Category: Justice, Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion

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Statement in Support of our AAPI Community Members

Last June, we released a statement that led with,

Being and feeling safe is a right for all people.
This is not true for many within our community.

Today, we are reaffirming that statement and voicing our support for our Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community members. The murderous rampage on March 17 in Atlanta by a racially-motivated gunman, led to the deaths of eight individuals, six of whom were Asian women. This alone is a horrific and tragic event. But it is not an isolated incident. The United States has a long history of anti-Asian violence and hate which has only intensified during the COVID-19 pandemic.

We are dedicated to actively listening to the Asian members of our community, to receiving feedback, and implementing change. We want you to know that we see you, we hear you, and we are working to become an organization where you feel fully supported and welcome.

Today, we are calling upon our Mazama community to show their support for our AAPI members and to aid in disrupting the cycle of violence and hate. We ask you to act to prevent gender-motivated harassment and violence in our communities, and to learn about the history of racism and violence against Asians in this country. And we ask you to question your everyday interpretations, judgements, and actions as you review the list of resources below.

A few action steps the Mazamas have taken in the last year to address the culture of systemic racism and gender-based violence within our community:

  • Launched an online Preventing Sexual Harassment & Sexual Assault training.
  • Published an Equity Statement that was crafted by our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion team.
  • Supported a Mazama board member and committee member’s enrollment in the Intertwine Alliance Equity & Inclusion Cohort.
  • Supported two staff members attending The Outdoor CEO Diversity Pledge Fundamentals Training.
  • Implemented learnings from that training including updating language in our job postings and accessibility language on our website.
  • Worked with our partner outdoor organizations to schedule a Systemic and Structural Racism 2-day intensive training for our Executive Director and a board member. The learnings from this training will be shared with our membership. (scheduled for October 2021)
  • The Mazama Board voted to sign on to the Outdoor CEO Diversity Pledge.

Several other initiatives, including proposed amendments to our organization’s bylaws, are in progress. This is just the beginning of our work to make the Mazamas a truly welcoming and inclusive place.

What can you do to learn more and provide support to our AAPI community?

ACT
If you witness anti-Asian harassment or violence, you can use the 5 Ds of bystander intervention (from Hollaback! Learn more on their website).

  1. Distract: Find a way to pull attention away from the situation, or the person being attacked.
  2. Delegate: Evaluate the situation and organize others to respond.
  3. Document: Record the incident. Keep a safe distance when recording, and always ask the person targeted what they want you to do with the footage. Do not further victimize an individual by posting a video/audio without their knowledge.
  4. Delay: After the incident, check in with anyone who was affected to show them that their experience and well-being matters, and that you see and value them.
  5. Direct: Step forward in a situation directly and intervene, either physically or verbally.

You can sign up for a virtual Bystander Intervention training jointly organized by Asian Americans Advancing Justice and Hollaback! here.

The Mazamas does not tolerate violence or racism in our community. If you have witnessed or been subject to harassment while participating in our courses, activities, or events, we implore you to file an incident report. To the extent possible, confidentiality will be maintained except as necessary to conduct the investigation and take appropriate remedial action.

You can read the Mazama Harassment Policy and file a report here.

LEARN
Most of us have a lot to learn when it comes to racism, anti-racism, and allyship in the United States, particularly as it relates to the history and prevalence of anti-Asian rhetoric. There are hundreds of important resources available online, in the library, and through your headphones. Here are a few places and statements to get us started:

We also encourage you to learn more about Oregon State Bill 289, which would increase penalties for bias crimes perpetrated on Oregon public lands and provide means for restorative justice. Email your state senator to share your support and encourage them to vote for this bill.

The Mazama staff would like to thank the members of our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion team who continue to hold us accountable and encourage us to use our platform to denounce hate. Their time, efforts, and support are critical to the Mazamas becoming a more inclusive and just organization.

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MAZAMA BYLAWS: Proposed Amendments

Written by Aimee Filimoehala, Mazama Vice President
Printed in the January/February 2021 Mazama Bulletin

The Mazama Executive Council endorses the following proposed amendments to the bylaws. Updating and modernizing the bylaws will allow the organization to attract many new like-minded members, to improve operational efficiency, and to take a definitive step toward increasing diversity and inclusivity in the Executive Council, which is critical for a modern council’s decision-making ability. Understanding the reasoning for these bylaw changes will be facilitated by a town hall meeting in early spring. A special election to vote on the bylaw changes will be held in early May 2021. We continue to look to our past for a foundation, while also reaching to the future as we aspire to challenge ourselves to be better.

