East Coast Tour Meeting Agenda
Monday, June 18, 7:00 pm
Introduction
General rules for group travel
Often, students with diverse personalities on trips have conflicts. Know that their opinions are just as important as yours. Take a moment and practice patience with both adults and fellow students while we travel.
It is also important to consider that you may not be the only person with needs, or if your ideas about where your family group should use their time when there is free time for exploring are different than other people in your group, take time to practice compromise. Do a little of what you like and do a little of what others like. Practice being considerate of others.
The most important detail to remember when involved with group travel is to cooperate with the leadership, other adults and other students in all that you do. Cooperating sometimes involves putting others first. This allows you to practice knowing that their needs and wants are just as important as your needs and wants. Should you encounter a challenge with another student, make sure you communicate with the adult leader in your family group. If you encounter a challenge with the leader of your group, make sure you communicate with one of the staff members on the trip.
The bottom line is to remember that being together for 8 days can take it's toll on everyone traveling. Work on your communication skills to let others know about your feelings. If someone is talking too loud on the bus and you are trying to watch a movie, communicate to them in a way that expresses your feelings, but isn't disrespectful or rude. Learning to get along as a group is an important life skill. Take time to practice it on our trip.
Itinerary
Bus seating sign-up
After Monday's meeting, the seating charts below will be updated with student names where they signed up to sit while on the bus.
IMPORTANT: We use the seating chart for attendance purposes. Once we begin traveling, students may switch to a different seat on their bus. Students MAY NOT change buses during any point of the tour.
Hotel Room detail
Medical Information
The over the counter medications listed are not generally supplied by the music program. We will have some items on hand for emergencies. If you know that your student is sensitive to motion sickness, certain foods, headaches, etc. please provide that medication for them.
The process for managing medications for 80 students is challenging. We have a chaperone team that has been given directions on how best to managing helping the students with both administering and documenting when the meds were given. To help us, please place all medications for your child in one gallon size storage baggie with their name clearly written on the outside of the bag. Inside the bag, please place all medications in their original container along with instructions for administering their medications. (ex. please administer 2 times a day with a meal)
There will be a table that all students/parents will check their medication in with one of our chaperones when students arrive on our departure day. Make sure ALL medications that you are bringing along are included with what you turn in. We understand all situations, personal choices and more. There never is judgement or challenges to your wishes. We simply need to document medications for all students.
If you are wondering why we need to do this, we learned a long time ago that any student who needs medical care at an urgent clinic, emergency room or other health care kind of situation needs to disclose what medications are currently in their body and what pre-existing conditions or drug sensitivities they may have. To comply with this, we document all medications on a daily basis and we keep the health form with us at all times. If a student is incoherent, unconscious or otherwise unable to speak for themselves, we need to have this information readily available to disclose on their behalf. Even in situations where students can speak for themselves, we want to offer a complete history of anything that may influence the medical teams ability to make their diagnosis and treatment plan effectively and efficiently.
Meal planning
1. Booster meals
2. Restaurant/Fast Food meals
3. Hotel breakfasts
4. Sponsored meals through our tour company
If you check the itinerary, we have planned stops for Booster meals. They put a "W" by them, because we have learned that stopping at a Super Walmart allows us to go in, purchase grocery needs and assemble the meal for students to enjoy on the spot in the Walmart parking lot. We have worked to learn of any food tolerance/sensitivity concerns and will plan meals so that all students can be healthy on the tour by eating well. These booster meals are covered in the cost of your trip.
In situations where it is impractical to have a booster meal, we will need to give students the ability to eat at a fast food location or restaurant. For these situations, we have built in a $5 stipend for every student to use. That money will be given to them before they eat. They may wish to have additional food money with them for days that options are limited and they need to spend more than the stipend allows. Also, you know your student. If their eating habits support more like a $10 meal allowance, please supplement their money needs with an additional $5.
All of our hotel stays include complementary breakfasts. Student will need to make sure they plan their mornings to include eating breakfast. This is not an option.
There are a couple tour sponsored meals that students need to be aware of. There will be a DJ dinner cruise in New York and there will be a pizza meal when we arrive in New York.
