The first thing to do is to remember that - even though you're finally the course leader - it's a three-person (or two-person) production. Remember all the CL's you've worked for and how glad you were when they listened to your ideas. The course will be the fruit of your collective labors, creativity, and ingenuity.

Your job as CL is to make sure that:

About Paperwork

The point of paperwork, which no one may ever have explained to you, is just to create a record of what happens. This is the price we pay for being completely in control when we are in the field. The administration can't meddle in how you run the course, so they'll want to know afterwards what happened. It's not just for paying our permit fees, establishing that we did not start a given forest fire, or recording when a given student started acting weird. It's also useful to other instructors who in future years may want to see what you did on your course.

The CL folder is usually available ahead of time, and looking through it can give you an idea of your documentational responsibilities. It is anal, but it pays off to go ahead and compare the contents of the folder to the list of forms that should be in the folder, and make sure every piece of paperwork is there. You may thank yourself later.

Make sure the maps listed on your map sheet are really the ones you need. Mistakes have occurred.

Only one instructor really needs to read the medical forms, and it probably ought to be you. Writing down all of the medical problems and histories on a single page makes a handy reference. You will thank yourself a million million times for chasing down the PDR pages on unknown drugs or unknown syndromes if those problems crop up in the field.

You don't really need to read the rest of the student files. If you have a keen new instructor let him/her do it and summarize it to you.

While you may have worked for CL's who had you fill out some of the paperwork (e.g., camping data), it may not always be appropriate to hand your paperwork off now to your PL. After all, you are getting paid more to do something. PL's can benefit most from filling out paperwork (including a few days of the log) when they are going to CL soon.

While on the course, fill out the student problems and responses in the evening; it only takes about five minutes and it makes a handy stepping-off point for discussing with your team how the students are doing. Log the events of the day on the following morning; this gives you the perspective to take up more space on the really important events of the previous day.

Keep a list of all the things that have to get done: it's your memory on paper. There are plenty of things not mentioned in any paperwork. At the RMB one is a talk with Steve Matson to confirm your transportation; this is necessary but not scheduled.

Marking a set of maps from the off-trail guide is a good job for someone else, unless you want to use it familiarize yourself with the route. Select a PL you trust. Ideally it is someone who made a mistake copying off-trail guide information in the past and suffered for it.

No one ever showed up at a briefing without more personal errands to run before the course went out, so ask you i-team how much time they also need for things like that, and work it into the schedule.

"Once you get into the field everything will work out." Essentially true, IF YOU LEAVE TOWN WITH EVERYTHING YOU NEED. It is worth it to set tone with your i-team that this is the priority for the in-town time. Double checking student gear (what they bring, but also what they are issued), and making sure the maps, food, and fuel get on the bus is time well spent.

You are the role model for energy and savvy in the i-team. Every team is different, and instructors do not always do the same job. If your PL and Instructor see you being thorough, they will be thorough. What they see you pay special attention to, they will pay special attention to. If they see you working on being positive, they will work on being positive.

Studying radio procedures are a good example of something you have no time for now, but which you may thank yourself a million million times for later. Do not leave this to one of your PL's, because if you ever have to use it you are responsible for the whole situation anyway.

Even if you have waited years for this moment of being in charge, now is the time to realize that the instructor TEAM creates the vision of the course. It is impossible and unwise to plan how it's all going to happen by yourself before the i-team comes together. But, as a CL you should have ideas to implement if no one else can imagine what to do.

If you emphasize good instructor communication from the outset you should be able to discuss anything. This is important. If you do not, something can arise that feels undiscussable and leave you caught between being polite and being responsible.

Your i-team wants to participate in the fun decisions, and wants you to make the dull decisions. There are four hundred dull decisions for every fun one. Don't drag the team through too much consensual decision making, but don't keep the good decisions to yourself. Sounds easy, right? Be flexible.

Pre-course discussion of i-team tone and relations is good, but people inevitably realize new things during the course. By mid-course, make sure you have re-opened the subject of how things are happening in the i-team, so if there are any problems they can be addressed.

You may have a surly PL or Instructor. This sure takes the fun out of a course. This person doesn't see eye to eye with you on how things should be done, or doesn't respect you as CL. As with basic EB, you have to get to a working relationship. To do that you may have to compromise on some things you wanted to do, or the way you wanted to see them happen. Bringing up the subject may be uncomfortable, but remember, you have a right to do your job. Though we all feel inadequate sometimes, there's probably a good reason that Staffing put you in the driver's seat.

You may have an overly timid PL or Instructor. This can make a course pretty epic. This person can't handle the stress of instructing, or is not willing to lead students. Your options are limited except when you feel safety is compromised, in which case it is your responsibility to step in. Otherwise, you can discuss the issue with him/her, and put what energy you feel is justified into helping them improve. Sometimes they are just having a bad course. It is unusual for this to improve significantly during a course.

If you have a new instructor, you have a responsibility to continue the training of this person which began on his/her IC. Contrary to popular belief, IC's do not teach everything a new "I" has to know. On IC's, as on every other kind of course, shit happens and stuff doesn't get covered for whatever reason. New I's almost always have an area of inexperience or weakness which they need to work on. Find out what it is at the beginning of the course. Sending him/her off to practice whatever it unsupervised with students is probably not the right way to help this instructor grow. Supervise and coach.

Give your instructors a break. They are human beings, even if you are not.

Whether students know who the CL is or not is often unimportant. Younger students tend not to care, whereas among older students occasionally one will come looking for a hierarchy in the i-team, and often as not will want to learn chiefly from the CL. Play this however you see fit.

However, you are a real leader in the i-team. Make sure all instructors feel they are doing enough. For you though, feeling that you are not doing enough of the teaching load is a better position to be in than feeling that you are overworked.

If you have problem students (sorry, WHEN you have problem students), it is occasionally useful to let an I or PL deal with him/her at first. You can be held in reserve in case a more authoritative presence is necessary. This hokey technique actually works.

Seek out issues of quality. Make it your business to look for things which could be done better.

By the time you CL you have hopefully seen the course type before and you have a general idea of some of the possible orders of classes. Check out old logs if it's a new course type for you, and see how previous instructor teams did it. If it's a course that has never been run before, smile quietly to yourself.

Bear in mind that there are four chief mistakes you can make in curriculum progression:

Technically, the CL is supposed to be able to teach the whole curriculum. Few CL's can. But the reality of the situation is that you will have to teach whatever no one else can.

The crux move of dealing with any situation is realizing that it is happening and that it is important. Your best defense against not realizing what is going on is to talk about the course regularly in the i-team.

Don't get caught by your assumptions. Discuss and write down your assumptions about the students (their motivations, interests, how they will perform, etc.) at the beginning of the course, and review these among yourselves at midcourse. The results are often quite revealing.

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