Bring new outdoor initiatives to life in your community. Create new trails. Open a community gear library. Launch enriching new outdoor programs and events
Use the right techniques in the right way for the right outcomes. Work smarter, be more efficient, effective, and safe in the field. Learn how to improve trail experiences that grow your community. Learn how to maintain trails that will last, and inspire more to be built. Take your trail skills to the next level.
Up your trail building game. Build more trail more effectively. Learn how to utilize mechanized tools to create more durable, sustainable trails. Operate safely and effectively in challenging terrain.
Confidently keep your program’s bicycles up and running. Tackle common issues including brakes, shifting, flat tires, broken chains, and worn cables. Learn to troubleshoot and diagnose bigger problems effectively. Gain comfort with skills, tools, and best practices in the workshop.
Learn how to make paddling more accessible in your community. Help others discover the fun of paddling. Learn skills and progressions you can share with others to get them started on the water. Practice safety and rescue skills to build your confidence as a facilitator on the water.
Get the support and feedback needed to improve. Evaluate your skills and identify next steps. Expand your existing knowledge with new perspectives and approaches. Discover where your paddling can take you next.
Share your passion for kayaking. Improve your skills as a paddler. Help others unlock their potential. Refine your ability to teach, coach, and lead on the river.
Share the magic of whitewater with others. Improve your skills as a paddler. Help others unlock their potential. Refine your ability to teach, coach, and lead on the river.
Share your passion for whitewater. Improve your skills as a paddler. Help others unlock their potential. Refine your ability to teach, coach, and lead on the river.
Stay current in your skills, knowledge, and practice. Learn what others are doing in the field of whitewater kayak instruction. Refine your skills as a teacher, coach, and leader. Update your ACA Instructor Certification.
Whether you’re on foot, on skis, on wheels, or on the water, games can be a powerful tool to help make the experience more positive and rewarding for your participants. Join us in this FUNdamentals of Facilitation workshop where participants will learn about facilitation frameworks, resources, and techniques that help create healthy environments to promote learning and growth.
Content will focus on trail crew members and volunteers doing hand work on a variety of shared-used non-motorized trails. Participants can earn the new Level 1 Trail Foundations Badge and Level 2 Trail Crew Basics Badge through the Katahdin Higher Education Center.
Know What to Do When Things Go Wrong. Gain skills to keep you and others safe. Develop a better mindset and approach to river incidents & emergencies. Complete the ACA’s Level 4 Swiftwater Rescue Training.
Are you working or playing outdoors in Maine’s Katahdin Region this summer? We are excited to work with partners from around the region to bring you a series of industry-recognized trainings that will help you get the most out of the outdoor recreation available in Maine’s most iconic outdoor setting.
What questions, challenges, or opportunities are you seeing in your community as the seasons change? Our next Community Roundtable is happening online Tuesday, Sept 21st @ 7 PM EST and we want you to join us!
OSI Community Roundtables are your chance to connect with others in our network on ideas, challenges, and possible solutions related to getting active outdoors in the place you call home. Got something specific you want to discuss? Let us know when you register for the discussion.
Roundtable discussions are open to any and all members of the OSI Community. If you’re already a member of the community look for the roundtable registration in your monthly email update.
If you’re not yet a member of the OSI Community join for free HERE.
**THIS COURSE IS FULL**
Improve your skills as a paddler.
Help others unlock their potential.
Refine your ability to teach, coach, and lead on the river.
**THIS COURSE IS FULL**
Gain skills to keep you and others safe.
Develop a better mindset and approach to river incidents & emergencies.
Complete the ACA’s Level 4 Swiftwater Rescue Training
Help others discover the fun of paddling on flat water and moving water.
Learn skills and progressions you can share with others to get them started on the water.
Practice safety and rescue skills to build your confidence as an instructor and leader on the water.
We’ve all experienced a TON of change in the last 12 months, and with the a new season and new possibilities ahead, we want to know what you have learned and what you need help with in the months to come.
