You’ll get fastest answers to most questions at this website, or at a meeting.
We offer the widest range of activities of any club at De Anza. We camp, hike, backpack, kayak, have gone horseback riding, caving, surfing and played paintball.
The club gives lessons or gets a good price for lessons from professional instructors.
We specialize in trips and events for beginners.
Almost all of our camping trips have people who have never been camping before;
even the winter trips camping with snow on the ground.
You don’t have to be a club member to go on events, just a De Anza student (or most faculty/staff).
We usually have around 30 to 40 members and many students do things with us without becoming members. Our members range from grizzled backpackers to people who bring half their life’s possessions with them when they camp.
Membership is $15 for 365 days. You do not need to pay for a membership, but club members get a lower price for every event. Reasons why you should become a member are at: Membership benefits
The Outdoor Club is a completely volunteer organization, neither the officers nor the advisor are paid. As a result you will not get the same ‘service’ from us as from a professional group.
We can’t always find a way to sign up people who can’t make it to our regular meetings, to a class when we are there, or to a table we have on campus. If none of the times we have available for signups are convenient for you, we don’t have enough people to be able to meet personally with you and sign you up.
People who wait until the last minute to sign up are sometimes left out.
Info on how to find us to sign up for events / become a club member is at: OUTDOOR CLUB COMING ATTRACTIONS
where you will also find a calendar of current events.
You can’t just show up for an off-campus event and expect to participate without having signed up (trip agreement/releases) in advance in person.
You can’t sign up on-line, by email or at this website, each student must appear in person to sign up. Your friend or even your spouse can’t sign the required trip agreement. If you are under 18 a parent/guardian will also need to appear in person to sign the paperwork.
It can take a lot of time to fill out all the needed paperwork. Signing up for off campus events will go faster if you have read everything about the trip
and bring a valid government-issued photo ID (which could be a drivers license or a clear photo on your cell phone of your passport) to prove who you are and how old you are
and proof of your enrollment. For proof of enrollment you can show us, on your smart-enough phone, your enrollment at the Portal.)
You can’t sign up without paying for an event. If you pay for the event and don’t do trip paperwork, and/or don’t attend, you will not get a refund. If you pay for the trip before doing paperwork and then do not get the paperwork done and in the hands of the faculty advisor before the trip, you will not get a refund and can not just show up and try to participate.
We do not have waitlists.
Will you bring real rain gear (like a hooded rain jacket and rain pants) on our trips, or will the faculty advisor make a garbage bag ‘rain jacket’ for you?
Only currently enrolled De Anza students, (part or full-time faculty, full time staff) can go on club events. Even though Foothill is in the same district, enrollment or employment at Foothill does not qualify anyone to go with us. People who want to go on an event between quarters (for example spring break or winter break) must have been enrolled the previous quarter, or already be enrolled in the following quarter. Faculty are subject to various rules depending on whether they are full time, ten month, part time, on sabbatical or Article 19 and should contact the club advisor well in advance of an event they want to participate in.
If your spouse or friend wants to join you in our adventures, they might want to enroll in a half unit P.E. class. For complete info about becoming a De Anza student and registration steps go to: http://www.deanza.fhda.edu/admissions/
Why are there so many Outdoor Club rules?
For details about club events and on how to find us to pay for a membership, sign up for events or volunteer, go to:
Outdoor Club Coming Attractions
Carpools are arranged among the students going on the trips, not by the club or the college. For info on how to get/give a ride go to Carpool FAQs
Road trip advice and etiquette
Any club member can propose and plan a club event. For details go to: Club Trip Leader Job Description
How club money is spent is at: Outdoor Club Finances and how the club is organized is at Outdoor Club Constitution
This girl was caught studying in the restroom at 5 a.m. on one of our Yosemite winter trips. Why in the restroom? Because it’s heated in the winter and you can save on flashlight batteries. At 5 a.m. it’s quiet except for the coyotes howling in the distance. Lots of people study on our trips, bringing homework, projects and even laptops. Some study in cars on the way to and from the trip. This might not be as effective as studying at home, but you’ve got to get away and have fun sometime!
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http://www.deanza.edu/clubs/
All officers of every club at De Anza College are required
by the InterClubCouncil (ICC)
to read the ICC Financial Code and ICC Code
and reading them would be a good idea for any club member.
PLEASE NOTE that the things I mention below could change,
so when you read the current ICC code / documents linked to below
you will be sure to get the most up-to-date info.
