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FAQs

When you sign up to the site you will have ticked a box to confirm that you agree to the Terms and Conditions for using the site. They are:

Respecting our Values

OutdoorLads has four values and we require all our members, volunteers and staff to reflect these and to treat others with dignity and respect. We reserve the right to suspend or block anyone who does not do so.

Friendly and Welcoming - Whatever the event, and wherever it is, you will always find our guys to be friendly and welcoming. Come with a mate, or on your own, you will quickly be welcomed into the group and make friends easily.

Fun - Everyone mucks in and has a laugh on our events. We might be walking in the rain, or camping in the cold, but there is always loads of fun and laughter on our events.

Adventurous - Whether you are an expert or a novice you can find you own level of 'adventure' with OutdoorLads. You might be surprised by what you achieve.

Professional - Our event leaders deliver consistently great events. You can be sure of good food, a friendly atmosphere, experience leading groups in the mountain - or whatever skills the event requires.

Communication – Event management

We need to communicate with our members in order to run our events safely and successfully. By signing up to one of our events members agree to receive such communication, which can be by email, phone or SMS text.

Communication – Website messaging

Members may receive messages from OutdoorLads and/or from other members on the OutdoorLads site. Members can choose to receive notifications to their given email address when such messages are received by selecting this option on their profile settings.

Communication - Marketing

We aim to keep our members up to date with latest events, offers and news. Members can choose to receive these communications by selecting this option on their profile settings.

Event Cancellation and Refunds

Our cancellation policy determines what level of refund a member is entitled to if OutdoorLads or the member cancels the member’s attendance on a paid event. The policy can be found on our website. We reserve the right to suspend or block members who frequently cancel their attendance on free-to-member events in the 24 hours before the event, as this behaviour often means that other members who would like to attend the event do not have sufficient notice to be able to take the available place.

Looking after yourself on an OutdoorLads event

We want you to be safe when participating in OutdoorLads events but some risks are inherent in outdoor activities. We will always take reasonable and proportionate precautions against known risks, but we can not completely exclude them. For this reason, we encourage our members to take out their own insurance against the risk of injury or other loss or damage on an event, as OutdoorLads does not provide this and can not be held responsible for any loss or damage you may suffer, unless it results from our negligence.
 
Safeguarding your property on an event will always be your responsibility and OutdoorLads will accept no responsibility for loss or damage to your property, no matter how it is caused.
 
By signing up for an event, you undertake to tell the event leader about any medical condition you have or suspect you may have, which could affect or limit your participation in the event or expose you or others to risk in any circumstances. In the event of an accident, the event leader will aim to pass on any relevant information to any person who may need to have it. Event leaders will not disclose medical information you give to them for any other purpose, and OutdoorLads will not store any information of this kind.

Licence to use assets

In order to keep our costs to a minimum, and to assist our event leaders to create and run our events, we seek to use, and re-use, images, video and other assets provided by our members to promote our events, thereby avoiding the charges for the use of commercially available assets. To assist us in this, by providing to OutdoorLads by any means any photograph, video, film, image or content of any kind relating to an OutdoorLads event or activity (“the asset”) our members grant to OutdoorLads an irrevocable licence to use that asset for the purposes of OutdoorLads in perpetuity, in any and all media now existing or to be invented and in any territory in which OutdoorLads operates or seeks to operate.

Media

We reserve the right to use photos and videos taken by leaders or other members on our events to promote OutdoorLads in any and all media now existing or to be invented. Members who do not wish to be included in such materials are responsible for advising event leaders of this and for not participating in any photography or filming at events.

It's really important that our members are mindful of the OutdoorLads' emergency procedure. Please print this emergency card and pop it into your wallets. 

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Full members signing up for the first time by direct debit are entitled to their first year of membership at a 20% discount. However if you cancel your membership and re-sign up at a later date the full annual membership will be charged. 

Full members paying by direct debit are also entitled to a free OutdoorLads t-shirt in their first year of membership, and these will be posted out a few days after your direct debit instruction has been received. We'll need to know your size and postal address. 

We do not offer a free t-shirt to those paying for a fixed-term membership by debit or credit card. You can though call us on 0161 420 0001 and, for a charge of £10 (including delivery), we'll send one to you. 

There are two types of membership

Full Members - have paid the membership fee and get the Member's price for events. Full Membership at the concession price is available to anyone who qualifies for it. 

Pay-as-you-Go Members - pay no membership fee, but do pay a higher price for events.

Some events are free to everyone, such as indoor bouldering/climbing (you only pay the climbing centre) and socials.