Glaciated Peak

According to our current bylaws, an individual must summit a glaciated peak to qualify for Mazama membership. The original intent of this requirement served to foster a sense of community and ensured that all Mazamas shared a love for the mountains. There has been an ongoing and genuine interest from nonmembers to become part of our member community while enjoying outdoor activities being offered through the Mazamas, including:

      • Hiking, backpacking, snowshoeing, and rambling
      • Rock climbing
      • Skiing (Nordic and Backcountry)
      • Canyoneering
      • Outings

Removing the requirement of summiting a glaciated peak allows us to:

      • Remove a barrier to becoming a Mazama, which is in line with the council’s goal to make it easier for participants that share the values of the organization to actively participate in and contribute to the Mazama experience.
      • Directly support our mission of inspiring everyone to love and protect the mountains.
      • Advance efforts of inclusiveness and diversity in our organization regardless of socioeconomic status, physical abilities, age, and outdoor interests.
      • Increase membership while improving both political presence and financial stability.

Our identity is preserved through our behavior and established culture. Other well-established mountaineering organizations such as the American Alpine Club and The Mountaineers have no such requirement and are still considered climbing organizations by their members and the larger community. The Mazamas will continue to recognize climbing achievements through badges and awards, including:

      • Completing the Basic Education Climbing Program,
      • Completing the Intermediate Climbing School,
      • Completing Advanced Rock
      • Summiting a Glaciated Peak,
      • Summiting the Guardian Peaks
      • Summiting the Seven Oregon Peaks
      • Summiting the 16 Northwest Peaks

Operations

Recent unpredictable and unavoidable events have highlighted limitations in conducting day-to-day business given our existing bylaws. In order to improve our ability to comply with bylaws while operating effectively, the Executive Council is recommending we separate some of the day to day operational structure currently dictated in the bylaws into a separate operations document. Recommended changes to the bylaws will:

      • Change the name of the Executive Council to the Board of Directors (Board), and its members will be board members or directors;
      • Allow board communication by electronic means according to Oregon law as needed;
      • Remove the requirement for two authorized signers for all financial transactions and allow the Executive Director or an authorized officer to sign for expenses up to $1,000;
      • Move the creation and management of committees to conduct essential work to an operations document.

Board Makeup

The existing Mazama Bylaws require board members to be a Mazama member in good standing for at least three years. A recommendation to emphasize skillset, applicable experiences, and diverse backgrounds vs. length of time within the organization is being made. The practical needs of our organization require knowledge and proficiency in specialized areas such as fundraising, accounting, and law, to name a few. With the current requirements, we have severely limited our ability to find and recruit the talent that is needed for our board. If we remove these requirements and instead place value on experience vs. length of time with the Mazamas, we will be able to recruit highly skilled board candidates and improve confidence in our members that we are operating in their and the community’s best interests.

Recommended changes to the board makeup include:

      • Removal of the requirement for three years of continuous Mazama membership to run for the board. These nine board members will still need to be voted in by the membership.
      • Three additional board members, who need not be Mazama members, will be appointed by the nine board members for their special skills or experiences, including their connections in the broader non-Mazama community, and they will share the same voting rights and responsibilities. Appointments will be made for three-year terms with the exception of the initial appointments. To stagger vacancies and to provide continuity, the initial appointments will be: first appointee for 1 year; second appointee for 2 years; and third appointee for three years.

Keep an eye out for the official voter guide in the March/April Bulletin. We will be holding a virtual town hall meeting on Wednesday, March 24, 2021, to discuss the proposed bylaw amendments.

If you have questions or comments about the bylaws, please email bylaws@mazamas.org.

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Introducing the Mazama Equity Statement

by Claire Nelson, Education & Culture Manager

In October of 2019, the Mazama DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) Working Group began visioning a statement that called upon our values as an organization towards work that is inclusive, equitable, and anti-racist. After review, the Executive Council approved the statement this October. This statement is at once a recognition of our current cultural climate at the Mazamas, a hopeful view of the future, and a commitment to do better. 

