25 Years Plus in the Gay Outdoors

In Dec. of 1985, an avid cross country skier thought that it would be fun toshare his enthusiasm for the sport with other gay men so he placed an ad in The West
Ender seeking others who might be interested in skiing. It worked! A subsequent issueof the club newsletter noted: “A dozen or so men got together and spent the winterenjoying the freedom of the outdoors with a supportive group of gay friends.” Out andAbout was born! According to some of the original members of this group, the firstski outings were in Jan. 1986.
The original ski club proved to be very successful. However, when summer
arrived the guys missed the companionship they had on the ski trips so they started
planning other outdoor activities and soon there was a year round calendar of things todo. Then, as now, everything was done by enthusiastic volunteers who who planned
and lead the activities. The volunteer system was so effective that the July 1993
edition of the club newsletter contained the following: “The concepts behind Out andAbout are unique and powerful. There is no Executive body: only volunteers who leadevents, organize functions, tend to group business and look after our cross country
skiing and cycling activities. Members with experience freely share their knowledge
with those less experienced to foster participation by more members in more
activities. Our events always seem to engender fantastic group camaraderie andempathy.”At first the club had no name but on one of the earlier trips to Hope the groupspent a day or two in a rented cabin and a few hours of brainstorming produced thename “Out and About”. Apparently there were lots of ideas but they finally settled on
the concept that “We are out and we are about!” The third club newsletter bore thenew name. Eventually the newsletter also acquired the colourful name“Bushwhacker”. Likely there were a lot of giggles associated with the choice of that
title and the possible interpretations of it.
Early membership communications relied almost entirely on the quarterly
publication and distribution of the Bushwhaker. There were also telephonecommittees and networks to facilitate communications that could not wait for the nextnewsletter. The arrival of computers and the Internet soon changed all of that. Our
first website was created by a member volunteer in 1999. This new technology greatlychanged the way the club functions because it allows for constant posting of eventsand notification of new postings. However, we do continue to publish theBushwhacker for those who prefer to get their information in that format.
Up until 1998 the club had very little formal structure. However, in Sept.
1998, because of legal concerns, we incorporated as a society under the British
Columbia “Society Act” and filed the name “ Out and About Gay Men’s Outdoor
Adventure Society”. This incorporation required the club to have a more formal
structure so we now do have a Board of Directors and other structure as required by
the Society Act. However, the club still adheres to the original volunteer structure fororganizing and running events and hopes to retain that operational structure. The club
officers confine their functions to those administrative responsibilities required under
the Society Act.
Planning of all events falls to individual club members. What you see on ourevents calendar is there because someone volunteered to put it there. To facilitate andencourage this planning, the club has always had quarterly planning meetings. Clubmembers gather at these meetings to discuss the results of past events and put forward
their plans for future events. The website now allows for more flexibility in thisplanning system, but the quarterly meetings are still held as it is felt they provide agood stimulus for ideas as well as a fine opportunity for a social gathering.
The past twenty five years have seen a great variety of outdoor andsocial events appear on the club calendars. In addition to the original skiing we havedone a lot of hiking, camping, backpacking, cycling, canoeing, kayaking, horseback
riding, downhill skiing, houseboat trips as well as potluck dinners, games nights and awhole variety of social events. For many years we had entries in the Gay PrideParade. We also had a group who organized Murder Mystery Weekends every year,with scripts prepared by enthusiastic volunteers. These were highly popular weekend
getaways to Manning Park where a scripted murder mystery was reinacted over theweekend. Another of our highlights has been an annual exchange with the Portland
Adventure group. We acted as hosts to visitors from Portland during Gay Prideweekend and were in turn invited to Portland for the Labour Day weekend. We havebeen featured in many gay media items. Though most of our activities have been
local, we have had trips organized to Big Sur, Death Valley, Hawaii, Mexico andvarious parts of British Columbia, other parts of Canada and the United States.
So thank you founding members for coming up with this great idea.
You have provided many guys with many hours of fun in the outdoors. Not only has
Out and About provided a great networking system to get guys together who enjoy
outdoor activities, it has also been a superb social networking system through which
many lifelong friendships and relationships have developed. As someone wrote in
one of our early newsletters: “Out and About is a great way to experience theoutdoors and indulge in the joy of living, but it also offers us the chance to meet newpeople and make new friends.” A great addition to the gay community in Vancouver!
WK
June 2011