Meals and Eating habits
Often, that feeling of not wanting to eat can happen while on a tour. Schedules make your body react differently than when you are home. Stress or confusion regarding being in a new environment can make your body feel very different. Know, that creating habits of drinking water, eating regularly and avoiding junk food will help you be at your best during the trip.
If you are feeling different, make sure you communicate with your family leader or any other adult on the tour. We can help you find solutions to keeping yourself healthy while we travel!
Managing Money
For trips, students need to be mindful of the 3 types of spending that happen.
1. Food. This includes meals, snacks and refreshments.
2. Souvenirs. This includes the multitude of objects, items and clothing that help you to remember the trip when you are home.
3. Emergency. This includes batteries, memory cards, or other "essential" items that you planned for, but need to update or replace.
My recommendation is that students look at the meal money they need. If a student is planning on spending $10 on their meals, and they get a $5 stipend from their trip payment, they need an extra $5 per meal for the trip. That is 8 meals at $5 or $40 just to help them be comfortable with meals.
If you offer them $50 for souvenirs, thinking this would probably get them a momenteau
from each major town we visit (Boston and New York) you should be safe. Knowing that they have $90 for each of these items, they may need emergency funds for any unexpected situation. That will be up to you and your family to decide. These situations are rare, but they do exist.
Let's just say that you give them an extra $50 for emergencies. They now have $140 to manage for the duration of the trip. Budgeting might look something like this:
Plan ahead for each day of the trip. Divide up your funds by day and the needs of the day. Practice the discipline of keeping to your budget. Know your limits for each day and make sure if it is a day that includes opportunities for shopping that you have the funds for that with you.
The key is to separate your funds that you have with you by what you need to use them for. A budget is the central foundation of money management.
Souvenirs
Consider collectable items. Maybe it is a coffee mug with the name of the city on it. Maybe it is an item of clothing. Maybe it's a key chain. Try to make it something that you know you will either use or have visible and appreciate in your bedroom, school locker, or other place you keep collectables.
Keep within your budget. Often, you see items that are more than you have to spend and they look like they are the "one thing" you want to have from the trip. Avoid overspending. The money that you use to pay for that has to come out of one of your other budgetary needs. Near the end of the trip, you want to make sure you have your emergency money for things that are truly an emergency and your meal money so you can keep your body healthy for the rest of the trip.
The key to having a souvenir that has meaning to you is to think about what you would want before you leave. Plan ahead and stay within a budget. Do a little pre-shopping online to identify items you may be interested in as a souvenir. Price them out and bring that much with for your shopping. There is nothing wrong with identifying something that you would like before you go and searching for it when you are there. If you don't find exactly what you like, internet shopping is easy and when you get home, make the purchase. Again, successful souvenir shopping requires planning. Take time now to do that.
Group Family responsibilities
Jumping in and helping can be rewarding and fun. When we all pitch in, we help to make the tour better for all.
Schedule and Sleep
1. Know your daily schedule
2. Get as much sleep as you can
Our daily schedule will be printed in our tour book. Keep this book with you at all times. We will work for an electronic version for you to access as well. Always be early regarding the times given to be someplace while on tour. Set alarms, ask your friends to keep you informed, listen to instructions and check your schedule often. One phrase that will NOT work on this trip is "I didn't know we were suppose to be here at that time".
Many of you are used to staying up late at night and sleeping in late in the morning. This will not work on our tour. We start our days early so we can experience as much as possible while on the tour. It will be important for you to begin to shift your sleep schedule to going to bed by 10:00 and getting up by about 6:00 to orient your body to our tour schedule. Good sleep will help you have a better tour experience! Make sure you work hard to try to sleep at the times suggested.
Excuses vs. Expectation
Group Communication
If you want to dig further into the app and it's capabilities, visit https://www.whatsapp.com/.
Consequences
1. First offense: Communication by an adult to the offending student(s) near the situation when it happens.
2. Second offense: Communication by an adult to a staff member. The staff member will communicate to the student about the situation and outline consequences.
3. Any further offense: Student will be paired with a staff member for the rest of the day and/or the rest of the trip. There is also a potential (based on the severity of the situation) that the student's behavior will be communicated to administration back in Sauk Rapids and discussions regarding sending the student home at the parents expense will happen.