The document outlines the topics and agenda for an upcoming leadership workshop for hiking leaders and co-leaders. The workshop will address key skills and responsibilities for leaders, including fitness and preparation, technical skills like footing and scrambling, first aid training, communication skills, leadership within the leader team, leading the group, administrative responsibilities, environmental safety, and food management for hikes. Practical sessions will provide training and practice in various skills like stretching exercises, basic rope work, river crossings, first aid scenarios, and briefing presentations. The goal is to develop leaders' competencies to lead safe and enjoyable hiking experiences for participants.

1. Template
Leadership Workshop
Participants: Members who lead and co-lead weekend hikes
Topics to be addressed during the workshop:
1. Fitness
Criteria regarding ‘fitness’ for a weekend hike leader
The ‘why’ of being fit
Practical session: introduction to stretching exercises including some yogasanas,
especially those pertinent to preparation for hiking and end-of-day recovery
Discussion on diet for hikers – discussed separately
2. Technical competence (footing, scrambling, basic rock moves for help on steep
terrain, basic rope work)
Footing: What care needs to be taken to ensure that participants get some inputs
consciously (e.g., the ‘resting step’, safety concerns like slippery surfaces and stepping
on outer edges of paved stones, defining ‘easy pace’, etc.)
Scrambling: definition, need for this skill on weekend hikes, skills needed, leaders’ role,
and safety concerns
Rock moves: ditto as above
Basic rope work: need for this skill on weekend hikes, expectations, conceptual clarity
(friction, the ‘why’ of a certain technique of belaying, etc.), anchor station for a top rope
& rappel (with related aspects like knots).
River crossing: need for this skill on weekend hikes, basic ‘hydrodynamics’ (so as to
understand why a technique works and is safe), expectations, introduction to river
crossing techniques with practice runs (either dry or in actual flowing water).
3. First aid skills: practice sessions on basic, simple and crucial topics
Emphasis on: conceptual clarity and practical. Topics: dehydration, heat injuries
including blisters, cold injuries, stings & bites, sprains-strains-and-fractures. Discussion
and procedure for response to emergency.
4. Communication skills (briefing, person-dependent communication, necessary
paper work)

2. The need to make briefings ‘interesting’ so as to be effective (so the maximum number
of participants understand safety aspects, expectations from them, etc.).
Key conceptual aspects will be introduced; e.g., communication gap, and learning styles.
Discussion on the need for different communicating styles for a disparate group.
Practical sessions: some participants of the workshop will be invited to ‘present briefing’
and will receive feedback on their presentation.
5. Leadership within leader-team (staying healthy, being consultative when
required, being a role model to each other, seniors contributing to the growth of
juniors)
‘Staying healthy’ refers to the teamwork within the leaders’ team: this will be touched
upon with a clear focus (why of it, some aspects with examples, etc.).
Role
clarity
(and responsibilities) to be discussed: for both, field leaders and support persons in the
office. Other points as listed in the previous paragraph.
6. Leadership of the group (role modeling, communicating appropriately and at
appropriate times, generating comfort in terms of technical aspects, being
capable of handling emergencies – medical as well as non-medical, maintaining
dignity of all throughout)
Additional point: ‘time and group management’ on trail: evolving a system that will
help keep the group together on trail.
7. Admin-responsibilities with respect to club’s expectations and processes
Need and importance for pre-hike and post-hike ‘formalities’ to be clarified and
emphasized. Invitation to all to extend ‘good practices’ being practiced by some leaders
(like spending time with participants at destination pouring over the region’s map,
drawing sketch-map of place visited, etc.).
8. Environment safety issues
Few topics that could be immediately managed by leaders will be taken up: a) waste
management: human waste and kitchen waste, b) sensitivity to ‘water’ encountered in
various forms while hiking in the Sahyadri, c) relevant socio-cultural aspects.
9. ‘Food management’
Different types of stoves needed depending on the group size, food quantities with
respect to group size for a day/multi-day trek.