Board Retreat 2026

Key insights

• Program prioritization framework: Board adopted Grow / Keep / Kill — Grow: First 50K Sisterhood and Rim-to-Rim / group adventure fundraisers; Keep as-is: Trailblazers, See Her Outside, Grit Lit; Kill: nothing. Justine reframed the original 1–5 ranking into this structure.
• AI is the unlock, not a parallel workstream. Sunny has ~10 focused business days near-term, then is largely out until first week of August; meaningful capacity returns in fall; late-May through mid-August 2027 he is off-grid on a 10-week expedition. "In order to unlock any of the things we've talked about… I have to focus on AI infrastructure first."
• Angie is the single point of failure on growth. First 50K, Rim-to-Rim, the podcast, and parts of the Grand Canyon all route through her. Lisa surfaced retention risk; consensus was that compensation follows revenue growth — the ~$50K surplus stays as buffer, not converted to raises now. "Paying Angie more is not going to make her more productive."
• LOWA TransAlpine scholarship locked in: 12 recipients, LOWA covers ~$45K of trip cost plus a program-administration fee; a Chamonix / Cosmex climbing component is still being scoped. Trek lands June/July 2027 — exactly when Sunny is off-grid. Embedded inside the global Summit Scholarship, not a separate LOWA-branded track. Ulf: "I want this embedded in your organization."
• LOWA / Fjällräven competitive backstory: LOWA is uncomfortable with Fjällräven because Hanwag (Fjällräven sister brand under Fenix) was founded by Lawrence Wagner's brother Hans. Sunny told LOWA he'd discuss dropping Fjällräven if they replaced the revenue; LOWA hasn't raised it since. Intent is to keep both.
• Title IX is the #1 brand cultivation target. Came in last-minute with $5K plus First 50K attire and is actively expanding women's activations. Sunny submitted a bigger partnership pitch (no movement yet). Explicit guardrail: avoid the year-one Fjällräven trap of "gave money, gave gear, then went quiet" by holding regular meetings.
• Deuter is target #2. Has shipped product from US and Europe; marketing team interested in joint storytelling. Title IX + Deuter are the two brand-development priorities Sunny personally carries over the next 18–24 months.
• Anchor-then-add-on partnership model. Brand partners cannot absorb a fully bundled pitch. Each gets anchored in one program first, then offered an "add-on menu." Angie and Sunny have been running separate Title IX conversations — recognized as a tension to manage rather than forcibly merged.
• New events on the calendar. Cactus to Clouds (Joshua Tree / Palm Springs area) as a winter activation — declared "the bullseye" by the group; Timberline Trail circumnavigation (PNW, September, ~2 days, self-issued Mount Hood wilderness permit) as next year's PNW addition; Grand Canyon Rim-to-River-to-Rim (March) kept as recurring. Path-of-least-resistance principle drove these picks.
• Comms rebuild deadline — end of September. Film-festival traffic will land on the Summit Scholarship site; the Cairn Project ↔ Summit Scholarship ↔ GEA Alliance funnel must be in place before that visibility wave. Primary CTAs for new visitors: newsletter signup, become a Trailblazer, or donate at the GEA Alliance level — not direct scholarship funding.
• "Outdoor education" framing tested. Justine flagged that justifying funding for an adventure trip in 10 words is hard. Group agreed NOLS / Outward Bound-adjacent outdoor-education language travels better than the "luxury experience" perception, without overclaiming.
• She Jumps Alpine Finishing School — deferred. Free ski-mountaineering spot, no cost to GEA, visibility upside. Lisa and Alison flagged hesitation: She Jumps may benefit more from the visibility, may compete for donors and Trailblazers, and their charitable-impact transparency is unclear. Sunny will dig into their recent reports and bring a recommendation back same evening.
• Financial baseline: ~$170K cash in last year; ~$50K surplus; sufficient runway through year-end at current staffing. Stated four-year goal: grow from $170K to ~$900K. TEW Foundation just approved a repeat $30K grant (via Alison's Seattle family-foundation connection).
• Donor-impact mechanic explored, then narrowed. Group floated a United-Way-style per-scholarship progress bar; concern raised about a "popularity contest" disadvantaging less-photogenic destinations. Landed on a simpler "$5K / $10K / $15K scholarships funded" tally.

