Gina Wright

App Updates: May 26-June 11, 2025

• Added a field to display capacity and available spots separately.
• Added support for the registered_payment_later status.
• Improved the search bar so it works when clicking anywhere inside it.
• Formatted the date of birth in the waiver.
• Added a tooltip to the "pay in advance" option for better user guidance.
• Adjusted the "nearby" section to always show trips ordered by proximity, displaying distance in miles.
• Improved the "recommended" logic to return the 7 closest trips regardless of distance.
• When creating a trip marked as "pay in advance", the button now says "Submit for approval" instead of "Create".
• In the social profile, trips are now ordered by: (1) the closest upcoming active trip, (2) other upcoming active trips by the same leader, and (3) past trips.
• Added logic to dynamically trigger actions (e.g., call/email) when a phone number or email appears in text.
• Updated styles for the NavLink component.
• Updated header styles to match Figma design ( web) .
• Fixed trips missing latitude and longitude.
• Fixed the home-search component to work correctly on web.
• Created the CategoryFilter component to display preferred tags on web.
• Fixed bug where emergency_contact_name was undefined.
• Added ability to delete draft trips.
• Limited co-leader selection to only one, as expected in Salesforce; updated app and Supabase logic.
• Added an updated_at column to the trips table.
• Added new components for the web: TripSliderCard, TripSlider, and SliderIndicator.
• Improved the "recommended" logic to use the user's current address.
• Trip creation notifications are now only sent if the trip status changes from draft to active.
• Added validation to prevent users from registering to trips that aren't active.
• Trip status is now displayed only when it's not "active".
• Passed name and email to the feedback form for autocomplete.
• Fixed typo from "trips leaders" to "trip leaders".
• Added a support link to the menu.
• Created an error handler component that redirects with full context (name, email, location, error, etc.).
• Adjusted payment instruction text.
• Hid the "nearby" section and now display 6 leaders in the home page.
• Hid related content.
• Improved the "recommended" logic to first search within 50 miles, and expand the radius with a message if no results are found.
• Improved the Home button behavior: resets filters, scrolls to top, or refreshes depending on context.
• Improved survey ordering in the "How do you feel today?" flow.
• Added address autocomplete to the waiver's DetailsForm.
• Added a contact link to the login page.
• Added a contact button to the web login.
• Added a filter modal to the home page, following Figma styles.
• Adjusted map styles for the web.
• Updated trip details styles for the web.
• Made the "View on map" button functional on the web.
• Added build version and JS version to Rocket's logs for debugging.
• Fixed a bug that redirected to login when opening a trip link with the app closed.
• Improved error handling in the registration flow.
• Created the ImageSlider component.
• Added functionality to show similar trips in trip details on the web.
• Adjusted the "Register on App" button to properly open the app.
• Web notifications now display a dot indicator when there are new ones.
• Updated message styles for the web.
• Updated notification (activity) styles for the web.
• Implemented web versions of Profile, Profile Settings, and Advanced Settings.
• Implemented useFollowers hook to retrieve followers of a user.
• Created the follows route to display followers and following; leaders have a star and link to their profile.
• Added functionality to fetch trips by ZIP code within a 50-mile radius.
• Added horizontal margin to the Following component.
• Improved validation for capacity to reject decimals or dots.
• Adjusted the Payment Step to ask whether the trip is paid; payment options only show if needed.
• Fixed bug in StepTwo that selected extra tags when navigating back.
• Added a component to allow users to add trips to their calendar.

by Gina Wright

Outdoor Afro App Guidebook for Volunteer Leaders is Live!

Did you know that the Outdoor Afro App Guidebook for Volunteer Leaders - Version 1.0 | Living Document is live?! Please be sure to check it out. 

Here is the document – feel free to download it from this document version as a PDF: Outdoor Afro App Change Management Guidebook for Volunteer Leaders 

Here is an audio walkthrough that outlines the content of the guidebook: Outdoor Afro App Guidebook Walkthrough V1 2025.mp4

As a reminder here is a link to our previous MicroBlog: Our Future on Meetup - https://outdoorafro.org/2025/05/our-future-on-meetup/

Some of Last Week’s Updates!

• Added the payments-step component to handle all payment-related information for a created trip.
• Updated Supabase to store and manage a payment details object with total_payment_requested, payment_instructions, and payment_due_date.
• Modified the app to send and process the payment details object.
• Improved the search layout to ensure all cards are fully visible and not cut off.
• Improved getTripsByCity to also include trips from the state the city belongs to.
• Added tags to the category card so users can see the trip categories at a glance.
• Added a banner to notify users when an update is available.
• Improved the behavior of the "recommended" section to always show trips in order of proximity, expanding the search radius by 100 miles until trips are found.
• Added a button in the recommended list to load more trips, up to a limit of 7.
• Added validation to latitude and longitude so leaders can’t leave them empty or set them to "0".
• Fixed a bug that allowed registrations from the waiting list to move to "completed".
• Added an allergy field for children going on the trip with their parents.
• Added functionality to show the waiver to leaders and created the necessary components to view the information.
• Fixed trips in production that were missing latitude and longitude.
• Fixed the cron function that marks trips as "complete" after the trip's end_date.
• Fixed issue with user's ability to edit trips
• Fixed issue with special characters added by users preventing trip pages from rendering.

by Gina Wright

Our Future on Meetup

We have had a long relationship with Meetup. Over the years, we’ve used it to build community and manage our trips. It’s been a great tool. And, it will continue to be. Here’s how we’ll work with Meetup.com starting on May 30.