This spring’s Community Roundtable is a call to action. Join us on Wednesday, April 21st @ 7PM EST to share your thoughts, learn from others’ experiences, and help us shape the content we share in the seasons to come!
Turn the trails you dream of into a reality.
Learn how to create amazing trail experiences that grow your community.
Discover how to build trails that will last, and inspire more to be built.
Our next Community Roundtable is on Tuesday, March 23rd @ 7PM EST, and we want you to join us!
OSI Community Roundtables are your chance to connect with others in our network on ideas, challenges, and possible solutions related to getting active outdoors that might apply to the place you call home.
Anyone who has thought about getting others outdoors in their community has likely run into the challenge of figuring out how to provide safe, functional equipment to those that don’t have it. Bikes, skis, kayaks, paddles, snowshoes, backpacks…all of this gear comes with a price, and it’s usually not cheap. And finding the funding to acquire gear is just one of many challenges. How do you store it? How do you maintain it? Replace it? Distribute it? In some cases the question even becomes how do you get people to use it?
Turn the trails you dream of into a reality.
Learn how to create amazing trail experiences that grow your community.
Discover how to build trails that will last, and inspire more to be built.
Whether you’re on foot, on skis, on wheels, or on the water, games can be a powerful tool to help make the experience more positive and rewarding for your participants. Join us in February as we host a new webinar with a master game player, exploring how we can more effectively use games in the outdoor sport experiences we lead.
Our next Community Roundtable is on Tuesday, January 26th @ 7PM EST, and we want you to join us!
OSI Community Roundtables are your chance to connect with others in our network on ideas, challenges, and possible solutions related to getting active outdoors that might apply to the place you call home.
Dick Chasse wanted to be a mountain guide ever since he was a teenager, growing up in Waterville, ME. After taking a leadership role in his high school outing club and job shadowing at a university outdoor program he began a career as professional mountain guide and outdoor educator. Dick has been guiding since 1998, building a diverse resume of experience taking him from ski guiding in Iceland, to managing logistics and risk in Mozambique, to sharing his love of Katahdin’s winter magic.
This month we’re catching up with Dick as he prepares to share some of his accumulated experience and wisdom with us through our upcoming Winter Leadership Series.
Eileen Carey has spent her professional life helping others discover their potential on a pair of skis. Over the last decade her focus has been on working with adaptive skiers, serving as the Director Adaptive Programs at NENSA in southern New England and then the head coach with U.S. Paralympics Nordic Team. In her time in this role she transformed the program into an athlete-centered model that built from 3 medals in Sochi to 16 medals in Pyeong Chang. Eileen was awarded the Team USA Paralympic coach of the year in 2017.
This month we’re sitting down with Eileen to talk about the world of adaptive winter sports, and what her experience has taught her about improving inclusivity and participation in the outdoors.
This month in place of our normal OSI Community roundtable discussion we’re hosting a free webinar open to all. The term “risk management” isn’t one that gets most outdoor program leaders or managers excited. We equate it with liability waivers, insurance, and legal speak. There’s a much better way to think about it, though, and in this webinar we’re going to show you.
Our next Community Roundtable is on Wednesday, November 18th @ 4PM EST, and we want you to join us!
This month we’re talking about the challenges our communities face when it comes to recreating through outdoor sports in the colder months of the year.
Feel more confident & independent in the outdoors. Learn how to take your skills in any sport to the next level. Connect with others who can help you progress. Overcome the challenges you face in the outdoors and bring confidence to other areas of your life.
Our next Community Roundtable is on Wednesday, October 28th @ 4PM EST, and we want you to join us! Register below to receive the link.
This month we're talking about how we address mindset in outdoor sport programming. What strategies are other people using in their communities? If you have a practice that you use, or a question you'd like to ask on the subject, submit it when you register, and we’ll see you online.
Turn the trails you dream of into a reality.
Learn how to create amazing trail experiences that grow your community.
Discover how to build trails that will last, and inspire more to be built.
