3 Easy Stress Relief Tips When Planning Your Big Trip By Amber Mize, Troubadour Tours It is seven days until your spring trip begins (and five days before UIL).  You still have a dozen kids who have paid most, some, or none of the money for the trip, but insist they are going…hopefully. While you would like to be putting the finishing touches on your contest pieces, you find yourself verifying rooming lists and meal plans with the hotel staff, confirming pick-up and drop off times with your bus company, and trying to add last minute chaperone changes.  You feel as though you are part band director, part mommy, part collection agency, part event planner, part travel agent, and mostly just tired.  Two hours after the sun has set, you sigh heavily, and set down your pen.  Your eyes wander to the unpaid invoice from the bus company that you hate (but was the only approved vendor for your ISD), and look at the clock next to the monitor displaying your excel spreadsheet.   Once again, the only human contact you have had in the past 90 minutes is the night custodian, as he gave you a smile and shook his head in sympathy as he left the room.   After burying your face in your hands for a few moments, you have come to a decision.   This is when you sit back in your chair, turn your eyes towards the heavens, raise your clenched fists and proclaim, “THIS IS THE LAST BAND TRIP I WILL EVER TAKE!”   Ten minutes later, after a visit to the restroom, a splash of cold water and a detour to find the vending machine where you can get a Dr. Pepper, you’re back at your desk staring at the spreadsheet and still wondering if the itinerary allows enough time to travel between the hotel and the performance venue. Does this sound at all familiar?  Do any of the elements of this story remind you of past trips you have planned?  In reality even the ‘simplest’ trips involve headaches for directors, parents and students which can, with the proper systems in place, be avoided.  So, here are some ways to help avoid the frustrations that might crop up in your trip-planning adventures: 1 – Train your administrators It is vital that your administrators are aware of the details that have a dramatic effect on moving large numbers of students from place to place.  The type of bus is critical, the type of food is critical, and the type of lodging, again, is critical. The students want to feel that they are being treated well.  If the administration takes only the ‘lowest bid’ from bus companies and hotels, you will typically end up with transportation and accommodations that are ‘low bid’ quality.  Most directors have certain bus companies or hotel chains that are favored and certain companies that have always provided a bad experience.  Share those concerns with your administration. STRESS RELIEF TIP: If your administrators don’t react to your desires, or if they don’t seem to care what you have to say here’s a nifty trick – contact a tour company like Troubadour Tours (based out of Kaufman, Tx.) and get them on your approved vendor list.  Once you have a relationship set up with a tour company you can call them to arrange part or all of your trip.  Simply tell them what bus companies or hotel chains you’d like to use and then both your preferences and the ‘district requirements’ are met. BONUS: Ever needed to secure busses for a playoff game right now!  Having a tour company on your approved vendor list means you can have the bus company you want even for UIL events like playoff games and marching contests (area and state).  This really helps in situations where the money might come from a district account - not your boosters, transportation or activity account.  Sweet talk the football coach into using the tour company that you prefer and those long-distance or overnight play-off games become a breeze since you will both be using the same tour company and contact. 2 – Train your parents Parents will often make assumptions about how to accomplish certain things, then blame the students or directors when it just doesn’t work out.  This makes the parents defensive, the students irritable, and the puts the director in the middle. Though Susie’s mommy and daddy mean well (after all, they used to work for a travel agency), we all know that the logistics of moving large numbers of students completely baffles most people.   It is always a great idea to have your parents involved with your trip planning and execution.  It is rarely fun for them, or the director, however when they become ‘too much’ in charge of the trip.  Take input from parents, give them a say into the types of events they would like to see as part of the trip, and communicate like crazy.   Be certain, however, that the parents understand that the final arbiter of all things on the band trip is the band director.  The trip is primarily an educational and performance event.   Never allow the ‘other’ portions of the trip to hinder this.  Passions run deep in the band business, and decisions must sometimes be made for the good of the group that some parents can deem unfair.   Keeping the books on payments or making decisions about time tables should be done by a trusted, but unbiased source.  Always have a ‘double heck’ system in place when books are reconciled and money is counted. Again, having an independent tour company involved makes this easy. STRESS RELIEF TIP:  The first resource the band parent goes to when they have a question about the trip should not be your office, or your phone number.  There should be an easily accessible source of information to answer the common questions about payment dates, attractions, performances etc…  Maintain or make certain your tour company maintains a website specifically for YOUR TRIP (examples are available to view at www.troubadourconsultants.com).  It will have important dates and itineraries, contact information and notifications that are available before and during your trip. BONUS:  If you find a way to communicate about the trip through a website, the phone calls, impromptu office visits and crazy-eyed parent confrontations drop dramatically.  If you maintain the site year-to-year it becomes very easy for parents to figure out what is happening. 3 – Check the type A personality at the door – and let someone help you! “It is important that the head band director do, first and foremost, the things that only the head band director can do.”  This great piece of advice has been attributed to John Whitwell, director Emeritus Michigan State University and Abilene Christian University.   Wow.  Simple in its wisdom.  The head band director can stack chairs and stands, yes, but if there is something else that needs to be done that falls under the purview of only the head director – then he should do that and ask for some help in getting the chairs stacked.  Nothing in that statement should be misconstrued as elitist or indicating a head director is ‘above’ fixing music stands.  It simply reminds us to reprioritized many day-to- day activities. This is especially true of planning trips for your organization.  The minutiae of moving students from place to place, while confounding to many parents and administrators, is well-known to the band director community.  Allowing a company that has a successful track record with Texas bands to shoulder some of your burden is not only prudent, but can help you devote more time to the things only you can do.  While the tour company can get the busses you would like, make certain the right number of rooms are reserved, the tickets are prepared and the performance venue has good, quality recordings, they cannot fix the flute intonation in measure 145, nor adjust the balance of the low brass in the chorale section. STRESS RELIEF TIP - Choose a company that has current or former band directors making decisions – it will help give you confidence in the product. BONUS – Though you may feel the ‘do-it-yourself’ approach can save the kids and parents money, often the buying power of the tour companies is substantially greater than an individual band.  The tour companies have established relationships with hotel chains and bus companies and the lower rates they are granted will often make-up for or surpass any savings the director or parents may feel they gain in preparing a trip themselves. Many of these tips seem obvious, but each little bit of work that is no longer necessary for the director, each parent question that can be answered on the travel website, and each purchase or arrangements for rooms or tickets makes for a more time to actually teach kids.  How often do directors complain about the volumes of paperwork they have to do that keeps them out of the classroom?  Take a step back, allow others to shoulder the burden, and treat the band trip as a chance to showcase your group rather than a grueling 96 hour work-shift.