Memberships & Events

• Q: Do I need a membership to join events?
  A: No! While our memberships offer many added benefits and value, you are absolutely able to join us for events without one. Our events often have limited space available, and registration is advertised to members first. Non-members can join events we advertise, at our non-member price.
  
  We rely on memberships to help sustain what we do - check out our Memberships page to learn more about the benefits!  If you want to become a member, but simply cannot afford to, we encourage you to check out our Sponsored Membership option on our memberships page. We offer a limited amount of free memberships to those that are genuinely unable to raise enough funds to pay our membership fee.

  
  

• Q: Who are Backcountry Women events for/who can participate?
  A: Our events are exclusively for adults (ages 18+) and include women and other marginalized genders including individuals who identify as transgender, femme/feminine, genderqueer and non-binary. We provide opportunities for connecting with fellow like-minded outdoors enthusiasts while leaving other roles behind for a little while. Connecting with community and your surroundings outdoors is a great way to practice self-care, and our activities provide this opportunity.
  
  
• Q: What do I do if I don't wish to renew my membership?
  A: We don't want to see you go, but if you no longer wish to be a Backcountry Women member, please be sure to log into our website and visit your profile, then suspend your renewal prior to the renewal date (the renewal date information is in your profile). You will receive reminder notices via email to remind you of membership is approaching its renewal date. These emails will include instructions on how to cancel if you wish to. Please be sure our emails are not going into your spam.
  
  You must cancel prior to your renewal date. We are unable to refund membership fees once paid.
  
  
• Q: Why would I pay for something offered by Backcountry Women when I could just go do an activity on my own for free?
  A: When you are paying for a membership or event registration, you are receiving so much more than just a hike or activity - you are allowing us to provide valuable content, activities, and workshops both on our social platforms and in-person. We provide opportunities to connect with a community, as well as learn, grow, achieve personal goals, and participate in activities being planned and carefully organized for you that you may not try on your own. Endless hours are put into developing our events, activities, workshops and courses. Backcountry Women is more than just an outdoors group, we are highly skilled and certified with the goal of providing you with the best experience possible. All of your purchases go towards supporting our goals and help to lift Backcountry Women up to its full potential.

  
  It's important to remember that it costs money to run and grow, so thank you to everyone who joins in on our events and purchases memberships. Without you, our community and offerings wouldn't be where they are today and we are so grateful to have the opportunity to connect with each and every one of you!

  
  

EVENT PARTICIPATION 

• Q: What do I do when I register for an event and can no longer make it?
  A: Upon registering for an event, please check your email for a registration confirmation email, and save this email in a dedicated folder for Backcountry Women events so that you can refer back to it later. Your registration confirmation email will include your event contact's information.
  
  You must communicate with the event organizer contact via email regarding any changes in your attendance. Our cancellation policy is stated when signing up for an activity which participants confirm and agree to during registration.
  
  
• Q: Do you cancel for weather related reasons?
  A: Activities are offered throughout every season, including during the cold, heat, and rain. Weather is assessed carefully by our leaders leading up to an event/activity. We reserve the right to cancel an event due to any concerning inclement weather, poor conditions, and other risk management concerns. Credits towards another event will be offered in the event we cancel.

  
  Please check the weather forecast immediately prior to an activity to ensure that you are prepared. Be sure to keep checking your emails in case a leader wants to reach you with an update or important notice about your event.
  
  

• Q: What is expected of me as an event participant or member?
  A: By participating in any Backcountry Women activities, you automatically agree to follow our Member Code of Conduct. Please read the details, and reach out if you have any questions.
  
  
• Q: Can I bring my dog to an activity/event?
  A: It really depends! We assess the appropriateness of having a dog join an activity based on a number of factors and will state in the event description if we are allowing dogs to join. Our activities are participant focused and we want the best experience for everyone. If a participant does not want a dog(s) to attend due to fear or allergies, Backcountry Women will respect that request and ask that participants keep their dog(s) at home.

  
  When dogs are allowed to join, there are rules that we enforce for everyone's safety and enjoyment. For example, dog(s) must be kept on a leash and in the participant’s control at all times (NO RETRACTABLE LEASHES), unless in a designated off-leash area in a dog park — and then only if the dog reliably responds under voice commands; this is to ensure the safety of all participants, dogs and the general public. We reserve the right, at the group leader’s sole discretion, to request owners of dogs who show behavior of concern to refrain from attending.
  

