September 10, 2020
The Angeles Chapter’s own Jane Simpson received the Oliver Kehrlein Award at the annual National Sierra Club Awards Ceremony on Wednesday, September 9th, 2020. This award which honors service to the Sierra Club’s Outings Program, is named after Oliver Kehrlein (1882-1967), an avid mountaineer and trip leader. Kehrlein also served as a member of the Sierra Club board of directors from 1938-1958.
This year’s awards recognize those who have made outstanding contributions to the Sierra Club and its mission. Jane joins an incredible group of honorees affecting change across the country and across the world. Her persistence, fresh thinking, and partnership has left a lasting impact on Sierra Club Outings programs at the local and national level. Here are just a few of Jane’s contributions in her many years of service with the club:
Jane chaired the Wilderness Training Committee (WTC) from ’09-’11 and again from ’18-’20. She conducted meetings, trainings, updated policy procedures, maintained fiscal responsibility and was able to donate funds to support our chapter. She chaired the Outings Management Committee (OMC) from ’14-’16 conducting regular committee meetings and organizing the annual Chapter Outings Assembly. During that time, she updated the OMC, Leadership Training and Safety website, revised the Outing Governance Policy, conducted OMC elections. Jane is currently updating training materials for the Leadership Training Committee (LTC) while also serving as an LTC navigation examiner, helping candidates practice their skills and pass checkoffs.
Jane in her natural habitat; Jane Simpson all rights reserved
Jane has also helped the chapter usher in the digital age. She is the LTC webmaster and an admin to the chapter website. She edited and designed the entire outings section of the new Angeles website, and played an important role in ensuring a smooth transition from the printed schedule of activities to the Online Activities Reservation System (OARS) to Campfire Events. She continues to be a database liaison for the Chapter.
As a filmmaker, videographer, photographer and media talent, she serves as a powerful resource for issues of safety, inclusion of the community in outings, effective use of social media and more. She’s developed and edited videos for the Angeles Chapter Outings and WTC and created a number of images that have become iconic headers on our chapter site.
Ring the bell! Jane at 10,180'; Jane Simpson all rights reserved
At the National level Jane has working relationships with various IT teams, Program Safety, Accountability and Outings. She has been working on the new National Outings Leader Training (OLT) which aims to implement Theory of Change and overhaul language, terms, as well as goals to focus appealing to more diverse communities.
“Jane Simpson is the kind of volunteer organizations dream about. The Sierra Club really scored with this one,” said Dawna Knapp, Program Associate on the Constituent Outreach Systems Team. “The way she goes out of her way to make Outings a success for everyone is admirable and worthy of all the awards you can give her.”
Join us in congratulating Jane on this achievement in the comments section below, and share this post using #SierraAwards2020 on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook to congratulate all of the 2020 award winners! Congrats again, Jane!