Action items

• EDBuild the AI infrastructure layer before any program-specific connectors — explicit bottleneck.
• EDPromote Rim-to-Rim (October 10) — currently zero sign-ups due to deferred promotion.
• EDOnboard Angie onto AI tools to shift her from manual execution to strategy and planning.
• ED + Roxy + AngieComplete the integrated website / comms overhaul connecting Cairn Project, GEA Alliance, and Summit Scholarship — deadline end of September.
• BoardResearch directors & officers insurance — group fundraiser events create exposure even where no money changes hands.
• EDReview She Jumps' recent reports and return with a recommendation on the Alpine Finishing School partnership before end of night.
• EDCultivate Title IX as the top brand priority — schedule regular meetings to avoid the year-one Fjällräven drop-off pattern.
• Angie + EDPlan Cactus to Clouds (Joshua Tree / Palm Springs area) as the winter fundraiser.
• Angie + EDPlan Timberline Trail circumnavigation (PNW, September 2027) as next year's PNW addition.
• EDDevelop clearer donation messaging and a funnel routing Summit Scholarship visitors into the GEA Alliance / Cairn Project.
• EDSell 500 copies of the Women of Mountaineering Calendar using AI-assisted marketing.
• Future sessionResolve who represents Summit Scholarship on the TransAlpine trek in June/July 2027 (ED off-grid).

Key insights

• LOWA partnership scale: $45K cash + ~$10K gear this year, up from a $2.5K toe-in for the prior two–three years. The 2027 transalpine + Chamonix commitment was publicly named at LOWA's international sales meeting (~100 key accounts) by Marco, LOWA's global #2 — and crucially, the LOWA leaders championing GEA changed roles three weeks before that meeting. The relationship survived a near-total leadership turnover, which is itself a signal.
• Matterhorn expedition (Sept 2026) is tied to a product release. LOWA's "Cervino" boot — named for the Matterhorn — is the launch peg; the European Outdoor Film Tour production team will cut a ~15-min film for the October festival circuit (English + German). Tiffany Diep + Noemi as scholars, Ines Papert (LOWA athlete, world-champion ice climber) as visiting athlete, IFMGA-certified female guides 1:1.
• Sunny on the program candidly: "My ideal size of a Matterhorn group would be zero." The route is "the definition of the broi thing… a conga line of ants being shepherded up to the summit." The expedition is happening because the partnership + storytelling case is strong, not because the route is what GEA would otherwise pick.
• Downstream of LOWA: Gore-Tex co-investment ($60–80K range) is expected to route through LOWA in the coming year, and a Swiss retailer expressed interest after the sales-meeting keynotes. Sunny's framing: route Gore-Tex through LOWA rather than direct.
• Fjällräven partnership: $10K cash + ~$15K gear; Title IX added $5K cash at the last minute. Four Summit Scholarship alumna invited to the Classic (July 20–22); Rachel will film it on a $5K Fjällräven videographer budget.
• Summit Scholarship at scale: 2,100 applications, 14 scholarships awarded this year; program cost ~$45–50K in funded trip spots; gear stack from LOWA, Fjällräven, Title IX, Camp USA, Deuter, and Leckie. Real tension: the program has drifted from beginners to experienced applicants — the "no influencer requirements" framing may need to be revised.
• First 50K Sisterhood: 15 women selected from 50–100 applications at ~$135/woman (~$2K total). Sunny believes it's operating at a fraction of its potential — realistically could draw 300–400 applicants. The "what's next" integration gap (Sisterhood alumna unaware of Summit Scholarship) remains the highest-leverage fix.
• Two risks for the board to track: (1) sponsor concentration — if LOWA's priorities shift, the two-year pipeline is exposed; (2) GEA Alliance currently carries no Directors & Officers insurance, flagged as a real exposure the board should resolve.
• European Outdoor Film Tour Adventure of the Year (near-miss): Sunny was pre-nominated by the EOFT director; the nomination required Adidas Terrex (tour sponsor) to co-invest, and Adidas didn't confirm by the June 10 deadline. Award value: $20K + visibility across 50+ screening cities — worth pursuing next cycle.
• Women of Mountaineering Calendar (5th year, first sell-out): 300 copies — ~60 to Grit Lit, ~50 to LOWA, ~200 direct-to-consumer at $30 (free international shipping erodes margins). Print run is ~2 weeks so a second run is feasible. LOWA has floated co-commissioning the calendar as their annual retailer calendar.
• Grit Lit (~60 subscribers, ~$8K/year, 20–30% margin): $45 quarterly boxes; Sunny's stance is that contributors don't get paid — the placement is itself a marketing service to them (exception: books used as lead magnets). Three forward options: maintain, wind down, or invest to grow.
• Trailblazers diagnosis: the program had a working cohort model (deadlines, WhatsApp group, Justine coaching) before switching to rolling around merger time — and rolling killed both the community and the deadline-driven marketing. Recommendation: don't restructure short-term; define what success looks like for Angie first.
• See Her Outside Podcast has a 6-month backlog and could publish weekly with a dedicated marketing plan and resources.
• Lisa volunteered to attend Fjällräven Classic alongside Sunny — strong signal of board-level program ownership. Justine flagged the European Outdoor Film Tour as a credible production partner and surfaced the group-size question that anchored the Matterhorn "broi-culture" concern.

