RAC State Director or Regional Chair
Are you passionate about paddling and dedicated to fostering a vibrant and safe paddling community in your state or region? The ACA Regional Activity Council (RAC) is seeking dynamic individuals to serve as state and local representatives of the ACA. There are opportunities to serve as ACA State Director, Regional Director or to serve as a volunteer on the ACA State Council or on a national RAC committee. These volunteers serve as the Connectors who connect leadership among paddlesports communities and stakeholders in your area.
Regional Chairs serve as a key liaison between the state and local leaders and ACA National Staff, and also serve to mentor State Directors and state level volunteers on how to be most effective when serving on behalf of grassroots paddlers.
State Directors serve as the point person to help all paddling leaders in a state come together to join forces for stewardship, training or public policy opportunities. Every State Director will need a group of savvy local paddling leaders to serve on the ACA State Council. This can happen formally or informally based on the dynamics in your state, but offers the State Director a team of volunteers to help divide and conquer the workload and opportunities.
All in all, these leaders at the state and local level play a pivotal role in amplifying the voice of paddlers, advocating for their needs, and expanding access to paddler training and stewardship opportunities.
State Director Roles & Responsibilities:
- Facilitate communication and engagement among statewide paddling stakeholders.
- Advocate for paddling community interests with policymakers and media.
- Support paddler training initiatives and expand instructor resources in your state/region.
- Serve as a focal leader to represent paddlers when we need to come together on public policy issues.
- Promote paddler stewardship opportunities.
- Develop a diverse State Council to advance the ACA mission in your state/region.
- Foster partnerships with governmental agencies and environmental organizations in your state/region.
- Represent state paddling interests to ACA regional and national leaders.
- Participate in ACA regional meetings to contribute to broader initiatives.
Qualifications:
- Current ACA Member
- 18 years of age or older
- Volunteering in your state of residence
- Preferred: Experience working with local media, social media, connecting different stakeholder groups, and/or working on boating related public policy issues. Often a good fit for an experienced leader from a paddling club, from the US Coast Guard Auxiliary, or from another regional organization that has been working to connect stakeholders.
Other Volunteer Opportunities in the RAC
State and local volunteers can also serve on the ACA State Council and bring expertise on projects in a particular area such as education initiatives, public policy initiatives, social media strategies, etc. Alternatively, some State Directors recruit the paddling club Presidents in their region to advise them on the State Council. The State Council is designed to offer local volunteers a flexible way to help foster an aspect of the ACA Mission in your area. At the national level, the Regional Chairs of the RAC come together to serve on committees focused on different growth areas for the ACA regionally, such as regional competitions, regional communications, regional diversity outreach and more. Experienced regional paddling leaders often find a good fit helping serve on these RAC Committees to grow these opportunities for other regional leaders nationwide.