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Homeschool Field Trip Planning
Over the last two months during my lack of writing, something that occured is something I wanted to post about and now I have the time.
I am in an online homeschool group of close to 200 families. The way our group works is when someone wants to set up something they just do it. Then people who are interested join in. One problem with this system, is that few want to step up to the plate and make the effort to host the field trips or other classes. It never ceases to amaze me how people complain, but they never want to do the front end work, but that is another post.
So, being an organizer, I put together two field trips for this fall. The first was to an apple orchard. I asked if people wanted to go on a tour or if they just wanted to meet and pick apples. Most wanted a tour, I set it up. 7 families signed up. I was surprised it was only 7, but we went with it. The day of the tour, lovely though it was, only 4 of the 7 familes showed up.
The second field trip I organized was to a historic Cemetery, the week before Halloween. Again I asked if people wanted a tour or just wanted to visit and the answer was a tour. So I set it up. For the Old City Cemetery, it is necessary to pay 30.00 up front, but only 2.00 a person for anyone over 15 people. I had about 15 families show interest. When it came time to sign up, only 7 actually signed up.
The day of the trip came and it was cold and sprinkled and even sleeted some (very, very unusual for this time of year). Of the 7 families, 3 showed up...I got stuck paying an extra $14. I didn't say anything and we just went on. I am sure some of the families didn't show up because of the weather, and I had made the mistake of not obtaining contact information on the front end.
About three weeks later, on a different homeschool group, this very subject came up. Apparently, homeschoolers are getting a bad reputation with museums, etc. Often field trips are set up and 50% or less are actually showing up! This is not the reputation we want to have.
If we set up a field trip and say 50 are coming, and the museum or whatever prepares for that then only 1/2 shows up, one of two things are going to happen. Either the organizer is going to get stuck paying the tab or the museum is going to have called in extra staff to help and they are going to have paid for people that they didn't need. They are going to think twice before wanting to set up for homeschoolers coming next time. They may double book or just turn us down all together. When I set up the Old City Cemetery Trip, the woman consoled me by saying that it was 'okay, she knew how homeschoolers were....'
So, the comments on the list included ways that people were dealing with this. And I thought I would pass these tips on to you.
1. Require phone numbers and cell phone numbers from people coming. That way if weather becomes an issue you have a way to get in touch with them. We ended up having our Cemetery field trip. We were able to move it inside, but there was no way for me to let people know that.
2. Require registration money up front. Set a date that people have to register by. And require them to pay something by that date, even if there is no fee. If there is no fee, when they show up, they get their money back. If there is a fee and they don't show up, the fee goes to the museum or wherever so the organizer isn't stuck paying.
3. Be sure to provide your phone contact information so they can get in touch with you should something come up.
I am sure there are other ideas and I would love to hear them. How do you deal with these types of issues?
I deal with this in the cub scouts. Kids will come for a while & then just stop coming. I call, no answer-no explanation nothing.
Or I'll get emails 30 minutes before the meeting is due to start saying they won't be there. (thankfully I have a Blackberry so I can get these emails constantly) but it's the principle of the matter.
At the beginning of the year, I got each parent to fill out a contact information sheet. This included name, address, phone & email (if applicable) & if the child has any allergies. This is a big one that most people forget. You don't want to give kids pb&j, & them not know they're allergic to pb (or forget)....
Sorry this happened to you.
December 8, 2008 9:29 PM
