Jump start your employees’ enthusiasm and creativity by holding a professional meeting or retreat at Dunrovin Ranch.  Our outdoor ranch atmosphere is conducive to lowering office tensions, thinking outside the box, and team building. Gathering professionals in a setting that is relaxed, close to nature, and nothing like their everyday work world can open new avenues of communication and creative thinking. The ranch’s many outdoor amenities can be incorporated into the day’s program: meeting participants can gather around a fire pit for lunch, pick some raspberries or strawberries from the garden, or take a short river side walk during meeting breaks. Just being surrounded by the sights, smells, and sounds of the river, the many birds that call Dunrovin home, the horses playing in the pastures, and the landscaped gardens and orchard serve to encourage participants to step outside their usual thinking and to communicate with each other on a different level. 

Dunrovin’s dance pavilion is a unique, but very adequate venue for meetings, seminars, and roundtable discussions for groups up to 40 people. Breakout groups can gather on individual picnic tables for small group discussions; and the entire front deck can be used as a stage for presentations to up to 300.  Dunrovin can take care of all of your meeting needs for audio visual equipment, flip charts, refreshments, and meals.

    Rent Dunrovin’s Meeting Facilities (other compatible ranch activities continue away from meeting site)

    • Per Half Day..................................................................$150
    • Per Full Day................................................................. $250

    Dunrovin Food Service
    Dunrovin works with local food vendors or caterers to provide meeting food service or clients may use Dunrovin’s kitchen and equipment to provide their own food service.  

    • Coffee, tea, bottled water.................................................... $3/person
    • Morning Snacks (muffins, fresh fruit, yogurt)....................... $5/person
    • Afternoon Snacks (cookies, fresh fruit, cheese, crackers)....... $5/person
    • 4 Course Lunch................................................................ $25/person
            (appetizers, salad, entree, dessert, and steak or chicken barbeque)
    • 3 Course Lunch............................................................... $15/person
            (salad, entree, dessert and hamburger barbeque)
    • 2 Course Lunch............................................................... $12/person
            (cold cut meats and cheese sandwich, chips, cookies)

Couple Dunrovin’s atypical setting with professional meeting planning and management and innovative outdoor opportunities to build esprit de corp and you can really see an impact on office productivity and moral.    



Dunrovin Ranch owner, SuzAnne Miller, has a very unusual background that enables her to offer some unique professional development and meeting opportunities. SuzAnne is a biometrician (applied mathematics) with 35 years of experience in employee supervision, meetings management, community development, and project management. Her academic background in mathematics and statistics enable her to apply rigorous logical thinking to all manner of problems. Her long career as a supervisor of a large information management and research department for the state of Alaska with over 40 employees and a several million dollar budget gave her real life problem solving experience in budgeting, personnel and human resources, and project management. SuzAnne continues to offer professional services through her consulting business, Dunrovin Research. Current contracts include work with county, state, federal, and nonprofit organizations. She has planned, conducted, and summarized hundreds of professional meetings, workshops, public presentations, educational seminars, symposiums, and testimony before boards, legislatures, and congressional hearings.

Productive meetings do not spontaneously happen. They take careful planning, facilitation, and follow through. SuzAnne works with clients to the understand the issues of focus for a meeting, with respect to 1) content and context 2) specific desired outcomes 3) history of the organization 4) the players and their respective roles 5) any pitfalls that have previously prevented resolution 6) the authority of the meeting group 7) the organizational restrictions or limitations and 8) the timeline for meetings follow up.

SuzAnne can assist you with all phases of the meeting process: preparation, facilitation, summarizing results, and supporting follow up. Her experiences in the world of natural resource management have given her plenty of  experience dealing with volatile and controversial issues, such as wolf management in Alaska, working with the Alaska State Legislature to craft a new law regulating guides and outfitters, or helping the state of Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming evaluate the effectiveness of programs to compensate livestock owners for loss due to wildlife predation.  SuzAnne keeps meeting on schedule and on task, yet creates a friendly, nonconfrontational environment for open, frank discussions. Her analytical skills helps her develop meaningful ways to organize and summarize issues and meetings results.

