Hello CoC community,

My apologies for this delayed response as your new (interim) board member. I returned from a stint in the Eastern Sierra about a week ago and have been catching up on the events and actions taken since mid/late August while I was away.

CoC is near and dear to my heart as the very first place I began mountain guiding in 2021, as well as guiding, teaching, and giving back to the BIPOC community. It has been my honor to continue developing and growing our mountain programs as the Assistant Mountaineering Director these past couple of years as well. As someone who cherishes this organization and its mission, the current conflict and strife within our community has been saddening and disheartening. My hope is that we can all work through this together with open minds, patience, and improved communication and transparency.

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I'd like to share some general things that were discussed in the most recent board meeting in terms of structural changes and updates (more specifics to come later as details are solidified):

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We are currently working with The Mountaineers to seek external, professional help (a lawyer specializing in nonprofit organizations and a CPA specializing in nonprofit taxes and finances) in reviewing and updating our bylaws and organization policies, as well as our financial accounts. We believe this is long overdue, especially with how much CoC has grown since 2017.

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We are also developing a process to elect new board members (with term limits) going into the new year, with the aim of involving the community in this process and getting folks who have a variety of skills and specialties to bring to the table.

 

In this regard, I do want to acknowledge that I don't agree with the complete separation of board and staff and feel it's important to have a handful of field members representing mountaineering/snow and rock (whether they are instructors or directors) on the board to help with the direction of CoC's programming.

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I do agree though that most of our board should be comprised of non-instructors/non-directors to better serve the CoC community; I believe this general lack of diversity was a huge weakness in our previous BOD structure.

 

Recently, a proposal was brought forward by a community member to create a Managing Director position who will be responsible for overseeing and managing branch directors, community leaders, and coordinators and acting as a liaison. They will manage communication with The Mountaineers and other partners, such as the guiding companies with whom we consistently collaborate with; communicating the needs of the community to the board; making sure CoC complies with all national and local nonprofit regulations; developing actionable plans for fundraising and creating business plans in collaboration with the BOD.

 

We believe having an individual in this position will greatly improve organization and efficiency within CoC given that many of the aforementioned tasks were generally taken on by directors/assistant directors/instructors such as myself who already had a lot on our plates in terms of developing and running our actual programs and oftentimes these tasks would fall through the cracks, perhaps not get done in a timely manner, or there would be lapses in communication.Handing off organizational and administrative tasks to a separate director will allow branch directors to focus on our main job of CoC's educational programming and ideally help keep CoC operations running much more smoothly and with better communication and collaboration between all branches.

 

Thank you for taking the time to read my somewhat novel of a message. Please feel free to reach out to me at theresa@climbersofcolor.org. Please don't expect immediate responses as I do work during the week and am also doing extensive prep for a Rock Guide Course next month, in addition to helping CoC finish up more immediate tasks at hand (such as our end of season report and financials that need to be completed before the end of this month). But I will try to respond in as timely a manner as I can. I will answer questions regarding structural changes and updates to the best of my ability.

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- Theresa Silvreya