Volunteers for Outdoor Arizona

Volunteers for Outdoor Arizona Crew Leader Manual

Summary

This manual has been written to aid crew leaders working with trail work volunteers. It assumes the following priorities, in order of importance, for every volunteer trail work event: 1) Safety, 2) Enjoyment, 3) Quality product, 4) Productivity.

Overview

Written and published by Volunteers for Outdoor Arizona (VOAz) with assistance from other trail building groups, this manual may be used by anyone leading volunteer work crews on non-motorized, multi-use trail events in the arid terrain that is characteristic of most of Arizona. An informal coalition of Arizona volunteer trail building groups is seeking to bring greater consistency and quality to the trail work done by volunteers in this state. A training package that may be used by trail building organizations is under development. Any organization that uses this manual will need to identify standards that may be unique to its program or go beyond those stated in this manual and covered in crew leader training based on this manual. Each trail building organization needs to define its own crew leader certification process. It is possible that a uniform crew leader certification program will be established in the future.

This manual is by no means a complete reference or guide to trail work. It incorporates the experience and perceived priorities of its authors as well as ideas found on the web and in other publications. A bibliography of other trail work publications is appended.

Trail Types Covered

General. All trail types are relevant.