The WOR Morning Meeting (Details and Expectations)
This is long but necessary. Please read to maximize your WOR 2021 experience.
The Morning Meeting:
The stated purpose of Week of Rivers is to gather CCC members for a week of paddling and camping in the mountains with friends. This has evolved into fun and games, clinics, entertainment, community service and a lot of special activities. After all the planning and preparation is done by the organizers, the club members make the week happen.
The reason Week of Rivers is held in the same area every year is the variety and number of dam controlled rivers within 3 hours driving time of the campground providing reliable, consistent whitewater. In order to organize as many trips as possible, a morning meeting is held. It starts promptly at 8:30 am. Announcements are made, the schedule and plan of special events for the day are reviewed, trip incentives awarded, special recognitions made and then we get down to business. The goal every day is to be done with the meeting in under an hour.
Here’s what to expect:
By 8:00 am activity will start at the pavilion. Equipment is readied for use when the meeting starts and organizers compare notes for announcements.
At 8:25 am a horn or cow bell will sound to give the 5 minute warning.
At 8:30 am we start as mentioned above. Most veterans review the river levels of the day before the meeting begins and already know what they want to run. On dry days, the review of river levels is quick. If it is raining, has been raining for a while or rivers are abnormally high, the discussion can turn very serious. We will be exercising the Rivers.run app developed by our own Tucker Willenborg to speed the river level discussion up. Download this app if you have not already. Search CCCWOR for the list of rivers. (This is where new people can also help themselves by reviewing the information on the CCC web page and Facebook page about the area rivers. There are also First Time Mentors designated every day to answer questions before and after the meeting.)
As soon as the river level discussion ends, trips will be announced in what can easily be compared to an auction. (Non-paddling trips go first) We start with Beginner and Novice trips and work our way up into Intermediate and Advanced level trips. Know your rivers and your skill level. If you are leading a trip, you will come forward, state your name, the difficulty level of the trip, the river, how many paddlers you want in your group and what time you are planning on departing the campground. You will be handed a number to hold up so people can find you after the meeting and work out the details. This continues until there are no more announced trips. Announced trip organizers are recorded and their names are entered into a hat for a trip organizer incentive drawing the following morning. There is one drawing for 1-9 trips. If 10-19 trips are announced, there will be 2 drawings, 20+ announced trips will have 3 drawings.
This year we will be trying a new departure system. If you are on trip #3, you will leave from area #3 unless the trip organizer instructs you to meet elsewhere. (For example – meet at Ferebee at 11:30). This should eliminate people missing their trips or ending up at the wrong river.
Repeat the same process for the next 8 mornings.