When you first join OutdoorLads you will become a Pay-as-you-Go member, but you can become a Full Member at any time by paying the membership fee.

If you are a Full Member but choose not to renew your membership, you revert to being a Pay-as-you-Go member. 

Just click MY ACCOUNT on the outdoorlads.com menu and you'll find your unique coupon codes under the COUPONS tab of your account profile.

These coupons are to help you try OutdoorLads for free, or at reduced cost.

They are only valid whilst you remain a Pay As You Go member.

There are a number of factors taken into account when pricing an event:

Accommodation
If accommodation is involved, it's typically the most expensive cost of an event. Our office staff work hard to build up relationships with venues around the country to keep this as low as possible.

Food
We include a budget per person. For a hostel weekend this is usually £7.00 to cover two breakfasts and a dinner, plus teas and coffees.

Leader Expenses
We allow our volunteer event leaders to claim some expenses for some events. This includes 14p per mile for their transport to and from the event (to a maximum of 535 miles) and up to £20  for items needed for the event, such a maps, firewood, etc. In most instances, leaders of events get to attend the event at no-cost to themselves as they are volunteering their time to run it for us. There is a cap on the number of free leader places, depending upon event size - an event of up to and including 29 people has one leader place, and 30 or more attendees has two leader places, for example. 

Early Bird Discount
On some events, there is a lower price for the first few people who book. This encourages interest in the event, and maximises the likelihood that events will then fill up.

OutdoorLads Margin
As a charity we need to generate an income to cover our overheads such as employing a small office team, running the website and processing credit card payments. We also need to have funds to invest back into the organisation. We add 25% - 30% (at least £2.50 per day) to the cost of each event to cover these.

Taxes
We are required to charge VAT on our events. We recover the VAT on our costs whenever possible.

Early bird discounts are available to Full Members on some events, and are designed to encourage the first few people to book onto the event and hence drive interest from everyone else.

If an early bird discount is available for an event, it will show when you look at the the event page. 

There is a limited number of places on an event that can be bought at the early bird price, so don't hang around. To get an early bird price when they are available you need to book onto the event and fully complete the checkout process before they run out.

If an event is full, you can choose to join the waiting list. It's run on a first come first served basis, and if someone on the event cancels their attendance, then the person at the top of the waiting list is moved onto the event.

You'll need to pay the event price to join the waiting list, unless it's a free event, but you receive a full refund if the event closes and you weren't able to get a place on it.

If you cancel your place in the waiting list before the event closes, then you receive a refund according to the refund policy.

It's fair to say that people cancel paid events less often than they do the free ones, and it's often the case that, if you add yourself to the waiting list for a walk that is fully subscribed, you get a place on the walk if you can wait until a few days before the event to find out.

 

For bookings made on, or after, 1st June 2019:

You can cancel your place on an event or on a waiting list at any time up to the moment that booking closes. Simply go to the event page, click the cancellation button and then confirm your decision. Any refund due will be then be made by our office team within a few days - you don’t need to do anything else.

For event bookings cancelled more than 28 days before the event start time:

If you cancelled within 48 hours of booking, you will receive a full refund (less £5.00 administration charge). This 48-hour cooling-off period starts from the time of your original booking irrespective of whether you are booking onto a waitlist or onto a place on the event.

Cooling-off periods do not apply to orders cancelled 28 days or less before the start time of the event.If you booked more than 48 hours before you cancelled, 80% of the order value will be refunded (subject to a minimum administration charge of £5.00).

For event bookings cancelled more than 21 days and up to, and including, 28 days before the event start time: 60% of the order value will be refunded (subject to a minimum administration charge of £5.00)

For event bookings cancelled more than 14 days and up to, and including, 21 days before the event start time: 40% of the order value will be refunded (subject to a minimum administration charge of £5.00)

For event bookings cancelled more than 7 days and up to, and including, 14 days before the event start time: 20% of the order value will be refunded (subject to a minimum administration charge of £5.00)

For event bookings cancelled up to, and including, 7 days before the event start time: no refund is due.

If you are on a waiting list and decide to cancel your booking you will receive a full refund with no administration charge deducted.

Please note that if you are on a waiting list and are promoted onto an event at any time before
the event closes you will have immediately become an attendee. If you subsequently decide to cancel your place, any refund due will be calculated as a confirmed booking like all other attendees (and the potential 48 hour cooling off period for event bookings as described above also applies). The waiting list refund option no longer applies.

