Welcome to the third edition of your newsletter.  We are into the second month of 2007; hopefully the resolutions you have set yourself are being actioned, if not our lead article may provide you with some inspiration!  Service is one of the five objectives of all Outward Bound courses,  below we profile Outward Bound alumni contributing in different ways through being of service.  If you have any stories about what you are doing, or someone you know is doing we would love to hear them.  Brand new this month are our downloadable desktop images, a great way to invoke positive thoughts every time you use your computer!  If there is a photo you would like to share with others please send it through to us.

Enjoy!

Feature
To Serve To Strive and Not to Yield

What's New?
Downloadable desktop images
Are you a member?

Competitions
Competition Results
Kathmandu Summit Club Membership offer

Regular pieces
Something to share
Where are we in early 2007?
Website Tip - Connecting with Watchmates

“We are visitors on this planet, we are here for 90 or 100 years at the very most. During that period we must try to do something good, something useful, with our lives.  If you contribute to other people’s happiness you will find the true goal, the true meaning of life.”  Dalai Lama

Service is an important part of Outward Bound and Outward Bound New Zealand courses.  The concept of offering service to the community became a part of the Outward Bound programme as a result of Kurt Hahn, the founder of Outward Bound.  Hahn wanted to balance out the physically demanding nature of the course with a concern for the social and emotional growth of students.  In addition, the large majority of students enjoy ‘giving something back’.  Depending on the length of your course you may have been involved in many different projects or activities related to ‘service’.  These may have included cutting tracks, helping at Linkwater School or another local school, painting Outward Bound or local buildings, helping at old people’s homes, tree planting, beach clean ups, gardening, assisting local residents, wood chopping, and the list continues.  Do you remember what your watch did…?

In the words of Charlotte Boyes, OB graduate September 2006 and Coordinator for the Central South Island for Youthline:
“The thing about volunteering is that when it comes to doing something without pay, people choose things they are really passionate about. For me, volunteering is great, because that volunteer work became my career. It's awesome to be paid for something I would choose to do anyway!

I would say, if you have ever said to yourself 'I feel like I need something else', try getting involved in your community and giving freely of yourself and then wait for your returns!”

Volunteers are essentially people who do volunteer work; work done of one’s free will, unpaid, for the common good.  Service can be informal or formal, volunteering is often a formal way of being of service. 

Stevo O’Rourke, former Outward Bound Social Sector Manager, OB graduate and now Director of Ocular says “As I got more involved I realised that volunteering is also a good way to contribute something back to the community we live in.  There were things I complained about like litter on the beach or youth crime and I realised that I could actively work to change those things.  By informal volunteering, picking up litter during a walk along the beach or formal projects like youth mentoring or training, I could actually have a real impact on social issues.

My time at Outward Bound really awakened my sense of social responsibility and teamwork. On returning home I joined a voluntary committee arranging events in the city and did some voluntary work writing training for the Volunteer Centre.”

Organisations like regional Volunteer Centres are able to help you.  Your best starting point is their website, http://www.volunteernow.org.nz/contact for your local Centre, or contact your local Citizens Advice Bureau or visit your local library.

There are a large number of reasons why people engage in more formal levels of service.  Some of the more popular reasons provided by Volunteer Wellington are, to gain work experience, develop new skills, support worthwhile causes, get to know people, gain recognition, help people in need, keep active…this is obviously unique to each individual.  Ironically the reasons why people don’t volunteer, Volunteer Wellington suggests, is that people have a fear of stepping out of their comfort zones.  Exactly what Outward Bound prepares you for!  Lack of self esteem, being bogged down by dependents or commitments involved in earning a living are some more reasons that have been identified by Mary Woods, author of Volunteers A Guide for Volunteers and Their Organisations.

Hopefully your Outward Bound experience created a positive reference in regard to service.

Charlotte commented:
“OB really affirmed for me that I am in the right place with my work and that I could make a life out of my passions. I can see that for me my life is always going to involve volunteering in different capacities because it connects me to what I am most passionate about.

It definitely gives people a powerful experience of community, and that's what volunteering is about.”

The key to your involvement is to do something you feel passionate about, something that is of direct interest to you and something that you can see is also helping you.

Charlotte continues “Imagine how our country would be if all of our volunteer efforts stopped for just one day, or one hour...volunteering is about responding to needs and filling gaps and I would definitely say it acts like glue for our community.”

