UKC

Glenmore Lodge Association of Mountain Instructors (AMI) AGM 2009

© Glenmore Lodge
'I was on the workshop for top tips for MIC's and it was an excellent opportunity to help clear up some grey areas before my assessment. I would recommend it as these types of workshop are invaluable.' Sandy Patterson.

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Association of Mountain Instructors at Glenmore Lodge

This year AMI decided to be radical and have their first winter AGM at Glenmore Lodge. Last weekend the whole of Glenmore Lodge was dedicated to them with over 80 attendees for the workshops and over 100 for the actual AGM and lecture by Tim Emmett.

The first winter meet seems to have gone down really well as many of the members are up here for work and play. They are about to go into silly season and the workshops and opportunity to catch up with other like minded and like qualified people has given them the boost they need to get into winter.

There have been workshops for aspiring MIC's (Mountain Instructor Certificate) with assessors giving top tips on how to get through this prestigious award. There was also 'making the most of your GPS', Dry tooling, avalanche awareness as well as a two day course on coaching and how people learn.

Steve Long gave an update on where the 'coaching' is going in the mountain sport world. The paddlesport world has worked with the UKCC for quite some time and it has not been an easy journey to incorporate established qualification schemes with the coaching element. In the mountain world it has not been so formally developed yet but Steve explained they would be doing more research and strategic planning before bringing coaching awards in to run along side the current qualification schemes which are all to be reviewed as fit for purpose at the same time. The results should be in action in or around 2011 ( not necessarily under the UKCC scheme). Jon Jones and Shaun Roberts from the Lodge, put together a superb 2 day coaching workshop for this AMI meet. This course will be rolled out to a wider audience this year at the Lodge.


Association of Mountain Instructors (AMI) AGM 2009 at the wall.

Iain Peter presented an update on the Adventure mark accreditation scheme before the main AGM took place which ended with a big thanks to Peter Stacey who has been chairman for the last three years. He has taken AMI to new heights with the quarterly newsletter being the envy of other organizations, developing the workshops available for members and having a strategy to raise the profile of AMI. He was presented with a painting of Ogwyn Valley for all his efforts. His first thanks went to his wife and an acknowledgement that he has three years of jobs to catch up with now. Tony Halimwell is now taking on the baton for the next three years and he went in at the deep end by chairing an open discussion with 100 vocal members.

Everybody had a slap up meal and a few beers before returning to the lecture theatre for an inspiring lecture by Tim Emmet. His base jumping, flying suits and climbing had all the hallmarks for a super hero mission impossible movie. After that everybody retired to the bar to compare their super hero stories that seemed to get more epic with every beer. Needless to say the Lodge bar did well that night!

Some of the attendees were asked why they came and if it was worthwhile. This is what they had to say:

Kevin Rutherford: 'I love the fact you get lots of input on best practice in these workshops and things that have been done wrong can be highlighted as well as good practice.'

Chris Plant: 'It is great that AMI include trainees. Sharing ideas with assessors and being around good practice has been great.. The workshops re-enforce previous training which is often so intense you can't take it all in first time. It is all valuable and reassuring to find a lot of what I am doing is right too.'

Sandy Patterson: ' I was on the workshop for top tips for MIC's and it was an excellent opportunity to help clear up some grey areas before my assessment. I would recommend it as these types of workshop are invaluable.'

Alex Williams: 'I am a freelance instructor and I don't get the opportunity to share ideas and best practice with my piers very often as I am usually out there on my own. I attended the avalanche workshop today with Iain Peter and it was great. He gave me the confidence to believe I can say no to clients if the conditions are not right and move onto something you are happy to do. I can sometimes feel pressured to deliver things but I know I should always say no if I am not happy with the conditions.'

Nick Jones: 'Attending these workshops with piers and assessors means you get the benefits of the different opinions and ideas that are out there. They are great.'

Dan Robinson: ' I attended the MLT Providers workshop which was excellent for keeping us updated on current issues.'

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Tim Emmett
© Glenmore Lodge




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