When Outdoor Club officers/advisor vote on trip prices, etc. we almost always vote unanimously “yes”. For example, we see that our expenses for an adventure are the same as the last time we went,
so we can charge the same as we did last time.
Duties of the Club Advisor include:
” . . . Be present for all official club/organization meetings and activities (business and social), and to advise students of the policies and procedures which they must follow as a club/organization…
Ensure that all reasonable steps are taken to insure the safety and welfare of club members.
Ensure that appropriate college policies are upheld . . .”
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People ask us:
“Do you all have the usual weekly/biweekly/monthly Outdoor Club meeting where people hang out and talk like other clubs? I cannot find that on the website.”
= = answer: the college requires that every “meeting” a club schedules have must have a Faculty Advisor at it. Unless I can be there, we can’t announce any, even if people just got together to talk and hang out.
If other clubs are having “the usual weekly” meeting, I applaud the advisor’s ability to attend that many meetings and hang out.
But there have been clubs that do not follow the rule of having an advisor at all meetings, and that caused trouble.
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and note: “Club membership will be open to all De Anza students regardless of the basis of gender, race, color, ethnic or social or national origin, class or property, generation, genetic features, languages or dialect, religion, or belief or personal philosophy, political opinion or persuasion, membership of a national minority or indigenous group, birth, disability, and sexual orientation or preferences.”
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The ICC Code https://deanza.edu/clubs/documents/codes/ICC-Code.pdf includes:
“ARTICLE XIV. RIGHT TO ACT
Any ICC Officer, ICC Representative, Club or Club Member does not have the right to incur any debt,
become involved in any business, or speak to any issue under the title or implying the title of ICC in any
way unless given full authority to do so by the ICC.
Any Club Officer or Club Member does not have the right to incur any debt, become involved in any
business, or speak to any issue under the title or implying the title of their club in any way unless given
full authority to do so by their club.”
“Does not have the right to incur any debt,” means that even though someone is a club officer, they can not, for example, see a great sale price on the best lifejackets they have ever seen, that they are sure everyone would like, (and . . the sale price expires today!), they can’t buy them and then ask for a vote of the club advisor/officers to reimburse them. AND if they did buy them and everyone unanimously agreed the purchase was a great idea, the club officers/advisor could not vote after-the-fact to reimburse them.
Likewise, the ICC has had a homecoming or other dance that they charge money for tickets for. They offered a bunch of tickets for a lower price for example, ten tickets for 20% off. But some clubs that bought the discounted tickets could not sell all of them, and were stuck with the cost. If anyone thought the club should buy them, they can’t make that decision by themselves, even if it is a great deal and only offered during an ICC meeting they are in attendance at. We would need to have a meeting and discuss and vote. (Individual people can buy dance tickets on their own.)
“Speak to any issue” does not mean just public speaking. This is why the Outdoor Club does not allow emails sent out, postings to any social media or posters/flyers put up on campus without a vote and permission from the Club officers or permission from the senior faculty advisor.
And the ICC Code includes:
“All ICC/Club money must be deposited with the Student Accounts Office at De Anza College.”
For example, this means that we can’t take in cash payments from people for a trip
and then spend that cash on food for the trip. All the trip payments must be deposited.
And this is repeated in the Cash Handling Procedures https://www.deanza.edu/studentaccounts/documents/Cash-Handling-Procedures-Clubs.pdf
“No part of the expense of any event may be paid from money collected.”
It also says at Cash Handling Procedures: “There is a $25 service fee if a check is returned by the bank for any reason, and it is the club’s responsibility to collect on the returned check.” Since the club has been stuck with this fee (often $35) before, we no longer accept personal checks for payments. Plus, it can take too long for a check to clear the bank before a trip.
That page also mentions the College Life Fundraiser/Money Collection Form, that we must file before we can get permission to go on an adventure. A club officer and the advisor must sign the form.
Some other required forms also have specific club officers, “Authorized Signers,” who must sign them. Often they are the Club Advisor AND Club President, Vice President, Treasurer and / or Secretary, but not other club officers. (For example: the Club Advisor usually pays a kayaking concessionaire the fees on the morning of the kayaking trip. We could not get a check from Student Accounts in advance of the trip because sometimes people who are signed up sleep in or forget to attend and the amount of the check would be incorrect. This means that we need to do paperwork for the advisor to get reimbursed, and that paperwork has specific club officers who must sign it.)
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https://www.deanza.edu/clubs/documents/codes/ICC-Financial-Code.pdf
When you read the ICC financial code, you will note that there are limits on what clubs are allowed to spend on various things, that clubs need to keep in mind when planning anything they want to get money from the ICC for.
