Outdoor Adventure Center: Common Adventure

The Outdoor Adventure Center is one of the few programs in the country based on the common adventure concept.

A Common Adventure trip is two or more individuals working cooperatively to acheive common goals and sharing the expenses and responsibilities of a trip as equitably as possible.

Shared responsibilities include: helping to plan and organize the trip, cooking, washing dishes, loading and unloading vehicles, buying food, cleaning up the equipment after the trip, etc.

There are no paid guides. Any instruction or advice provided by any member of the group is given gratuitously in a spirit of cooperation.

There is no designated "leader" who makes all of the decisions; instead, leadership remains fluid and the group makes the decisions democratically among themselves.

Members of the group do not hold one another, or anyone else, liable for accidents.

Initiating Trip : The person who developes the idea for a trip is known as the trip initiator. (He/she is not the leader of the trip and will contribute their share of the responsibilities and costs of the trip.) The trip initiator will put together information on their trip such as equipment needed, experience needed, estimated cost, location, pre-trip meeting time, etc.

Posting Trip: The trip will then be posted on the Common Adventure Center trip board, calendar, and other appropriate forms of advertisement.

Sign-ups: Once the trip is posted, people who are interested in the trip can sign up.

Pre-trip meeting: A few days before the trip, a pre-trip meeting is held. In the meeting, everyone that will be participating on the trip comes together to discuss all aspects of the trip and to make final decisions on location, activities, food, vehicles, etc. Individuals interested in the trip will also have the chance to find out what the trip is really about and can decide if the trip is for them or not. The meeting helps the trip participants learn what clothing and equipment are appropriate for that particular trip. Liability and risk forms are also read over and signed by participants at the pre-trip meeting.

Trip Leadership: During the trip, different members of the group may take the leadership role as some occurence on the trip requires their individual experience in the matter. Major decisions are made democratically as a group. Everyone's opinion is heard, although persons with specialized knowledge will have some precedence on the particular subject.

Trip Safety: Common Adventure trips are safer than other forms of trips because everyone is working for the common good of the group. One of the shared responsibilities of the trip is keeping an eye out for each other. Because of the democratic nature of the trip, any participant can feel comfortable about vocalizing their concerns for potential problems.

Learning on the trip: Common Adventure trips create an ideal environment for experiential learning. Their are, of course, no designated teachers, but those on the trip with more experience can share their knowledge and skills with those who have less experience.

Trip Follow-up: The group continues to be involved in the trip even when it's over. If equipment needs to be unloaded, or money divided upevenly between participants, the participants will stick around and continue to share responsibilities.

Yes. Common Adventure trips are best run in small groups. It becomes much more difficult to guide the democratic processes as the group size becomes larger. Six to eight is the ideal size for common adventure groups, but it can be larger. Smaller groups are more effective as all individuals are more easily included. Moreover, keeping groups small is one of the best ways of minimizing environmental impact.

So neither Idaho State University nor its Common Adventure Center receives any money from common adventure trips?

That's right. Common Adventure trips are not a way of making money. If an institution receives money for outdoor trips, then it is no longer a Common Adventure trip.

How do places like Idaho State University run a Common Adventure program if they do not receive any money from it?

ISU students have decided that the Outdoor Adventure Center is as important to them as intramurals, health and counseling services, and intercollegiate sports. The students are willing to allocate some of their student fee money to pay for the program. The Outdoor Adventure Center's budget is supplemented with fundraisers, donations, and revenue from merchandise. In return, we are able to offer lifetime skills, long lasting friendships, a healthy lifestyle, and life changing experiences in the outdoors.

Sure there are. Common Adventure trips are only one approach to outdoor trips. For many people, a Common Adventure trip is impractical. For instance, people who have no experience and would rather someone else do all the planning would be much happier participating on a commercially guided trip.

Another valid approach to outdoor recreation is to offer formal outdoor education classes. While experiential learning takes place on Common Adventure trips, most people will have better luck learning basic skills in classes and workshops taught by experienced teachers.

At Idaho State University we use a combination of classes/workshops and common adventure trips.