Karl Vollmer sat on the Paddle Canada Board of Directors representing Nova Scotia for 2015-2016. At the same time, he joined the River Kayak Program Development Committee, of which he is now the Chair. He was the driving force behind the resurgence of the program and bringing the instructor stream back to Paddle Canada. He spearheaded significant updates to the River Kayak manual, including facilitating the addition of the Recreational River Kayak course. Recently, he was elected the chair of the Program Coordination Committee, the committee responsible for developing policies and procedures that are common to all Paddle Canada training programs. His deep knowledge of all our programs makes him well suited to this new role.
Unrelated to the paddling aspect of Paddle Canada, yet integral to operations, Karl also has a firm understanding of our database, and all the logic to keep it running. He developed the proposal for the formation of the Technology Committee to ensure we use secure and appropriate tech, recruited the original members, and continues as the Chair. He acts as our “White Hat”, finding security gaps in our database and reporting to the Board and staff as necessary. Karl’s knowledge of Paddle Canada’s programs and how our database works has been instrumental in training staff and troubleshooting issues that come into the office. He is the mastermind behind our new, updated certificates, complete with photos and the ability to have them translated into non-Latin languages.
When not behind his computer, you may find Karl teaching the Paddle Canada River and Sea Kayak programs across Nova Scotia, organizing the annual Nova Scotia Whitewater Festival, or out paddling with friends. A sentiment from one of these friends simply said that Karl is “super wicked awesome”.
We agree unnamed friend!