Remember…from a small acorn, an oak tree grew.

Congratulations to the winners of a copy of 'Finding True North' Amanda Bennett Discovery course, March 2006; Trina Lowry Aoraki Bound course March 2006; Tui Fleming Navigator course, March 2005.

So you know for next time, Outward Bound's values are:
Compassion
Greatness
Responsibility
Integrity

Through our partnership with Kathmandu we are excited to offer a complimentary membership to the Kathmandu Summit Club to people who have completed an Outward Bound course! Summit Club offers substantial discounts and benefits to members including:

• 25% off full price Kathmandu Sleeping Bags, Tents, Travel Packs, Rucksacks, Travel Accessories, Cargo Bags, Wheeled Packs, Urban Bags, Active Packs & Daypacks
• 10% off all other full priced stock
• Special members days where you will receive 20% off all full priced stock plus Superspecials
• Early notification of sales
• Kathmandu catalogues and regular newsletters featuring travel & outdoor stories, competitions & reviews of the latest Kathmandu products

As a special offer to My Watchmates who may have missed the opportunity to join, you can take advantage of this fantastic and complimentary membership by clicking here and sending the email back to us including your full name, address, post code and date of birth.

This offer is open until 30 March 2007 and only available to people who have completed an Outward Bound course. Personal information you supply is only used by Kathmandu to send members information about Kathmandu products and to share outdoors, travel and adventure information. For full Privacy Statement visit www.kathmandu.co.nz.

Are you pining to see Anakiwa again or a memory of your time at Outward Bound whenever you turn on your computer...then download one of our brand new desktop images! 

More images will be available every month, so bookmark this page!

Click here for the memories!

Tracy and Phill are hitting the road again shortly and would love to see as many of you as possible!  Locations and dates are below, please contact Tracy to let her know if you can spare an hour to help out.

March 10 - 11  Hamilton Women's Lifestyle Expo  Claudelands Events Centre

March 24 - 25  Tauranga Women's Lifestyle Expo  QE2 Stadium 

At the end of course everyone is asked to complete a quality control form.  The quote below came from this form, and we think it is all encompassing:

"I love OB, it's tough and I hated it at times, but I love it now!!"

Are you aware that you can become either an Annual or Life member of Outward Bound? 

By becoming a member you not only receive member benefits but you are also helping Outward Bound to remain a national icon and a 'must do' experience for all New Zealanders.

Why become a member?

Life membership ($500 incl GST)
You will receive an official Outward Bound Life Members vest (value $90).
10% discount off the RRP of all Outward Bound branded products from the Outward Bound shop.
Subscription to 'The Cutter' our twice yearly official newsletter.
A copy every year of our Annual Report.
An invitation to attend the Trust's AGM.
Above all the chance to stay involved in a great organisation!

Annual Membership ($52/year)
5% discount off the RRP of all Outward Bound branded products from the Outward Bound shop.
Subscription to 'The Cutter' our twice yearly official newsletter.
An invitation to attend the Trust's AGM.
Above all the chance to stay involved in a great organisation!

If you are interested, memberships can be purchased online by clicking here or call us on 0800 OUTWARD (688-927).

We know many of you have had some great reunions with watchmates by using the MyWatchmates facilities to get in touch.

Here is a quick explanation of how it works.

In your profile (set up at the point of registering and easily updated by clicking ‘my profile’) you can set privacy options for all your phone numbers, email addresses and address.

An explanation of the privacy options you can select:
All MyWatchmates Members, this information will be visible to any MyWatchmates registered member when they click on your name in either your watchlist or their list of ‘Other OB Mates’.

Restricted – Ask me first, this detail will not be visible when a member clicks on your name.  If a member would like to get in touch with you, they just click the ‘request contact details’  link that will appear next to your name.  This will generate an email from the MyWatchmates site to your email address, letting you know the member would like to get in touch.   When you receive the email, if you want to allow the member to see your contact details you:
- Login to MyWatchmates,
- click on the ‘pending’ link which will appear next to their name (either in your watchlist or list of OB Mates) 
- accept or decline their request.

No one – if you select this option, this detail will only be available to Outward Bound staff.  Even if someone requests to see your details, accepting their request will not make the detail visible.

We look forward to hearing more stories of your reunions - keep them coming!

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