Sierra Couples: where Sierra Club meets family
Types of Activities | Subscribe | Leaders | Liability | Carpool | Club Membership
About Sierra Couples
What happens when young Sierra Clubbers grow up? Many of us form families, while preserving our love for nature. That's what Sierra Couples is about.
Sierra Couples began when Cupid shot some arrows of love among the Sierra Singles. A number of us met partners there and married. No longer part of the singles scene, we formed our own section and welcomed couples (married and unmarried, with and without children). Since then, we've become one big, happy family, and we're still growing. The first of the babies born to the group's original members is now 26 years old — and the most recent baby now is 16 years old! These second generation kids now sometimes join us on trips and at get-togethers.
We meet at least once a month for anything — and everything — that gives us an excuse to get together! From a New Year's Day brunch to our anniversary in February to a St. Patrick's Day celebration in Murphys in March. From wildflower hikes in the spring and easy-going summer car camps (all within one to three hours of the Bay Area), to hikes down Mount Tam, winery tours, and outdoor concerts. From Bastille Day costume parties to Thanksgiving feasts, we have something for all seasons! Through all these activities we seek to promote knowledge, appreciation, and protection of the natural environment as well as fellowship among Sierra Club members, guests, and prospective members. Each event is hosted by a member of the section, and usually we bring food to share (our potlucks tend to be gourmet feasts).
We have a lot of fun and one very special added bonus: we get to watch our children play and grow up together and experience the great outdoors while we step back — for a moment or two — from our hectic adult lives to relax and enjoy the unsurpassed beauty of our beloved backyard, Northern California.
Types of Monthly Activities
We have family-oriented activities throughout the year led by the different families within our group. Our typical year includes activities like:
- Wildflower Hike and Picnic
- Halloween Party
- Kite Flying
- Oktoberfest
- Pre-Thanksgiving Potluck
- Car Camps
- New Year's Day Champagne Brunch
- Anniversary Potluck Celebration
Camping
During the spring and summer months we go camping to locations throughout Northern California such as:
- Lake Del Valle
- Clear Lake
- Pinnacles National Monument
- Lake Tahoe
- Portola State Park
- Samuel P. Taylor State Park
How to Subscribe to the Sierra Couples Activity Schedule
E-MAIL SUBSCRIPTIONS
To subscribe to our email Activity Schedule, please send us your email address and a donation of $5 (made out to "Sierra Couples") to Roy French, Treasurer, 1718 Addison St., Berkeley, CA 94703. Upon receipt of your email address and donation, you will be added to our email subscription list and will start receiving our Sierra Couples Activity Schedule. Our monthly, bi-monthly, and sometimes tri-monthly, Activity Schedule will come to you in both the body of the email and as a colorful jpeg file.
If you see anything in our Activity Schedule that you would like to attend, be sure to contact the activity leader listed to let them know you are coming. If you have any questions about subscribing to our Activity Schedule or about Sierra Couples in general, or if you would like to be removed from our email list, please send an email to Frank Alexander.
ABOUT OUR SUBSCRIPTION FEES
Donated fees we collect from our subscribers not only go toward the printing of our Activity Schedules for those who are subscribing to the printed version, but more importantly are used to back-up our Car Camp Leaders who initially use their own money as far as 6 to 7 months in advance to reserve campsites. In case a campout is rained out, or there are unexpected cancellations or there are other unforeseen disasters that leave our Camp Leaders high and dry, so to speak, our funds are used to help bail them out on a case-by-case basis and even then we cannot guarantee that we will or can totally compensate them for their loss. And also just as importantly, if not more so, we use the money we collect to support Sierra Club causes and those of similar conservation organizations.
Liability Waiver Policy
Sierra Club now requires that all participants in any activity sponsored by any of Sierra Club’s Activity Sections, such as ourselves, must sign a liability waiver form before participating in the activity. At the bottom of this paragraph is a link to two forms in a pdf file format. The pdf files can be easily opened by Adobe’s Acrobat Reader, which, if you don’t already have, can be downloaded for free from Adobe.com When downloading the free program, be sure to get one that is designed to operate on your type of computer (PC or Mac) and operating system (Windows XP or Vista, or for the Mac, System10).
Note that by attending any Sierra Couples event, it is assumed that you downloaded and signed the liability wavier as described above and thereby waive all your rights to liability coverage for the event. The forms linked below consist of a group form and a personal liability form. Either one is acceptable. The group form is usually provided by the leader of the activity and records everyone’s signature on one form. The personal form is usually brought to the activity by the person(s) who come to the activity and is just as valid as the group form.
Download the individual waiver or group waiver.
Carpool Policy
In the interests of facilitating the logistics of some of our outings, participants in our activities may make carpooling arrangements. Please note that the Sierra Club does not have insurance for carpooling arrangements and assumes no liability for them. Carpooling, ride sharing or anything similar is strictly a private arrangement among the participants. Participants assume the risks associated with this travel.
Sierra Club Membership
You need not be a Sierra Club member to receive our Activity Schedule or to attend our activities. But you do need to be a Sierra Club member to lead activities for us or to be one of our officers. Note that our donated subscription fee and Sierra Club's membership dues are not tax deductible as a charitable donation.