Archive:Exec report - Climbing Wall Coordinator 2008 - 2009

Climbing Wall Coordinator: Meghan Anderson

2009 Report

Being climbing wall coordinator is pretty easy. Your main job is to book the hours for the climbing wall. You do this by e-mailing the current SUB booking coordinator at: [email protected] In this e-mail you need to state:
1) Name of AMS group for whom you are booking, and who is responsible for the event (ie. yourself, or another club member) and contact information, need both:
a contact tel number (with voice mail), e-mail
2) Proposed days and dates in order of preference (ie. Tues 1 May 2007)
3) Time(s) from start to finish, including set-up and clean up
4) Anticipated attendance (MAX at one time) (NOTE: a minimum 50% of attendees MUST be UBC students + club/group members)
5) Type of event, and "title" (particularly if it involves a liquor license)
6) Indicate if you will require any rentals and/or House Staff labour for equipment set-up/take down:
7) Room/space preferred: (Here Norm Theatre)
8) Brief description of event, including whether any food will be served

You need to do this for any event you book in the SUB (ex. climbing wall hours, winter social…). Climbing wall hours are a bit special and need to be book two weeks prior to when you want them. This is because other organizations basically get priority and we get last pick. Ask for anytime you can get. It is important to try and get evening hours since this is when people will most likely be able to use the wall. In the summer this is not hard. During the school year though the film society uses the theater and we don't get many hours. Traditionally the film soc doesn't show films Monday and Tuesdays though so you can request from them to use the climbing wall in the evenings. To do this you will need to send an e-mail to the film soc: [email protected] and ask them permission. It is a good idea at the beginning of the school year to send them a nice e-mail and let them know who you are. Make a point of establishing a good relationship since this means they will offer you extra hours when they don't need them and they may also ask the VOC for special favors. The other big thing that you need to worry about is the climbing competition. This happens at the end of the school year. I am not sure how in advance you can book this date but it would be a good idea to book it way way in advance, say September. The end of the school year is a busy time and I got gyped when I tried to book and two months in advance and got stuck with a shitty date that didn't really work out. If you later find out the date doesn't work so well you can reschedule it anyways so it is best to pick a date that looks good and book it. For the climbing comp you will need to:

1) advertise it well, this is a busy time of year….
2) coerce lots of people into helping you, it will count as a workhike
3) take down all the holds
4) put up new climbs
5) rate the new climbs on a point system
6) figure out a budget for prizes, buy prizes
7) throw out and replace any cracked and broken holds, do any required maintenance
8) gather about 20 milk crates for the crate stacking competition
9) charge money for the climbing comp (this pays for the prizes)
10) hold the event, tabulate the winners and bestow great prizes upon them

The climbing comp is not only important as an event but important because it means that all the climbs get redone. This is really important since route setting rarely happens at the Norm and people tire of the climbs fast. If you feel you have the time you could always organize times through out the year for route setting, but I guess that is up to you.

Other things that you need to consider through out the year are belay tests. Only VOC members that have passed a belay test are allowed to use the VOC wall. This means they have to come into the clubroom and do a belay test with an exec. There is a poster on the gear room about what needs to be done in a belay test. At the end sign their membership card to say that they passed a belay test. The proctor is supposed to check that the membership cards before letting people into the Norm theater for climbing. Last year we had a problem that people who were not VOC members were using the wall though. This is bad since it could possibly be a liability problem…

A good idea is to hold basic belay lessons when you get a chance. At the beginning of the year there are a lot of new members that don't know how to belay yet but want to use the climbing wall so they ask for lessons because they can't wait for Longhike or missed it.

It is also a good idea to check in on the wall every once and a while. Make sure the holds are in good condition and the ropes are still up (there should be 4 ropes up).

2008-2009 activities

Climbing wall competition, 11 new routes were set.