employees of American Hiking.
WHAT’S IN IT FOR ME ? Williamson, another cyclist on the committee to recruit volunteers, says anyone who would like to help out in November can register online at www. ameri cantrails. org. Click on the logo that bears the image of the Big Dam Bridge.
The six-page volunteer form says people are needed as registration and information assistant, greeters, Little Rock ambassadors, gophers, mobile workshop assistants, transportation assistants, sign placers, room hosts, audiovisual floaters, exhibit hall help, auction setup and monitoring, and party setup and tear-down workers.
These volunteers must attend at least two training sessions before November. But they will get A T-shirt emblazoned with “Trail Boss” on the back. A chance to mingle and make friends. Free attendance at one on-site symposium session for every four hours of service. A chance to pay to attend mobile workshops (field trips ) that haven’t filled up. Admission to the Trail Tools Equipment Expo, where everything from bicycles and handkerchiefs to loppers and axes might be for sale. Refreshments during the symposium and a volunteer appreciation party at its end.
The recruiters have peppered activity clubs with appeals. One letter landed in the hands of Rosemary Rogers just before she was elected president of the Arkansas Running Klub in North Little Rock. She pitched the volunteer gig to the club’s April meeting, saying it looked like “a pretty great deal” — in light of the symposium registration fees. People who don’t belong to American Trails can attend one day for $ 150 — if they sign up before Aug. 31. After that, the fee goes up $ 25. Meanwhile, nonmembers will pay $ 375 for the full package of workshops and meals ($ 425 after Aug. 31 ). The symposium also offers scholarships for students.
FIELD TRIPS According to the American Trails Web site, the volunteer-recruiting panel also includes the Robinsons; Guschke; Stina Brown and Julie-Ray Harrison from Texarkana’s Partnership for the Pathway; and Loretta Melancon, who belongs to Friends of the Ouachita Trail (FoOT ) and the Ouachita Mountain Hikers in Hot Springs Village.
But Melancon says she has transferred to a different committee and is working with Jerry Shields of the Lake Ouachita Vista Traildogs to set up a mobile workshop.
If their proposal is accepted by American Trails, they will take busloads of symposium-ites to Camp Ouachita at Lake Sylvia and from there lead them on any of three woodland hikes, including one near Mount Ida on the LOViT Trail. Their theme will be volunteerism and coalition building.
“Actually I’m looking for some volunteers to help us with that,” she says.
Current proposals for other mobile workshops would offer visitors a half-day or full day of paddling on the Little Maumelle River; hiking or backpacking at Cedar Glades Park in Hot Springs, Two Rivers Park or Burns Park; off-road motoring or climbing at Superlift Off-Road Vehicle Park in Hot Springs; bicycling and running races; horseback riding at Two Rivers Park; walking in the Global Village at Heifer Ranch; mountain biking at Burns Park and Camp Robinson; inline skating on the Medical Mile, etc.
TEST RUN The coalition of clubs and agencies will get a trial run June 14 with Arkansas Trails Day at Pinnacle Mountain State Park. “This is a first-time event and we all looked at it as a chance to sort of practice for the National Trails Symposium,” Melancon says. Park interpreter Sarah K. Jones is coordinating the different groups that will work together for the day. She says, “It’s more of a state-side celebration of trails vs. the national. It’s to get people more involved in the outdoor trails. It’s also a good chance for the different clubs to recruit members and get people enthusiastic about their club, whether it’s hiking, climbing, canoeing, hang gliding, ATVs, off-road vehicles, horse-riding — any of the different types of trails that are out there.” For instance, Friends of the Ouachita Trail, which maintains the 223-mile Ouachita National Recreation Trail, will host a hike and a workshop on backbacking; the Arkansas Outdoor Photography Club will lead a photo hike; Central Arkansas Master Naturalists will do educational nature programs; equestrians will explain how horses can share a trail safely with cyclists and hikers; bicycle riders will have CARTI’s Tour de Rock century ride that morning and a bike ride at Pinnacle Mountain, etc.
What about hang gliders ? There’s no hang gliding at Pinnacle Mountain. “They’ll have a static display,” Jones says.
Jones is still signing up clubs that want to offer an activity or booth and also outdoors-type vendors. “We’re looking for anybody who wants to donate water or sponsor food or snacks. We’re willing to put up their banner,” she says.
She’s also looking for several bands to entertain (for free ). Interested parties can reach her at (501 ) 367-0408 and sarah. k. jones@arkansas. gov.
And Williamson will answer potential symposium volunteers’ questions by e-mail at claibanne@sbcglobal. net.
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