Action items

• BoardResolve the D&O-insurance gap — GEA Alliance currently carries none.
• BoardPrioritization call: Grit Lit — maintain, wind down, or invest to grow?
• EDRun a real financial analysis on Grit Lit to confirm revenue and contribution numbers ahead of the prioritization call.
• EDRoute Gore-Tex partnership conversations through LOWA rather than directly.
• EDOrder Fjällräven Classic event assets — tent, sun shades, branded materials — for July 20–22.
• AngieDefine success metrics for Trailblazers before restructuring cohort vs. rolling.
• Angie + EDDevelop strategy and goals for Outdoor Retailer (Minneapolis, Aug 19–21) — booth confirmed, plan still open.
• EDBuild the AI-driven board engagement pipeline so campaigns, episodes, and partnership updates surface automatically.
• EDClose the "what's next" gap — First 50K alumni need a clear on-ramp to Summit Scholarship and Trailblazers.
• Future sessionCairn Project + Summit Scholarship program prioritization — held over for a dedicated session.

Key insights

• Core purpose, sharpened: showing women they can do hard things, and therefore anything. The five-year arc is more women and girls outside, telling their stories, and being supported to tell their own.
• GEA Alliance as hub, not destination. The aspiration is household-name recognition in the outdoor space — Girl Scouts / NOLS as reference points — built on services, networking, and storytelling across the ecosystem.
• Cross-connective tissue is the partner opportunity. 4–5 operating partners at similar stages; the value is building lateral links between them, not pure hub-and-spokes through GEA.
• The non-competitive ethos is a hard constraint. Fjallraven's Polar program (started as a race, pivoted away) was held up as the parallel. The Samar → Tiffany pipeline already shows what cross-program flow looks like.
• She Jumps comparison clarified what GEA is not. Their "social impact guide service" model funds operations by selling trip spots; Summit Scholarship was spun out as its own 501(c)(3) specifically to avoid that conflict. GEA learns from their community-building, not their economic model.
• Festival concept on the table. Expand the annual retreat into a broader festival — [location TBD pending Sunny clarification] — with operating-partner booths; tabled for the afternoon session.

Action items

• EDExplore building cross-connective tissue and a working group between operating partners.
• PM sessionTable the festival-planning concept for the afternoon session, including operating-partner booths.
• EDContinue featuring Samar's story and her outdoor activism in Pakistan in GEA materials.
• GroupBreak for lunch outside; continue with current-initiatives update over the meal.

What we explicitly will NOT do

• No meta-services — will not package and license GEA's scholarship model or AI tools to other organizations.
• No volunteer-leadership subsidy going forward — five-year sunset on the model that ran Cairn for 8 years and is just starting to compensate Summit Scholarship at $1,000/month.
• No broad merchandise — Women of Mountaineering Calendar is the storytelling-justified exception.
• No competitive-format programming — sisterhood ethos is non-negotiable.
• No expansion beyond women / girls — will not extend programming to gender-diverse people outside those who identify as women.
• No fund-by-selling-trips model — will not become a guide service or operate trips for fundraising (the She Jumps model).

Key insights

• Hybrid emerging. A and C each had pieces the room wanted — neither stood alone. The next iteration combines Option C's threshold and holding-space imagery with Option A's continuum and life-stage scope.
• "No woman walks alone in wild places" resonated as a line, but framing matters — it cannot imply women can't do things alone. Preferred softening: "a world where every woman who steps outside finds community waiting for her."
• Multiple thresholds, not a single one. "Community on the other side of every threshold" was singled out as the strongest phrase in C precisely because it implies ongoing catalytic experiences, not one transformation.
• Don't assume nervousness. The opening of Option C was read as too beginner-coded — the vision should feel like women are already doing it and the org is helping them go further.
• Public vision = outcome, not mechanism. Calling out partners, alliances, storytellers, and "beyond any single leader" felt inward; the room wants those moved to internal / partner-facing documents and the public vision focused on what it creates for women.
• "Generation" → "generations." One-word fix in Option A to honor the meeting-women-at-every-life-stage theme.