If a club gets money from the ICC there are time limits for when the money must be spent.
“All printed materials must be printed on recycled paper and state “Printing funded(partially) by ICC” on all the materials.”
“Club event will follow Per Meal Policy: (which includes tax and tip)
Breakfast will not exceed $10.00
Lunch will not exceed $15.00
Dinner will not exceed $30.00
The amount needs to include tax and tip per person. An original, itemized receipt needs to be attached to a requisition for reimbursement. ”
The club is never allowed to pay more than the dollar amounts above, even if we have enough money without asking the ICC for some, even if we wanted to thank officers by using money we won for best-decorated club day table, or perfect attendance at ICC meetings.
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“NO DEFICIT SPENDING WILL BE ALLOWED. No funds will be advanced on a petty cash basis.”
(Yes, you might guess that this is in the code because clubs have previously tried
to spend money they did not yet have and were in arrears.)
“Any club sponsoring an event needs to provide a copy of the minutes or a club financial action form from the club meeting which approved this event before requesting a check. The requisition should list clearly the amounts for the miscellaneous expenses, such as food, date of event and number of people attending event.”
FINES:
“If a club signs up for an ICC sponsored event/entertainment slot and fails to participate then there will be a $25 fine that will be deducted from their club account by one of the ICC Officers.. .”
“There will be a $25 fine for any club that fails to clean up its area at Club Day . . .” (This is why we are always careful to not only clean up around our own table after we pack up on club day, but anything that might be blown into our “area” and seem to be left by us. This is also why the ICC officers must come by the area and take a look and report back that the area was clean. Any table or chair(s) provided for the clubs on club day must be returned to where they were originally stacked at the start of club day.)
“If a club signs up for an ICC sponsored event, then they have up to (1) week in advance to notify one of the ICC Officers or the ICC Advisor about a change/cancellation to prevent a fine”
“If the club has less than $25 left in their account to pay off their ICC Fine, then the ICC Officers will determine what community services the club must do instead of the fine.”
Clubs are not allowed to contract for many things without more than the usual advance permission:
“Contracts for orchestras, facility rental, entertainers, athletic events, speakers, etc., must be signed by Director of Fiscal Services.”
There used to also be an ICC Flea Market Concession Code, but the last time I updated this webpage I did not find it. If it comes back again, you could likely find it at: https://deanza.edu/clubs/codes.html
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Wise people never fill out any form using a pencil, as what you wrote could be changed.
Black or dark blue ink is preferred, (and sometimes required), not your favorite fluorescent flower color.
RELEASE FORM REQUIRED BY THE COLLEGE
People can’t just show up for an off-campus event and expect to participate without having signed up in advance in person and having paid in advance, in part because the college has a release everyone who goes off campus must sign before they go off campus. If you are under 18 your parent / guardian must sign you up, in person, with you.
The college release needs to be completed for each person for every off-campus event. It covers what should be done in a medical emergency, Rules of Conduct, and an acknowledgement that the college is not providing transportation. You sign, for example, “it is my responsibility to arrange for transportation to and from the activity.” It has to be signed by the student (or by the parent/guardian of a student under 18 years old), then the faculty or staff member leading the trip is responsible for getting it turned in to the administration before the trip.
You will need to write in your eight-digit De Anza College student identification number Campuswide ID (CWID),
(and we have found that some people coming to sign up for events do not remember their ID Number).
In the release you will give info about your health coverage and in the event of a medical emergency, who to notify.
(And we have found that some people coming to sign up for events do not know their type / brand of health insurance).
Take a careful look at a sample of the required-by-the-college release.
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Years ago the college made the Outdoor Club remove a Facebook page that some club members had made without consulting the club Executive Board (officers), and did not maintain.
So now the De Anza College Outdoor Club does not have a Facebook page and is not on TikTok.
Anything you find about the De Anza Outdoor Club on Facebook or TikTok is not endorsed or sponsored by the De Anza Outdoor Club, De Anza College or the De Anza Foothill District.
The De Anza Outdoor Club does not ask for donations online / in any email or other message.
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I did not include everything from the ICC Code and ICC Financial Code in this outline at this webpage and again, each club officer is supposed to read the codes and it would be wise for people who want to design a new trip to read them.
https://deanza.edu/clubs/documents/codes/ICC-Code.pdf
https://www.deanza.edu/clubs/documents/codes/ICC-Financial-Code.pdf
