Club Goals
Purpose
- To provide an opportunity to experience, appreciate, and learn about the outdoors
while teaching saftey, survival skills, and team work.
- To experience friendships based on trust and common goals.
- To enjoy the outdoors while getting a break from Oakland and being with close friends.
Activities
Climbing, Caving, White Water Rafting, Hiking, Skydiving, Camping, Capture the Flag,
Ultimate Frisbee, Paintball, and anything else people can think of.
Meetings
Every Tuesday night at 8:30 there will be a meeting to discuss upcoming events and
activities. For the first two months, we meet on the William Pitt Lawn. Once the weather
cools down, we move our meetings into 1500 Posvar Hall.
Membership
Any person affiliated with the University of Pittsburgh that want to experience the
outdoors.
If you would like to take a look at our Club Constitution you are welcome to do so as well.
Club History | Frequently Asked Questions
To Join Us
In order to become an active member of the Pitt Outdoors Club, you need to satisfy all the
following stipulations:
- Be a current Student, Staff, or Faculty member of the University of Pittsburgh
- Sign a waiver form, provided by the University of Pittsburgh.
- Pay your dues of $15.00 a year, or $10.00 a semester.
If you are able to satisfy all the above following, all that is left to do is to attend
our weekly meetings, held on Tuesday evenings from 8:30pm until approximately 9:00pm.
Location depends on the weather, normally the first two months we hold meetings on the WPU
Patio and once the weather cools down, we move to 1500 Posvar Hall.
Club History | Club Goals
Frequently Asked Questions
I have class/prior engagements on Tuesday nights so I can't come to the meetings.
Can I still join?
If you are unable to attend our meetings for whatever reason, but would still like to
become an active member, you may E-Mail POC to be put on our distribution list. We send e-mails out every week outlining what was discussed in the meeting that week and announce any trips that we will be planning that weekend, or if they are larger trips, what will be occurring in a few weeks. We also post the minutes of every meeting on the webpage the night of the meeting.
I have never done any of this stuff. Will that keep me from doing any of your
activities?
Do not let the fact that you have never participated in any of the events the club
offers scare you away. As long as you are interested in doing them, you are welcome to
join. We accept people of all skill levels. Many of our current members started off never
having done any outdoors activities, and now they have excelled in the activities they
enjoy and are teaching others what they have learned.
I do not own any of my own gear. Will this be a problem?
If you do not own any of your own gear, it is okay. The club provides most of the gear
required to do the trips we run. If by chance we do not own something, it is possible to
be rented. On the opposite side, if you do have your own gear, you are more then welcome
and encouraged to use it.
How are dues only 10 dollars? Will there be more charges tacked on at a later date?
Most of the trips that we run are free of charge. The dues help pay for transportation,
and to reimburse gas to the people who drive their own vehicles places for the club. There
are some trips that will require a nominal fee. Trips that equipment that we as a club do
not own, and must therefore rent from the company we utilize, like rafts for whitewater
rafting, or campsite fees to National Parks when we stay overnight someplace.
Are there any benefits to becoming an active member of the club?
As an active member of the club, you are eligible to go to various Indoor Climbing Walls
in the city at greatly discounted rates. Most students pay 15 dollars to enter the gyms,
you as a POC member are only charged approximately 5 dollars. You also will meet a lot of
new people whom you can become very close friends with. These people are after all those who will be holding your life in their hands - it is kind of hard to not bond with them.
Do you do anything else besides outdoorsy things?
We are mainly an outdoor adventure organization, but that is not all that we do. We are
also proud to say that we do volunteer work that deals with the environment. We help
rebuild trails in national parks, and we clean up our own City Parks. We also donate all
the money we make from our
Annual Scottish Games to the Access Fund, an organization dedicated to keeping climbing areas open and accessible to the climbing community. Every year, we also sponsor a table at the Hand-in-Hand Festival, an event allowing the physically and mentally disabled to have a day of fun and not worry about their disabilities.