The Equity Statement was a collaborative effort of the Mazama DEI Working Group, past Executive Director Mitsu Iwasaki, the current Mazama staff, and the Executive Council. This document is only our first version, and we look forward to continuing the discussion on how to be a more inclusive and just organization, particularly as we get feedback and engage in dialogue with our community who is most impacted by marginalization and injustice.

Mazama Equity Statement      

By the Mazama DEI Working Group
Adopted by the Mazama Executive Council 10/22/2020

The mission statement of the Mazamas is intrinsically tied to and depends on our organization prioritizing equity, inclusion, and diversity. We can’t inspire everyone to love and protect the mountains without acknowledging the exclusive history of the outdoor industry, and practicing an equitable approach moving forward. This history has created structural and cultural barriers, including indigenous erasure from the places we recreate in and care about so deeply, and stunted the potential for a wide diversity of people to love and protect the mountains.

While we have members and participants of many races, ages, and genders, the Mazamas currently is a largely white, affluent, and able-bodied organization, both in leadership and participation. Many of our structural and cultural practices further white supremacy by marginalizing, excluding, and oppressing the diversity of people who might otherwise participate in our programming. This is a loss to our organization morally and functionally. We believe diversity is important to the Mazamas because it broadens our knowledge, increases our creative ability to innovate, and creates a stronger and safer community for everyone. Diversity is about more than representation, it is fundamentally about inclusion. We can build diversity by practicing inclusion that actively prioritizes and elevates those who have been historically excluded from the Mazamas and the greater outdoor community. 

We are very much in the beginning phases of our journey towards becoming an organization that can inspire everyone to love and protect the mountains. Our goals are to increase the safety and inclusion of all aspects of the Mazama experience by ensuring equitable resource dedication to all groups, intentional programming, and increased representation of traditionally marginalized people in our leadership. The Mazamas will actively recruit members of underrepresented groups to leadership positions within the organization in order to begin the process of creating a truly inclusive direction and vision. We understand that we need to address certain cultural norms, and actively work toward cultivating a culture of physical and psychological safety, where people trust they can participate as their whole selves.

We know that we still have, and will always have much work to do. Thank you for coming on this journey with us.

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A Joint Statement on Climbing Route Names

August 27, 2020

Photos courtesy of the Mountain Educator Alliance (MEA).

The American Alpine Club, Appalachian Mountain Club, Colorado Mountain Club, Mazamas, and The Mountaineers join with those speaking out and taking action against racist, sexist, and otherwise derogatory route names, and we welcome the conversation about how best to move forward as a community. 

Historically in the U.S. climbing community, the opportunity and privilege of naming a route has been given to the first ascensionist. Naming a route is an earned honor, responsibility, and form of artistic expression. When done well, a route’s name tells a story. It often cleverly captures the experience of establishing or climbing the route or a unique characteristic of the formation. At worst, a route name inscribes onto the rock an individual’s prejudice, insecurity, and violence. These names deface the special places where we climb. Names like “N*****s Wall,” “Case of the F*gs,” and “Slant Eyes” signal that not all people are welcome, creating a hostile environment that we should not accept.

Recent movements across our nation, including Black Lives Matter, SafeOutside, and Me Too, have been a catalyst for many individuals and organizations to recognize the institutionalized and systemic oppression built into the foundation of our society.  

Though not a new problem, we are grateful to Erynne Gilpin, Ashleigh Thompson, and Melissa Utomo, along with Brown Girls Climb, Melanin Base Camp, and Natives Outdoors, for bringing focus back to this problematic practice. As individuals and as a community, we must recognize that words matter. The climbing community as a whole is accountable for the language we use to identify and describe the places where we climb. We must own the toxicity in the practice of naming routes. It’s time for change. 

As signers, our 5 organizations represent 150,000 members nationwide. We commit ourselves to building a more respectful community. That includes working collaboratively with climbers across the country to change names of existing routes, providing anti-racism and anti-harassment training for our members and volunteer leaders, and auditing our own publications and websites to determine a process for expunging offensive route names. These changes represent only a starting point. They are a necessary first step toward making the climbing community more inclusive and our crags and mountains welcoming to all.

In unity,

American Alpine Club

Appalachian Mountain Club

Colorado Mountain Club

Mazamas

The Mountaineers