Contacting Event Organizers & checking your email after registration

• Q: How can I communicate with event organizers/leaders?
  A: If you are registered or waitlisted for an event, or have a question for an event leader prior to registering for that event, and need to get a hold of the organizer you can find their contact information on our Who We Are webpage. Please do not use a Facebook message or other social media channels to contact an organizer. You must reach out to us via email.
  
  
• Q: After registering for an event what further information do I need?

• A: Event attendees are responsible for having a valid e-mail address and for checking e-mail prior to an event. After registering for an event, you will automatically receive an email confirmation and reminders with any further details (be sure to check your spam!). 
  
  

Online Store

If you have any questions about our online shop, see our Online Store FAQ's here.

Posting Rules/conduct, Collaboration + Advertising Requests

At Backcountry Women, we focus on creating a safe & positive space where everyone is free to share their experiences and try new things. We are committed to ensuring that both our in-person activities, as well as online groups are a judgement-free space. For this reason, we have created a Social Media Code of Conduct.

Read our Social Media Code of Conduct here.

• Q: Can I use the Backcountry Women Facebook group (aka Backcountry Women's free community forum) to post something I want to promote?

• A: As a general rule, you are not allowed to advertise your / another organization or business' products, events or services in this group. We have created this space on Facebook as a way to further connect our community beyond our events and to share ideas, inspiration and knowledge in addition to keeping you in the loop regarding what Backcountry Women has coming up. We focus our promotional efforts on Backcountry Women events or organizations that we have directly partnered with.

Want to Collaborate or Hoping We’ll Share Your Event/Product/Service?

• Q: Can you share something I'd like to promote? Or, can we collaborate on an initiative I have in mind?

• A: We are always happy to consider collaborations and would love to hear any great ideas that you have!

Prior to reaching out, please consider why you would like to collaborate with us, if your product/idea matches our current initiatives, and if your values & goals align with those of Backcountry Women.

All requests can be sent to ashley.backcountrywomen@gmail.com

Is Backcountry Women a Non-profit?

Our goal has always been to serve, support and empower others while creating lasting connections in the outdoors community. An incredible amount of time, energy, and expertise are put into our offerings to provide our community with the highest quality events & resources.

We use a portion of our profits to further train and support outdoor leadership, grow our resources in order to achieve organizational goals, sustain our sponsored membership program, build and increase the funds in our Empowerment Fund with the goal of breaking down accessibility barriers, and provide quality experiences for individuals to gain knowledge & confidence in the outdoors.

Keep in mind that you do not have to be a non-profit to do good in the world. We have chosen a for-profit model for a variety of reasons, all of which aim to help us with our mission. There's a variety of ways of structuring an organization, each with their own pros and cons. To read more about the advantages and disadvantages of each, see this article. Thank you for supporting Backcountry Women - without you, we wouldn't be here!

How Do partnerships benefit our community AND HOW ARE PARTNERSHIP DOLLARS ALLOCATED?

Backcountry Women has built our own little community of like-minded individuals and now more than ever, connection is so important. Bringing people together in a safe space where they feel open to trying new things, meeting new people, and sharing their experiences are all things that we focus on.

We believe that the outdoors should be accessible to everyone and are working on breaking down barriers that people may have when it comes to getting outdoors. In addition to offering a variety of activities for people to join, Backcountry Women has an ever-growing Empowerment Fund and Sponsored Memberships that allow us to assist those with financial barriers to ensure that they are still able to get outside and enjoy activities with us.

Any funds that we may receive from partnerships always go back into our community. We focus on reducing barriers, both financial and transportational as we believe the outdoors should be accessible to all.

Our amazing team is what allows us to provide you with quality events & experiences, valuable content, and extra resources - which is why we aim to provide our volunteer activity leaders and contracted support with some form of compensation for their time, expertise, and efforts. Partnership funds also allow for us to provide our leaders with appropriate training and grow our own gear library to be able to provide accessible activity opportunities to those who may not have been able to participate otherwise.

If you have any questions about how our partnerships work or would like to partner with us, please contact ashley.backcountrywomen@gmail.com

Why does Backcountry Women make a land acknowledgement?

The Backcountry Women community has the privilege of spending recreational time in nature in this great land we call home. We strive to be good stewards of the land we live, work and play on by following and educating on Leave No Trace principles. But we acknowledge that this land is the ancestral and traditional homeland of the Indigenous peoples who were here before us; it came to us through broken treaties, widespread massacre and cultural genocide. 

We aim to honour and recognize Indigenous peoples as the historical and traditional stewards of the land, and to cast light on the history of how we came to have access to the land; and therefore we make a land acknowledgement ahead of each of our activities.
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