Hence if you are on a waiting list and decide at any time that you no longer wish to attend should you be successful in gaining a place on the event, you should cancel your place on the waiting list (and receive a full refund with no administration charge deduced) BEFORE you gain a place on an event.

If you are still on a waitlist for an event when the event booking closes, then unfortunately you have not succeeded in gaining a place on the event. You will automatically receive a full refund with no administration charge deducted.

When you cancel your attendance on a paid-for event, or if are still on a waitlist when an event closes, a support ticket will be automatically created to notify the admin team. You can see this support ticket in your account under MY SUPPORT.  Refunds are processed manually by the Admin team and therefore take some time. Please only contact us if you have not received a refund within 5 working days of the support ticket being created. You can do this by responding to the support ticket that was created for your refund or by emailing support@outdoorlads.com with the full details.

The above only covers events delivered by OutdoorLads. Events delivered by third parties are not covered by this policy.

For all events, whether those run by OutdoorLads and our volunteers, or by third parties, we recommend you have appropriate travel insurance to cover you for the cost of any changes you may need to make to your plans.  

In the very rare circumstances in which OutdoorLads cancels an event, you will receive a full refund from us in the form of coupons. You may request a cash refund and that will be processed to your payment card on the original order. We cancel events very infrequently, usually preferring for them to go ahead even if numbers are low. However, very occasionally, cancelling the event is necessary.

We are unable however, to take liability for any other related expenses such as any travel arrangements, other accommodation costs, etc which you may incur, and as such refunds are limited only to the event price that you have paid. We encourage members to take out their own suitable travel insurance to cover these eventualities. 

Our camping events are typically held at smaller campsites in often rural locations that aren't suitable for such vehicles.

The decision on whether these vehicles are allowed on a camping event rests with the event leader who will know the campsite best. Please contact them through the event page before booking.

Please note that campsites typically charge more for camper vans and motor homes and this is not factored into the event price.

For some events, including Big Spring Camp and Big Summer Camp, the number of spaces available for camper vans and motorhomes is strictly limited due to restrictions defined in the insurance policies held by the hosting locations. A charge is made for booking a space. The available spaces are listed in the same way as events, and so bookable online in the same way.

Our hostel events are not suitable for campervans, you would need to book and pay for a place in the usual way. 

Well-behaved, socialised and under control dogs are welcome on some events. It's important to check with the event leader before booking, as it is the event leader's decision whether to accept dogs on their event or not. Sometimes they will be restricted by third parties, such as the rules of the hostel or campsite we are staying in. 

If you have agreed it with the leader and are bring a dog, please remember that others may not feel as comfortable as you with dogs around and adjust your dog control behaviour accordingly.

Day walks: Dogs must be kept on a lead whenever this is signposted and whenever we are in the vicinity of livestock, and at the event leader's request. It's a good idea to check what the route may be like with the event leader before booking to find out more about the potential suitability of the walk for dogs.

 

Camping weekends: Different campsites have different rules, but we'll have a clear statement on each event page to let you know what the situation is. There is usually an additional cost for dogs, and we'll say on the event page if you need to pay this to OutdoorLads in advance, or to the campsite on arrival. Dogs are not permitted at BIG Spring Camp or BIG Summer Camp, or as the venue does not allow them.

 

Hostel events: Some hostels allow dogs, but most do not. We'll put a clear statement on each event page about the suitability of the event for dogs. There will also be instances where venues allow dogs, but OutdoorLads may have decided that it's not suitable for them to be at our event.

Where dogs are allowed, there's usually a limit on numbers, so you'll need to book your dog a place with the office by e-mailing support@outdoorlads.com or on 0161 420 0001, and this works on a first-come, first-served basis. If the accommodation charges more for dogs, you will need to pay this too - the YHA for example, charge £30 per dog per weekend. 

If you turn up at a hostel with a dog who has not been booked in, the dog will not be able to stay. In all cases, there will be a room dedicated for the dogs to stay in with their owners, so that those who do not wish to share a room with dogs, don't have to. 

We are always on the look out for the few and far between hostels that are very dog-friendly, as then we can create events specifically designed for dog owners and friends. If you know of such a venue please tell us.We aim to have a handful of events a year that are specifically for people to bring their dogs too!

OutdoorLads is a group run by its members for its members. Events only take place because some members are willing to lead them and other members are willing to attend. The group then is only as good as the effort its members put into it.

If there are no events on the website near to where you live and you'd like to see more, the simple answer is get involved!

Firstly if there is an event taking place near to you and you can attend then go along and take part. It is through member support of events that demand for more events in a particular area increases.

