Where is everybody? Post your ACA questions or comments here.

Cheers,

David J.

Howdy! Larry Ausley here. I am currently serving a short mid-term appointment to the ACA Board of Directors and also running for a full term under the ACA ballot currently being voted. I was glad to see this forum develop. We started something similar in the Carolina Canoe Club as a mechanism for our instructor corps to communicate. I'll be watching the posts to this list with great interest as a relatively new (kayak) instructor and immediate past-president of a local paddling club but with greatest interest from the national perspective of ACA and the paddlesports.

I'm currently watching the post to the Paddling Instructor Board titled "National and Provincial Paddling Organizations". Though it has genesis in Canada, many of its issues and questions are equally applicable to the US and elsewhere. It will be interesting to see where this discussion goes. I'd personally like to see how we can strengthen ties between local and national organizations and create a synergy.

As many of you may know, ACA is making some big changes with a new Executive Director, Marty Bartels, whom I think will be a powerful voice for ACA and the paddlesports relative to this discussion. Marty has already presented some great marketing ideas about how to reach and involve new groups of paddlers and involve current members more. I'm sure those topics will arise at our next Board meeting.

I'd be interested in anyone's thoughts about what the ACA can do to better involve paddlers/paddling organizations and also provide better services to its members.

Hello there Larry, great to meet you.

It's great to hear from somebody within the ACA. I have written several notes over the past two years asking a couple questions but never got much of a response.

I would love to help out with any type of promotion and if the ACA, would ever like to partner on a project, let me know what I can do.

One of the big pushes over the past couple of years here in Canada (in the Sea Kayaking community at least) is an emphasis on networking and sharing of information amongst instructors. It is probably the single biggest reason why the Paddle Canada Sea Kayaking program is so successful. We have instructors who are flying back and forth taking courses and teaching with each other all the time.

What I would love to see is how instructor north and south of the border could do something like that more often.

Cheers,

David J.

I think you'll find that things have really turned around at ACA. There are new staff on board with the SEIC (Safety Education and Instruction Council), namely Jeremy Oyen and Chris Stec, who are providing top-notch response on the instruction side of things. You can contact either through the ACA site > Inside ACA> ACA staff links. Let me know anything I can do to help you out or just for info or feedback.

Hello Paddlesport Instructors,

For the latest information from ACA Instruction, please click on the following link.

http://www.americancanoe.org/instruction/seifocus.lasso

Also, if you have any instruction based questions, please just let us know.

Thanks for all you do for paddlesports!

-Chris

Thanks so much. Not living in the good old USA, I wasn't even aware that the resource was there.

I tried to subscribe via the email on the website but the email bounced back saying that it didn't exist. How can I subscribe to it?

Cheers,

David J.