Rec office revamp

The Recreation Office is a quaint building on the edges of WSU Vancouver, yet it offers plenty of events and trips for students. Outdoor Intern Tommy Workman says that they are usually in high demand. This is the first semester, however, that students will be able to sign up for trips without the long walk to the office.

“So we have recently moved to using our software called DSE [Do Sports Easy]. We have QR codes on all of our event sheets and flyers so people can now register and pay online, which is completely new,” Workman says. “They can also check out all of our rental equipment online.”

The Rec Office also offers rental equipment for hiking or other outdoor activities that students can rent out for the trips provided, but students can also rent out the equipment for their own trips as well if they desire.

“A lot of our supplies are more oriented towards paddleboarding. We have kayaks. We have hiking gear and camp stoves, so if you don’t wanna go on a trip with us, we also offer all these rentals.”

The Rec Office’s new digital sign-ups were inspired by the Outdoor Recreation Center at WSU Pullman, which also offers online sign-ups for their recreational events through DSE. 

“They don’t even need to walk down to the office anymore. They still can, and that’s incredibly welcomed,” Workman says. “We love to have you come in, but generally now, they can all do that online.”

There are a couple of forms that students need to fill out, including the registration form, which includes the questions that were previously on the health form. Beyond that, students will also need to fill out a liability form that acts as a waiver. Most trips range from $5 to $50.

Now that students can sign up online, events at the Rec Office are filling up the available slots fast. Events that may have taken a week to fill up in the past are now at capacity in a matter of hours. The Rec Office only has a couple of vehicles and facilitators, so events have limited open slots available.

“I’ve been comparing it to, like, an auction. Once it opens at 9 a.m., set an alarm to make sure you’re up and ready and just click ‘register,’ or someone else is gonna beat you to it,” Workman says.

Some of the Rec Office’s most consistent events include indoor rock climbing at The Source, as well as the WTA (Washington Trails Association) Trail Maintenance events.

“What [WTA] do is, they will take volunteers out to a trail somewhere in Washington, because they are statewide, and they will teach that team of volunteers how to use their tools, how to use their equipment, and what they’re doing on that day,” Workman says. “For example, in the past, we have reclaimed old neglected trails. So we’ve raked out the debris and widened the trail so that it’s ‘revived.’”

By “revived,” Workman means that the trail is then walkable and more accessible to students and the public.

For other events, such as indoor rock climbing or the day hikes, Workman says they vary by difficulty and intensity. Some will naturally require more effort than others, but he said that most of them are fairly easy for most to get involved in.

The Rec Office does have student employment positions and will usually hire students during the spring semester. Workman did emphasize though, that hiring involves a contractual, year-long commitment for anyone who wants to work there.

“I applied to work here because I attended one trip a year and a half ago, and I saw what that did for the participants on that trip, and I thought, ‘I wanna help make this happen’ and get involved,” said Workman.

“So they [students] bring us a lot of joy to make that happen for people. Students that might not be able to afford doing this on their own because it’s a lot more expensive [than] doing it on your own,” Workman said. “Yeah, I think that’s a big part of why we do it.”