Secondly you could get involved further and become an Event Leader yourself. The process of becoming an Event Leader is easy, it requires a small amount of work on your part and we will support, help and advise you.

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Click MY ACCOUNT and then open the EDIT tab to update all your profile details. You can also change your password here.

If you have changed your main current account, you're likely to have benefitted from the Current Account Switch Guarantee, meaning all of your Direct Debits will have been switched over automatically. In this instance, you don't need to do anything.

If you would like your OutdoorLads Direct Debit to come out of another account, and your bank hasn't used the Current Account Switching Service, please juts give us a call on 0161 420 0001. Our office is open Monday - Friday, 9am - 5pm.

If you would just like to cancel your Direct Debit, the easiest way is through your bank. You can also let us know over the phone, by email, or raise a support ticket. Refer to the Direct Debit mandate emailed to you for more info.

OutdoorLads complies with the General Data Protection Regulation, which gives you rights and protections, including:

  • the requirement for OutdoorLads to obtain active consent for use of your personal data
  • the right to know how personal data concerning you is being processed, where and for what purpose
  • the right to demand a copy of your personal data, free of charge, in an appropriate format
  • the right to be forgotten by demanding your data be erased

What data we hold and what we do with it is detailed in full in our Privacy Statement.

We take your privacy very seriously. We allow others to see only the information about you that is appropriate and necessary for OutdoorLads to run successfully and safely. 

1) None of your profile information is visible to non-members.

2) When looking at your profile, other members can see:

  • your first name
  • your OutdoorLads profile name (chosen by you)
  • your profile picture (chosen by you)
  • your profile bio (written by you)
  • an icon to show if you are an OutdoorLads leader
  • an icon to show if you are a First Aider
  • an icon to show whether you might be able to offer lifts
  • an idea of the area from where you can give lifts - you choose how detailed to make this
  • your events 

3) For events that you have signed up for, the event leader and Regional Coordinators/Organisers can also see: 

  • your last name
  • your mobile phone number
  • your email address
  • how many events you have previously attended
  • your dietary requirements
  • your Next of Kin details (name, relationship and phone number)

This is to enable them to plan and lead the event effectively.

4) OutdoorLads Administrators can see all the information of your profile.

If you are an event leader, event co-leader, member of staff, regional coordinator, regional organiser or trustee there are a few other places where additional information about you is shown on the website:

  • If you are a leader, or co leader, of an event then your surname is shown on the event page
     
  • If you are a member of staff, regional coordinator, regional organiser or trustee then your surname and email address are shown in the MEET THE TEAM section of the site.

All of our Leaders, Regional Coordinators/Organisers and Admin Staff have signed the OutdoorLads Confidentiality Agreement and, in doing so, have committed to their part in maintaining the security of your confidential personal data.

As a registered charity our aim is to ‘improve the physical and mental state of gay, bi men and trans guys’ through a range of outdoor activities on a not-for-profit basis. 

With these charitable aims, being registered as a charity then means we can access discounts from some suppliers, qualify for some grants open only to charities, and make some savings in VAT.

Whilst this isn't a frequently asked question, that's not to say that it can't happen. If you wish to raise a concern, or make a complaint, there are several options. Whichever you choose, you can be sure we will respond appropriately.

If you're on an event and have a concern or compliant, the first thing to do is to discuss it with the event leader. Remember that they are a volunteer, so please be accommodating in your expectations, but do say if there is something you feel is wrong or should be considered.

If you don't find that satisfactory, or do not want to discuss the issue with the event leader, then you can contact the relevant Regional Coordinator (find their profile details under Meet the Team), or you can contact the Admin team by calling 0161 420 0001 or emailing support@outdoorlads.com.

If you prefer, you can complete the OutdoorLads Concern or Complaint Form.

Our Formal Complaint and Appeals Policy can be found here. 

We have a list of members who are available to help with other languages, including BSL. If there is somebody available in your area, we'll do our best to get you together on an event, so you'll always have somebody to talk to.

Just get in touch with us:

? support@outdoorlads.com

0161 420 0001

? @outdoorlads

If you are available to volunteer as a language buddy, please register here!

The best way to do this is via our Facebook Page. Just click on the 'Donate' button, and you'll be guided through the steps. Facebook does not charge any fees to you or OutdoorLads for this service, and Gift Aid can be claimed automatically.

If you do not have a Facebook account, you can also make a donation here. The fees charged to OutdoorLads for this this service are 1.4% + £0.20, and Gift Aid is claimed by the OutdoorLads staff team.

Thank you for making a donation that encourages more gay, bi and trans guys to #GetOutMore.