Get
involved
We are looking for welcoming, adventurous folks to join our community of volunteers.
Volunteers are the foundation of OOFD. They exemplify an attitude of adventure, support and inclusivity so that all feel welcome to be a part of our rides. We thus invest in our dedicated volunteers with trainings and additional perks.
In joining the team, you get the honor to lead others in local adventures, right out our front door, to help deepen their reverence for the legacy of our region.
If you are interested in becoming a guide for the overnight bike camping trips, you first have to have completed a trip as a participant. See FAQ below.
See FAQ BelowFrequently Asked Questions
The best, quickest way to get involved is to join us for a Where the Wild Things Grow ride to habitat restoration.
As a fairly new non-profit, we are open to really anyway you would like to contribute. Thanks for your interest and support. Happy riding!
To be a guide for a single overnight ride, you can expect a commitment of 4-5 hours before the ride (1 hr meeting with your guide team to nail down logistics). You will spend a few hours before the ride to review and learn from research we provide about local history and ecology in order to give a few 5-minute educational spiels to participants. We also encourage guides to draw from their own interests to contribute insight about local history and nature to help us continue to make our spiels informative and interesting!
Most overnights are two full days, leaving early on Saturday and returning later on Sunday . Family overnights are usually 3 days, leaving on Friday, returning on Sunday.
You certainly can lead 1 overnight in a year though we are ideally looking for volunteers to commit to leading at least 2-3 overnights a year. During our yearly March training day, new volunteers learn skills and tips to help them effectively and safely guide bike camping adventures with us.
We have lower commitment volunteer opportunities such as leading day rides, service rides, or tabling at events which have about one hour or less prep and the events usually last 3-5 hours.
All new guides are encouraged to attend or at least review the slide deck from our big Month of March Training each year. Also, in order to guide on an overnight, you are expected to have done one OOFD overnight as a participant first.
All guides for the Family and Adaptive Program will be required to pass a background check as well as to closely review our ASAP Policy (Adaptive Sports Abuse Prevention).
OOFD provides training funds for any guides to get CPR/First Aid Certified as well as various other related trainings such as local mechanics trainings, etc. We will offer suggestions and support in making any related training you want to take happen.
Be sure to join us the first Tuesday of every month for our Monthly Hangs at various places around the city. A very fun, casual time chatting about biking, camping, adventures, life in general. The hangs usually run from 7:30-10pm. This is a great way to meet the team and learn more about how you can best get involved.
Also, we have internal Slack communication where guides communicate to prepare for rides and share other rides and fun social things. Also, we spend a lot of time bike camping together throughout the year either co-guiding or as participants on rides.