2023 Here we come! Plan to attend the 2023 WRMC in Portland, Oregon. Celebrate 30 years of Facing Challenges Together. Save the Date: October 18-20, 2023; Pre-Conference October 16-18, 2023.
Location: Holiday Inn Portland - Columbia Riverfront, 909 North Hayden Island Drive, Portland, OR 97217
Presentations: Presentation slides that are available will be uploaded to Sched in the next few days. Video Recordings: You might have noticed that some sessions were recorded. WRMC is experimenting with video recordings and has not yet decided how those will be utilized. If the recordings are able to turn into high-quality learning, they will be made available to conference attendees at no additional cost through the conference app Sched. Sign up to receive WRMC updates to be notified if recordings become available. The core objective of the Wilderness Risk Management Conference (WRMC) is to offer an outstanding educational experience to help you mitigate the risks inherent in exploring, working, teaching, and recreating in wild places. The WRMC is a collaboration between NOLS, Outward Bound USA, and the Student Conservation Association, in partnership with the WRMC Steering Committee. See the guiding purpose and tenets.
You know a lot about operating your program. How much do you know about the legal issues? This presentation provides an overview of the basics: what to tell participants when collecting medical information, what you shouldn’t say in your marketing materials, what to do with releases after you collect them, the primary legal issues to address immediately after a serious incident, what indemnity is and why you should care, what discoverability is, and other topics.
Frances Mock is an attorney specializing in risk management and claims management for wilderness and experiential education programs. She is counsel to NOLS, Outward Bound, SCA, LL Bean’s Outdoor Discovery School, and other clients providing advice about enrollment materials, medical... Read More →
Associate Director and Science Advisor, Nevada Outdoor School
Brandolyn grew up in Alaska, and moved to Nevada to attend University of Nevada, Reno. She loves to laugh and take the back roads in her 2002 GMC renovated Mini-School bus named Hank the Hope Bus. Brandolyn entered outdoor education as an AmeriCorps Naturalist at Nevada Outdoor... Read More →
Thursday October 20, 2022 10:30am - 12:00pm EDT
Emerald IIDouble Tree By Hilton, Burlington, VT, USA
• Since the Civil Rights Act of 1963, employees have been able to recover damages for unlawful discrimination. Since the murder of George Floyd, employers have sharpened their work and efforts around strengthening diversity, equity, and inclusion in the work-place. This work, important and long overdue, has complicated discrimination claims against employers. This presentation will highlight these complexities and how they are impacting discrimination claims and the handling of those claim, both internally and externally.
Lach (pronounced "Lash") Zemp serves as the Risk Management Officer at Outward Bound, overseeing a range of risk management issues and claims for the Outward Bound Schools. Prior to joining Outward Bound, Lach practiced law for 30 years defending clients, including summer camps and... Read More →
Joe Vossen is senior claims counsel at United Educators, a member-owned risk retention group and the preeminent provider of insurance and risk management to educational institutions. He attended Kansas State University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Before coming... Read More →
Associate Director and Science Advisor, Nevada Outdoor School
Brandolyn grew up in Alaska, and moved to Nevada to attend University of Nevada, Reno. She loves to laugh and take the back roads in her 2002 GMC renovated Mini-School bus named Hank the Hope Bus. Brandolyn entered outdoor education as an AmeriCorps Naturalist at Nevada Outdoor... Read More →
Field Operations Senior Manager, Washington Trails Association
Moleek is originally from the San Francisco Bay Area. A jack of all trades and master of some, he started his career in trail work with the California Conservation Corps. After college and some music projects in Chico, California, Moleek moved back to the SF Bay Area where he got... Read More →
Field Accidents; Sexual Misconduct; Vehicle Accidents; Medical Malpractice - what do these exposures have in common? If not managed properly, an incident involving any of these can quickly lead an organization into a deep financial and legal quagmire. Are you confident that your insurance policies will protect your organization's assets and reputation from these risks appropriately? Also, do you understand what is required of you, the insured, to trigger coverage? Attendees of this session will participate in a guided discussion where we will use possible risk scenarios like the ones outlined to explore the complexities of managing incident response. The outcome will allow you to walk away with an essential structure for a well-rounded insurance program.
Sam has been in the insurance industry since 1986 and has worked with educational institutions since 1989. He joined the Fred C. Church Education Team as a Client Executive in January of 2009 and provides risk management advice and insurance brokerage service to independent schools... Read More →
Lach (pronounced "Lash") Zemp serves as the Risk Management Officer at Outward Bound, overseeing a range of risk management issues and claims for the Outward Bound Schools. Prior to joining Outward Bound, Lach practiced law for 30 years defending clients, including summer camps and... Read More →
Paul Dreyer, a self-proclaimed "mercenary educator," has had the opportunity to work with numerous organizations, including NOLS, Where There Be Dragons, High Mountain Institute, and the Watershed School. Paul has worked throughout the world as a facilitator, curriculum designer... Read More →
Should we hire our workers as 1099 independent contractors or W2 employees? Does the Biden Administration's new minimum wage rule apply to us? What does the law say about incorporating JEDI considerations into our hiring practices? This presentation will discuss each of these questions by summarizing some of the main legal and practical points outdoor industry organizations can consider to both improve relations with their workers and reduce the risk of employment law issues.
Kristen Burke is an attorney in Denver, Colorado. She provides risk-management counsel to camps, schools, outfitters, rental shops, and other outdoor recreation clients to help them manage their unique liability risks. She offers advice related to legal documents such as risk release... Read More →
Katie has worked in outdoor education since 1999. Today she is the associate operations director at NOLS, supporting teams at NOLS campus locations around the world. Before landing in her current role, she led NOLS Risk Services, chaired the WRMC Steering Committee, oversaw staffing... Read More →
This session is going to be VERY interactive! We are going to – literally – take the various pieces of running a good quality and defensible recreation program and put them together like a puzzle. We want to look at things like: structural issues (LLC or Inc?), insurance (do you know the various types you need?), staffing and the role of counsel (should you have a lawyer?), the various defenses that recreation providers rely on and how those defenses are put together in day-to-day entity practices so they can be expressed in trial or dispute resolution (do you know what assumption of the risk IS and how your entity can put it to use or rely on it?), how are you contracting with other entities that contribute to your product/activity (do you have a transport company, do you outsource food preparation and are these entities under contract and do you have a COI from them?), and we want to understand the nuances of your exact activity in the context of your geographic region (has your state or federal district spoken about releases or are there industry standards that you should be conforming to in your activity or area?). We want to go deeper than the primer sessions and take a look at overall health of a recreation organization/entity and give attendees a good overview that will spark them to look at best management practices at several levels of their organization and how it all coordinates into a quality and defensible program. Participants need to be aware of – and comfortable with - the fact that there is no list or cookbook that fits each entity. Nurturing your program or entity means looking at and becoming familiar with the several ‘layers’ and approaches that each entity should be looking at – IE – what are the office people doing vs. the field staff and how do those roles coalesce? Have the office staff created appropriate forms and data collection systems that reflect what the field staff are accomplishing? How does each level of the entity accomplish hazard recognition? It’s time to take the plunge and have a comprehensive overview of what your whole entity/program and its various parts should look like to see if the entire entity is functioning at its best. This is the end game of risk management and is intended to engage everything you have learned up to this point at WRMC.
Tracey L. Knutson is a licensed attorney whose primary practice involves working with recreation and adventure sports commercial operators, public land administrators and recreation oriented educational groups. An experienced trial lawyer, Tracey defends recreation companies and sports... Read More →