Bard College grove

Hey all. Hope everyone had a blessed day.

I am a freshman at Bard College, a super-awesome, tiny, liberal arts school about 90 miles north of NYC, right on the Hudson. I was recently certified as a facilitator, and have set a goal of establishing a grove here. I am a part of the Trustee Leader Scholar Program ( http://inside.bard.edu/campus/services/tls/ ), an organization that allows selected, motivated students to develop leadership skills through the design and implementation of a community service project. And mine is (hopefully) going to be a grove. It would start out with just Bard students, in much the same vein as Outdoor Club activities, but as more people got involved and committed, would expand to incorporate local kids, especially those from the Astor Home, a residential facility for kids with terrible backgrounds that TLS is also involved with. I am subscribing to the idea that "The best way to learn is to teach," and so my goal is to end up training lots of students as facilitators so they can lead climbs and continue after I'm gone. I'm about to meet with the Director of Athletics, head of Horticulture Dept., and head of business affairs to discuss my plans with them and get their approval. I've already received extremely generous offers from the good folk at New Tribe and OK Arborist Supply in terms of gear acquisition, and am looking forward to getting this (literally) off the ground.

Just wanted to let everyone know what I'm up to, here in the nearly icy Northlands, so far from my home in Dixie. Any comments or suggestions or question or donations (monetary or in-kind) are greatly appreciated.

Off to bed. Be well.
Joshua

Dan, that would be incredible. I have a meeting with the head of the horticulture dept. in a week or so, and he's very attached to his trees. That would go so far in assuring him that I'm not going to harm his trees and that we as an organized group have respect. I was planning on going to the hardware store and getting some conduit piping and caps and constructing rudimentary ones of my own, but to have a couple of yours would be awesome. I've heard nothing but goodness about them. We'll stay in touch, for sure.
Josh

I have meetings on Wednesday and Thursday to discuss my grove proposal with the powers that be. Wish me luck, and thanks to all my supporters.

Joshua

Joshua,

How did your Wednesday and Thursday meetings go?

Do you have any documentation that has contributed to your efforts' success that you can share with us? I know several of us are interested in formalizing the process for gaining permission to climb recreationally.

Do you know of any other colleges or universities that officially support a "tree climbing club"

Brad

The director of athletics is behind me, willing to support it fully as long as I talk with the head of business affairs and deal with all possible liability and insurance issues. He'll even throw about half the money I need my way, and provide me with storage space. The head of horticulture flaked on our appointment, so I'll talk with him early next week.

So far so good!

I know that there are some universities with forestry programs that probably have some climbing, but I know of no clubs. The University School of Nashville, a private school affiliated with Vanderbilt has a club.

Joshua

For the program I'm doing this through, I had to write up a formal project proposal, which I'm giving a copy of to each of these men. I also have a copy of TCI's release form, TCI's mission statement, and my facilitator certification.

Josh

I'm postponing my project for a year. I found another thing that I'm more passionate about right now and am going to be spending enough time and energy on that that there's no way I could do both plus school. I plan on officially starting my grove next year, which should be easier, since I have all my paperwork done and contacts made.

Instead, I'm organizing a huge conference for Northeastern college activists. It will be a weekend long event that will have students from various schools leading workshops about campaigns that they have spearheaded. It will be a way to battle the lack of networking between schools and share info and resources with people working on similar campaigns.

Thanks to all who have supported me, and I'll probably come back to you in a year.

Joshua