Statement about the AMC (Appalachian Mountain Club), AMC Boston, and the Local Walks/Hikes Committee - Robert Winters

I first started participating in AMC Boston Chapter Local Walks/Hikes (LW/H) about 20 years ago (2002). For many years, I would typically go on one or two hikes every weekend as well as some evening walks in Boston and Cambridge. I created this page as a successor to one that had earlier been set up by Jack Boudreau to provide brief hike listings not only to members but also to non-members as an introduction to what Local Walks/Hikes had to offer. In fact, it was through that page (and Google) that I first learned about Local Walks and why I became an AMC member. After a few years I was leading my own hikes and was eventually convinced to be member of the Local Walks/Hikes Committee as one of its bimonthly schedulers back in the days when there still were printed listings in the AMC Outdoors magazine and in “The MUD” - the Boston Chapter newsletter.

One of the things I witnessed even in my earliest days with AMC was that many active members would refer to the AMC leadership (then based at 5 Joy Street in Boston) simply as “corporate” as if to suggest that they were more interested in growing and protecting their assets than providing recreational opportunities for their members. Since all I knew about AMC back then were the hikes I did and the people I met on those hikes – many of whom would become great friends – I didn’t really understand what was so “corporate” about AMC, though I did know that some long-time hike leaders eventually chose to plan and lead hikes outside of AMC. With the advent of Meetup Groups and other vehicles for organizing hikes, walks, and other gatherings it seemed as though the AMC walks were becoming relics of another age. Even “Joy Street” became a relic when AMC sold its historic location on Beacon Hill for big bucks and relocated to an office building in City Square, Charlestown. From a participant’s point of view, this was of little consequence because of the disconnection between membership and “corporate.” When you’re on a trail, it doesn’t really matter who occupies the seats on Joy Street or City Square.

I recall a time when I received an email blast from AMC advocating some position relating to conservation (electric transmission lines delivering power through scenic areas). It struck me that AMC was taking a stand on something and communicating this to its members, but I had no idea how such advocacy came about within AMC or how any member could participate in such matters. After all, I was just going on hikes. So I contacted AMC to ask about this and never received a response. That was my first taste of how insular things were at AMC.

After being on the LW/H Committee for a few years, I was eventually drafted as Chair which I did for about 4 years before drafting Jim Loughlin to succeed me as Chair. When I became Chair was also when I became the main “Approver” of hike listings and entered most of the hike listings in the Online Trip Listing (OLTL) System - later renamed the Activities Database (ActDB). Because many of our Leaders preferred to send me their listings rather than enter them into the system, I created web pages to assist our hike Leaders in planning their hikes so that we could provide activities for any open weekend dates and minimize conflicts with other popular hike leaders. Mike Stadelmaier could generally be depended upon to fill out any open dates. That system worked well for many years, and I still continue to maintain those pages - since it was always my intention to return to the scheduling of hikes when the pandemic eased.

When I took over as Chair I asked other active members the simple question: “Who is on the Local Walks/Hikes Committee?” Though by-laws or Standing Rules existed somewhere, nobody seemed to recall much about them - primarily because our function was so simple, i.e. generating hike listings and occasionally doing some form of “leadership appreciation” - even though the satisfaction of leading hikes and the fellowship of the participants was really the only appreciation most of our Leaders actually cared about. Nonetheless, I thought it best to get some clarity about who was actually on the committee, how responsibilities were distributed, and who would serve in backup roles when needed. The model I used (which was far more inclusive than what exists now) was that the LW/H Committee consisted of all past Chairs, all active schedulers, the current Chair, Secretary, and Treasurer, anyone helping out with social media, and “frequent hike leaders” - even though most of these frequent hike leaders opted out of committee work in favor of just leading hikes. Though the committee didn’t meet very often, we were democratic and inclusive (and we would often meet informally on the hikes we led). We did suffer the same fate that many organizations do, i.e. nobody really wanted to be Chair - especially if it required attendance at monthly Chapter meetings. The Chair also had to field complaints from participants, but thankfully those were minor and infrequent. When I chaired the LW/H Committee we had some independence from the Boston Chapter bureaucrats and even had our own bank account (I served as Treasurer after my time as Chair). Over time the trend in the Boston Chapter has been away from independence and initiative in favor of centralization and bureaucracy.

The main things I remember about the AMC Boston Chapter during my time as LW/H Chair was that we went from having a very reasonable and generous Chapter Chair (Paul Dale) to a nightmare named Jeff Carlson whose primary mission seemed to be to eliminate as many activity committees as possible - even though some of these committees consisted of people who had known each other and participated in events together for decades. Understanding human nature was not Carlson’s strong suit. I have met few people as wooden and insensitive. Even when the AMC was going though a “rebranding” (can you possibly get more “corporate” than that?), Carlson could not even effectively communicate what it was that AMC wanted to do other than change its logo. Once I was able to discern this, I modified the logo on the LW/H web page and, in fact, we were the only Boston Chapter activity committee to have done so for a long time after that. Dissatisfaction with Carlson reached such a point that a “referee” of sorts (and former AMC President) was asked to attend at least one monthly chapter meeting to quell the rebellion. We also used to have an Ombudsman in the Boston Chapter, but there is no evidence that this role exists anymore.

My exclusion from the LW/H Committee and my role in scheduling hikes was done unilaterally by Lisa Fleischman in January 2020 during her mercifully brief reign as Chair. No explanation was ever given. With COVID coming and hikes suspended I chose to let it go at the time, but I had every intention of returning to lead and schedule hikes when the pandemic eased and when the leadership of the committee changed. They have since modified the Standing Rules of the LW/H Committee so that everyone on the committee now serves at the pleasure of its current Chair with no mechanism for breaking through that bubble. Essentially the “corporate” culture of the AMC has trickled down to its Chapters and to at least this activity committee.

When I was informed that Ms. Fleischman had left and that her hand-picked successor Judith Watson had taken over the reins of the committee, I assumed that when I was ready to return to leading and scheduling hikes I would be welcomed back. I contacted Chair Judith Watson last month and after a few days received a response that was about as “corporate” as it gets, i.e. that I could lead hikes but that there was no place for me in scheduling or in any other role on the LW/H Committee. I asked Marc Hurwitz (long-time hike leader, former Chair, and current LW/H Committee member) to intervene on my behalf and that yielded the same response with even greater emphasis. Though I offered to assist in other ways on the LW/H Committee - ways in which they said they needed the help on their official site - I was rejected again. It has become quite clear that I have been blacklisted.

At this point I see no path forward with AMC and the LW/H Committee, though I did (hesitantly) renew my membership in February. (I may ask for a refund.) Almost all of the LW/H listings are now registration only, very limited in size, and led by the same handful of people. So, as more than a few people before me have chosen to do, I may soon simply abandon the “corporate” and clannish AMC in favor of scheduling my own hikes via Meetup and various forms of social media. Then again, perhaps there will one day be another change in leadership of the LW/H Committee along with changes to its structure so that it becomes more inclusive. If that day comes and if someone has the integrity to tear up the blacklist, perhaps I’ll return. - Robert Winters (Apr 10, 2022)