Action items

• EDProduce a hybrid vision iteration that combines Option C's threshold / holding-space imagery with Option A's life-stage continuum, drops the mechanism language, and softens "no woman walks alone" per the preferred framing.
• EDRevise the close of Option C to be inclusive of women at all life stages (not just girls) while preserving the "holding space for who you become when you discover what you can do outside" concept.
• EDChange "generation" → "generations" in Option A's language.
• GroupVoice-tagged self-introductions for the AI note-taker speaker-attribution test.

Key insights

• Community & connection emerged as the central value — person-to-person bonds, shared transformative experiences, a sense of belonging.
• Transformative outdoor experience is the vehicle — self-discovery, courage, and growth, not performance or achievement.
• Meet women where they are across every life stage — beginners, experienced adventurers, moms, empty nesters, women 60+ — a full "city to valley to peak" ecosystem.
• Longevity & sustainability are organizational goals; the work should outlast current leadership and remain adaptable.
• Storytelling is the primary mechanism to scale impact — across participants, operating partners, and the Alliance simultaneously.
• The "what's next" moment after events is an under-tapped integration point. Many Sisterhood participants don't even know about Summit Scholarship; alumni re-engagement is underdeveloped.
• Operating partners are critical multipliers — and GEA Alliance explicitly is not becoming a guiding or logistics company; that is the operating partners' domain.

Action items

• Sat execMove the formal board votes (vision statement, brand identity approvals) to Saturday's executive session.
• DirectorsComplete individual vision-exercise worksheet answers (5-years-out questions) during the break.
• EDRun AI in parallel to draft a vision statement from this conversation; review together.
• EDDevelop a structured integration / storytelling pipeline with operating partners — social media, photos, briefings on Summit Scholarship.
• EDExplore "what's next" capture at the end of events (sisterhood races, scholarship experiences) to keep participants in the ecosystem.
• BoardRevise mission statement — replace "adventure" with "outdoor," remove "gender diverse," focus on women and girls (inclusive of all who identify as women / girls).

Key insights

• Sisterhood works because it has an in-person endpoint. The First 50K cohort's digital community is highly active because they go through the program together. Summit Scholarship lacks this convergence point — and engagement is correspondingly thin.
• Sponsors will pay for access, not just amplification. Six First 50K sponsors paid for direct market-research contact with participants — a repeatable monetization pattern for Summit Scholarship.
• Storytelling framing is a recruitment lever. Summit Scholarship's application says "this is not a popularity contest"; First 50K bakes a media-creation question in from the start.
• Trailblazer membership is an adjacent product. $500/year fundraising commitment with a guaranteed invite to a yearly in-person gathering. Tests the in-person-endpoint thesis with paying participants.
• Underserved markets respond. Mawra Collective partnership — Muslim American women — drew nearly 500 applications for one scholarship slot. If you open the door, the demand is there.
• ~800K–1M views on ~$1,500 of ad spend on the last Summit Scholarship campaign. The content engine is real; the gap is the sponsor pipeline — placements need 6–8 weeks lead time and the monthly sponsor update has been lapsing.

Action items

• AngieText the 13 First 50K women about Friday meetup logistics (arrive by ~5 pm; Rachel Entrekin speaks at 6:30 pm) and encourage them to sit together.
• SunnyTake a group photo Thursday night and send it to the 13 women so they can identify Sunny's group on Friday.
• EDDistribute Grit Lit packages Saturday night (not Friday) so the cohort feels like they earned a prize.
• AngieSend the Sisterhood a "so what's next?" email Tuesday or Wednesday post-race — not Monday (too soon), not after Wednesday (too late).
• EDShare the 40+ podcast transcripts folder — program-grade market research of women's voices on outdoor challenges.
• AngieFast-track the Rachel Entrekin podcast episode (right after Zoe Rome's).
• EDCheck in on the three new Trailblazer fundraisers launched last week.
• EDDevelop an integrated pitch / marketing strategy across Grit Lit, the See Her Outside podcast, and the newsletter — flagged as a bigger conversation.