1. We are not leaving the platform. While we will create and manage all trips on the Outdoor Afro App, we will share our invites to our Meetup groups. 

• • We will no longer create trips on Meetup or manage registrations on Meetup. 
  • We will link to the trip on the App and request that participants RSVP on the Outdoor Afro App. 

See examples below. They show users using links to Eventbrite in the same way we will use links to our App. Note: Though this technically violates T&Cs, there are many examples like this. We will follow suit. 

2. We are not leaving participants behind. We’ve taken multiple steps to determine how many of the 80K followers across our groups are active and real. The first was to weed out incomplete and duplicate records and really old accounts. That got us to 71K. We began using e-waivers in January 2024 and have just over 5K records–the number of people who registered for trips during the 16 months since we began using e-waivers. We offered a giveaway as another way to ascertain how many members were active/real. Approximately 5K responded. Our hypothesis: Most of the member IDs/records are no longer active or no longer engaged. And still, we are not leaving Meetup.

3. Meetup will simply play a new role in our community development/management ecosystem. 

1. • We will use Meetup to share invitations created within our app to Meetup members–just as we should be doing with our Facebook groups. 
   • We will use Meetup to promote our App to that community. Outdoor Afro’s Marketing team will post app promotions to all of Outdoor Afro’s Meetup groups with language that includes…To join a trip, you must RSVP on Outdoor Afro’s Free App.

4. It is time to own our own platform and relationships with online communities. We live in an age where people find their information from multiple sources–and where many of those sources have made it acceptable to disrespect Black people. Just as we have in our journey to date, we will continue to captain our own ship. The Outdoor Afro App enables this and brings something new to the lifestyle and fitness app ecosystem–an app for Black people who love nature, for connecting Black nature experts, nature lovers, and nature nerds across the US. 

1. • We are now moving full steam ahead with promoting the App. We believe it is our future. We are sharing it in our newsletters. We will share it in the post-trip surveys that participants complete. We will email and, where allowed, text participants to ask them to join us on the App. 
   • We ask that you share it with all of the participants with whom you engage across all social media platforms–and with others in your personal social media, community, and professional networks. 

You have been critical to Outdoor Afro’s success to date, please stick with us. We are updating the App weekly in response to your valuable feedback and in accordance with our product roadmap designed to serve 47M Black people–or at least the nature lovers among us.

by Gina Wright

Outdoor Afro App: A Natural Moment of Change Management

Once again we find ourselves in the throes of change—within Outdoor Afro and in our country. At Outdoor Afro, we are driving change in order to get closer to achieving our mission. As you know, our mission is inspiring and connecting Black leaders in nature. And we mean ALL Black leaders and every nature setting. To accomplish our mission, we’ve built the Volunteer Leader Program which you so ably execute and innovate daily in your communities; the Making Waves Program which enabled us to remove barriers to enjoying water and waterways for Black children and their families; and now, the Outdoor Afro App, which will enable us to reach all 47M Black people (well beyond what we can reach with our 128 volunteers and staff).

Our journey has taken us from a single blog to 70+ social media pages and 200,000 followers across all of our accounts. We have the most volunteers in the most markets that we’ve had in our history. We are offering the most diverse set of activities we’ve offered in our history. Yet, we are reaching a small fraction of the 47M Black people who live in America. And that’s at a time when what Outdoor Afro offers as a Black community—and to a Black community—has never been more needed and more valuable. We inspire and connect Black leaders in nature by providing community, expertise, and opportunity to safely and joyously explore whatever interests them in nature. At this time in our country, this is medicine, therapy, wellness, and peace.

It is also rebellion in the opinion of some and revolution for others. It is also the perfect time to own our platform—to create a space where we can continue to be beautifully, peacefully, intentionally Black and connected in nature. Our Outdoor Afro App is our strategic bet on how we can reach and serve every Black person and community, how we can provide community and expertise even where we don’t currently have volunteers, and how we can avail Black people of the resources we’ve cultivated as an organization (free/discounted gear, access to venues, training and certifications, knowledge exchange, etc.).

To make this bet pay off for us and the communities we serve, we need you. We need you to continue to do the amazing trip planning and leadership, to continue to nurture and grow the community, and to share what you’ve learned...on the Outdoor Afro App.

We understand that this is a change—an important change that we as a staff and you as Volunteer Leaders must navigate together. To that end, here are the major curves and milestones on the road to change.

by Gina Wright

Post OALT25 App Update

• Google Play Store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.outdoorafro.app&pcampaignid=web_share

• Apple App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/outdoor-afro/id6743444433

by Gina Wright