    Dunrovin’s Meetings and Project Management

    Small Projects (less than 3 days consulting time)

    • Per Hour(corporate client) .................................... $75/hour
    • Per Hour(government client).................................. $65/hour
    • Per Hour(nonprofit client)...................................... $55/hour
    • Discount on Dunrovin Facilities Rental.................. 15%

    Medium Projects (3 to 10 days consulting time)

    • Per Hour(corporate client) .................................... $70/hour
    • Per Hour(government client).................................. $60/hour
    • Per Hour(nonprofit client)...................................... $50/hour
    • Discount on Dunrovin Facilities Rental................... 25%

    Large Projects (more than 10 days consulting time)

    • Per Hour(corporate client) ................................... $65/hour
    • Per Hour(government client)................................. $55/hour
    • Per Hour(nonprofit client).................................... $45/hour
    • Discount on Dunrovin Facilities Rental................. 35%

 



Leading the Herd - Leadership Training through Interactions with Horses

Horses are unique among domesticated animals. They are one of few prey animals with which humans establish meaningful relationships. We, as humans, are predators and see the world through the eyes of the hunter; horses, as prey, see the world through the eyes of the hunted. This fundamental and profound difference in world views requires both species – humans and horses – to step outside themselves in order to establish a meaningful relationship.

Prey animals have eyes that are mounted on the sides of their head and that move independently. This enables them to see in nearly every direction and to scan their environment for any movement that may signal a predator. Predators’ eyes are mounted close together enabling them to focus and “lock onto” a vulnerable prey. Prey approach a new area, or resource such as a watering hole, looking in every direction with great trepidation. They are weary of the possibility of predators. Predators approach in a straight line with their eyes clearly focused on the desired object; they do not worry about the presence of prey.

Horses’ natural sensitivity to their environment enables them to give us feedback on our own behavior. They can “read” our emotions and intentions – our fear, anger, trust, or confidence; and they react accordingly. Their reactions are neither subtle nor delayed, but clear and immediate. Neither are horses’ reactions affected by differences among us. Differences that may have great meaning to us in our world, such as size, shape, age, gender, or position, mean nothing to them. We are all simply potential predators to them.

Dunrovin Ranch’s Leading the Herd leadership program uses horses’ indiscriminate sensitivity to humans to examine our ways of leading and communicating. Program participants learn to become more effective leaders in the human world by learning to effectively communicate and lead horses. The program consists of a number of “hands on” exercises and activities with horses that illustrate key aspects of effective leadership in both the human and horse worlds. 
Dunrovin Ranch has conducted Leading the Herd programs since summer of 2008 for groups that include:

    Leading the Herd Sessions – All sessions require a minimum of 10 participants
    Full Day includes8 – 9 hours instruction/activities, morning & afternoon snacks, and lunch

    • Adult (corporate client) ........................................ $200/person
    • Adult (government client)...................................... $150/person
    • Adult (nonprofit client)......................................... $100/person
    • Student (ages 8 – 18 training and recreation)............ $65/student

    Part Day includes4-5  hours instruction/activities, snacks, and lunch

    • Adult (corporate client) ........................................ $125/person
    • Adult (government client)...................................... $100/person
    • Adult (nonprofit client)........................................... $75/person
    • Student (ages 8 – 18 training)................................. $45/student

Going with the Flow – Team Building by Canoeing the Bitterroot River

Canoeing the Bitterroot River is a great way to foster coordination and cooperation among boat mates. While the river presents some challenges, it is easy enough that beginners with a minimum of instruction can successfully navigate any challenges they encounter. Dunrovin Ranch’s canoeing expert, Derek Smith , has years of experience instructing adults and children in the fine art of canoeing. He not uses the natural flow of the river to challenge participants, but he is a master at developing a wide variety of canoeing and kayaking games that require team work and focus. Activities can include a 3 – 4 hours river float from Chief Looking Glass to Dunrovin, or a shorter session of canoe games in the river right at Dunrovin.
Taking employees out of their normal hierarchy and matching them with fellow employees to successful complete a physical challenge can serve to breakdown

Going with the Flow Sessions - All sessions require a minimum of 4 participants
Part Day Team Building Canoe Trip includes4 - 5 hours trip with shuttle to put in at Chief Looking Glass, instruction, and snacks.

Part Day Canoe Games at Dunrovin includes2-3 hours of instruction and game