Student Expectations for Travel

[treffk]

Use of cell phones on our team has gotten so bad that at most events we have a jar that all phones have to go in. The exception is each buddy group may have a cell phone so we can reach them.

As for hotel rules, from my experiences as a student as we have never travel with the current team. A Curfew which is enforced by room checks and 'lock-out' tape tags to seal checked rooms and see if someone left. We didn't allow members of the opposite sex in a hotel room unless there was an adult present also.

One thing that we learned from our trip to Atlanta in 2008 is have an id or reference card for each student that includes hotel information and adult contact numbers. We had a student get separated from us, due to a misunderstanding between the mentors and his parents, at the finale and he had to walk back by himself without knowing what hotel we were at or know any phone numbers to each us.

[SarahBeth]

Regarding students having enough money for food throughout the weekend, one method we find works very well is giving students $1.00 in profit for every pepperoni roll they sell. The team gets the remaining profit per roll. These are very popular - we sell them throughout the school year.

This money they earn from this specific sale is first used to pay off a student's activity fee, required prior to traveling. Any excess proceeds are then distributed by the parent booster leader to the students while on the bus heading to the competitions for use as extra food money. So the kids have an opportunity to earn additional spending money for trips. This is especially beneficial to students who come from poorer or struggling families. And it isn't a freebie handout - double bonus.

What are pepperoni rolls? And I'm not sure that we could sell food as a fundraiser only because MA has become really stringent with the healthy eating intuitive (all the lunch rules and stuff changed this year too) and we're not allowed to sell candy bars or anything like that in the building due to the rules.

I do love the idea of the kids earning extra spending money for trips though - thats kind of a cool incentive for fundraising.

One issue our team had dealt with religion. Some of the boys wanted to go swimming but a few girls couldn't be around them shirtless and also couldn't use the pool so that was something we had to deal with. We still allowed the team to use the pool but the mentors reserved judgement that if the particular students who couldn't use the pool were being left out (perceived or real) we would have said no swimming period. Again, our students are pretty good and genuinely like each other so we didn't have an issue but with larger teams it's something you might want to think about BEFORE angry parents call you.

This is a good point - thank you!

Use of cell phones on our team has gotten so bad that at most events we have a jar that all phones have to go in. The exception is each buddy group may have a cell phone so we can reach them.

How does this go over amongst your kids? As I said, its not that we WANT to take our kids' phones away but I'm not sure how else to motivate them to get out of the stands if they're not scouting and go talk to other teams, check out the pit, etc.

One thing that we learned from our trip to Atlanta in 2008 is have an id or reference card for each student that includes hotel information and adult contact numbers. We had a student get separated from us, due to a misunderstanding between the mentors and his parents, at the finale and he had to walk back by himself without knowing what hotel we were at or know any phone numbers to each us.

Also a really good idea -- and actually really important! Thank you!

[Travis Hoffman]

Originally Posted by SarahBeth

What are pepperoni rolls?

You wound me. Pepperoni rolls are essentially pizza toppings (in this case, pepperoni and cheese, a bit of sauce - depends on the local pizza place that makes them) put on bread dough, rolled into a sub-sized roll, and baked. Sometimes the pizza shop offers different fillings - sausage, hot pepper, etc. Quite tasty.

And I'm not sure that we could sell food as a fundraiser only because MA has become really stringent with the healthy eating intuitive (all the lunch rules and stuff changed this year too) and we're not allowed to sell candy bars or anything like that in the building due to the rules.

Did the government ban pizza in Massachusetts?

If so, you could always fill the innards with healthy flavor-infused tofu and bean sprouts!

I bet some places would sell veggie/white pizza style rolls.

I do love the idea of the kids earning extra spending money for trips though - thats kind of a cool incentive for fundraising.

Indeed. Everyone seems to really appreciate the program, including the students' parents.

[SarahBeth]

Originally Posted by Travis Hoffman

You wound me. Pepperoni rolls are essentially pizza toppings (in this case, pepperoni and cheese, a bit of sauce - depends on the local pizza place that makes them) put on bread dough, rolled into a sub-sized bun, and baked. Sometimes the pizza shop offers different fillings - sausage, hot pepper, etc. Quite tasty.

Oh, I see! Those sound kind of amazing. Do you get a local place to donate them? How do you do profit-wise on them?

Did the government ban pizza in Massachusetts?

If so, you could always fill the innards with healthy flavor-infused tofu and bean sprouts!

LOL, no, but I'm not sure our administration would let us do it in building, that's all. Then again, you never know until you ask.

Indeed. Everyone seems to really appreciate the program, including the students' parents.

It definitely sounds like it goes over well! We might have to investigate to see if we can do something like this with our kids as we've been talking about possibly giving the students an incentive to fundraise other then seeing our lead mentor in a skirt at competition. (Its happened)

[Travis Hoffman]

Originally Posted by SarahBeth

Oh, I see! Those sound kind of amazing. Do you get a local place to donate them? How do you do profit-wise on them?

