Wednesday, July 25, 2007

They Did It...

Their Way

I do not like to organize...anything...especially events. I wouldn't know where to start, and I admire those that can and do pull it off. With this in mind, I want to look at the two symposiums I just staffed. I want to compare them and look at what worked well for each and what might be best to change next time around. In doing so, I hope to stimulate some positive thinking that will, hopefully, lead to even better events in the future.Ah, the traditional staff shirt, this one from the Door County Symposium. It helps the students spot the staff and instructors in a crowd. It is, unfortunately, cotton and not wearable on the water (last year, Grand Marais had an outrageously colored shirt that was synthetic and wearable on the water...nice...but I digress). The cotton shirts are generally removed as the class heads onto the water and put back on upon landing. All of them, including the synthetic ones, would be covered by the pfd anyway. This year, the Grand Marais folks came up with a new and practical idea for insructors. Hats. Bright yellow, they are easily seen. More over, they are synthetic and wearable on the water. What could be better?
Why, a built in tether clip, of course.

This round goes to the Uppers (pronounced you-pers) for creative thinking. To follow: I will compare locations, facilities and class and trip scheduling. Stay tuned.


Paddle safe...

DS

7 comments:

DaveO said...

I still wear my garish fluorescent yellow T shirt that I got from the GLSK symposium in '05. Very practical and comfortable on the water. In fact I wore it last night at our club advanced rescues practice.

JohnB said...

BZ Silbs!!!

Silbs said...

JB, via e mail, tells me that BZ is navy for well done (Bravo Zulu). Tanks.

Alex said...

Wow, synthetic hats with built in clips! That's pretty clever! For the Inland Sea Symposium we had braided plastic bracelets made by a local artist out of recycled materials to use as identifiers. I much prefer the bracelets and hats to the t-shirts since I tend to forget to put on my symposium shirt when off the water.

Silbs said...

So, off the water you walk around half naked? :)

Alex said...

lol, no in the spirit of modesty I usually walk around in my paddling gear or change into regular clothes that just happen not to involve the symposium shirt.

derrick said...

for my part I didn't even wear the door county shirt this year. LOL! One is that I hate the nasty colors and second it's just a big pain in the rump to change back and forth.

Sea kayak georgia gave us nice synthetics in a normal color. I wear that one a lot.

Michigan has been giving us baseball hats. Of course I never wore that either LOL!