SKABC – The Sea Kayak Association of BC

(Note that in 2023-2024 the current Programs team plans to assist in the following.)

With input from others, both club members and sources outside of SKABC, sets the content and books presenters for the monthly general meetings in Sept, October, January to June.

Provide a description and speaker photo(s) of each month's topic for the website and club emails.

Introduce and thank the presenter(s). Take notes of questions from the presentation and moderate questions from participants

Work with executive on a budget to include arranging a card or token gift for the presenter, and/or travel expenses a guest speaker incurs if appropriate.

One representative from the Programs role should be present at monthly Executive meetings, held virtually each month except for December and July.

• collaborate with Training to offer safety related courses, workshops, and seminars
• lead safety related issues that the exec has identified (for 2023-24 there is a committee working on assembling first aid kits for club use)
• organize safety related events as opportunities arise/interest is identified
• identify speakers and or topics that could be presented at the start of club meetings
• Receive and review Trip Reports
• Attend monthly Executive meetings over Zoom

Coordinates club participation in outside events as agreed on by the Executive. In 2023 the main Outreach event was the Big Brothers and Big Sisters paddle.

Initiates getting an event on the club calendar, getting a committee together, and publicizing it to make it happen.

Attends virtual Executive Meetings Monthly.

Assist the Training Officer as needed. Here is the description of the Training Officer's role.

SKABC’s vision for training is to have an effective, consistent and leading edge training system that puts safety first and foremost and ensures enjoyment for all levels while caring for the planet.

SKABC has nine core courses developed by the club and offered each year. Also, members volunteer to deliver specialty topic sessions and from time to time we make arrangements for courses with external providers.

While club members provide the instruction and coordinate individual courses, the training coordinator oversees the budget and the planning, scheduling and booking of courses for the season. Course related responsibilities include ensuring courses are posted on the website and regularly updated during the busy months, identifying qualified instructors, providing the lead instructor with originals of course handouts, ensuring the course coordinator has the necessary information to handle registrations, collecting participant and instructor feedback, approving expenses and monitoring the training budget.

In addition to the monthly club and executive meetings, the time commitment is heaviest from March through early June when most courses are running and may require 2-4 hours each month. The majority of scheduling and bookings is normally completed in January and early February and takes 5-10 hours over that period depending on the courses and options available. During the rest of the year, some off season courses may be offered but the work involved is limited.