Yes, a local place makes them for us (it's a very common fundraiser in these here parts) and sells them cheap enough that we can make a profit of about $1.25 or so per roll for the price we charge. This fundraiser is not meant to make mad money for the team - mainly fund student spending money.

[Koko Ed]

I remember a quote out late team founder Gene Wicks made to our kids before going to champs years ago regarding taping kids in their room and such.
"If we have to do such things to keep you in line, we're not taking you."

[BrendanB]

Originally Posted by Koko Ed

I remember a quote out late team founder Gene Wicks made to our kids before going to champs years ago regarding taping kids in their room and such.
"If we have to do such things to keep you in line, we're not taking you."

^This!

Regarding taping doors if you want it to be effective put the tape on after student curfew, don't put it on obviously, and take it off/check before morning curfew. Also when dividing up the rooms, don't put all of your problem children/most likely to cause issues in one room.

With regard to cell phones, I would advise not taking them away from students. If a parent were to find out that on a school trip students weren't allowed to have cell phones on them I don't see that going over well. What if there is an emergency, a parent wants to have contact with their student, or contact among members regarding important team function at the event. It is hard to keep everyone busy and entertained 100% of the time but you need to set a standard that playing games is not acceptable during competition.

Money for trips is hard especially when students don't have a job. During a trip meeting with both students and their parents we said to plan for $10 per meal and a few extra dollars for snacks. We have had some problems with students running low after a long weekend so I and a few other parents and mentors have loaned students money on trips. Part of your problem could be making sure the parents are aware of how much their child needs in advance. For all they know, breakfast, lunch and dinner are covered by the team/event so they only give money for snacks. Parent education is key for trips!

A tip for dealing with meals. We had an issue this year where after collecting the tab for our meal ended in a huge difference between what people gave for their meal+tip and the total. In the future we plan to keep one of the menus along with a notebook and go around writing down what each student ordered and calculate the tip so every person knows exactly what they owe. Splitting up $600 tabs is not easy!

For down time in the hotel we encourage students to hang out in common areas and not in their rooms (no girls in guys rooms and vice versa).

[SarahBeth]

A tip for dealing with meals. We had an issue this year where after collecting the tab for our meal ended in a huge difference between what people gave for their meal+tip and the total. In the future we plan to keep one of the menus along with a notebook and go around writing down what each student ordered and calculate the tip so every person knows exactly what they owe. Splitting up $600 tabs is not easy!

This is an EXCELLENT idea. Thank you!

Our kids are generally really good about curfew and staying in their rooms at night because they're exhausted from competition (we're doing something right!) so taping doors isn't an issue.

We do plan on having a parent/student meeting perhaps in December or RIGHT at the beginning of build season to lay down expectations for the build season, travel, etc. Will probably have another one before we go to our first competition. I feel like some of that will help with the students having enough money for meals issue.

[treffk]

Originally Posted by SarahBeth

How does this go over amongst your kids? As I said, its not that we WANT to take our kids' phones away but I'm not sure how else to motivate them to get out of the stands if they're not scouting and go talk to other teams, check out the pit, etc.

Rereading what I wrote I feel that I made it sound like we were super strict with it. We do allow the kids to have their phones on less "important" days during competition. Generally they have their phones on Thursday but Friday we generally have them and Saturday when they get them back depends on how we did.

The kids grumble because they don't want to be disconnected from "life" but overall it has worked pretty well. Our team inteacts with other teams so much more now and they make friends out of it.

After reading the comment that parents wouldn't want students going on a trip and not having their phone I felt I should add this disclaimer. Since enforcing that rule we have never traveled and only done local events. If we did travel we would have to reconsider that rule and make sure the parents have mentors phone numbers to reach us if their kid does not answer.

[MrTechCenter]

A great system that worked for us for meals at competition:

Breakfast: If the hotel offers breakfast, eat there. Otherwise it's a good idea to go to Costco and buy a whole lot of muffins, croissants, fruit, and Sunny D bottles and just have a quick but good breakfast in a hotel room (just keep it clean) before heading to the competition.

Lunch: For lunch, an adult chaperone would collect $3 from everybody and go and get lunch from a fast food place nearby and bring it back so we could eat it outside the competition venue (because they often don't let you eat inside). This makes it quick and easy and maximizes the amount of time that students can be working and preparing at the competition because they don't have to go out and get lunch and come back.

Dinner: We would all go to a local shopping center. From there, everyone is free to go to any place in the shopping center to have dinner. This works very well because it allows everyone to eat whatever they want and with their group of friends and it's easy to keep track of students.


As far as hotel etiquette goes....we aren't really the ones to give advice.