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Author Topic: Leading alumni/ae trips  (Read 1661 times)
babbinacara
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« on: April 17, 2010, 04:48:29 AM »

I've been asked whether I would be "resident scholar" on an alumni/ae trip to the area where I do my research.

Have any of you all ever led or been involved in something like this? Is there anything I should know before I decide how to respond? Please share any gory stories and/or positives that can happen.

The logistics would be taken care of by a specialist company (which has already done similar trips in the area and thus should know what they are doing), and it looks as though my role is to be informative and enthusiastic.
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dellaroux
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« Reply #1 on: April 17, 2010, 09:05:42 AM »

1) Make sure they have medical backup arrangements and that you're not the sole responsible person knowing the area with the group.

Also be sure that they have standards for any onsite drivers, that they have had a good reputation with the "team" of support folks, and that if you're in an area where "manana-think" is prevalent, the interfaces between this and the genial type-A behavior usually necessary to keep a tour group moving forward have been worked out and you don't have a driver who hangs out at home when you need him to get you to the airport (er....these days, maybe the train station) on time.

2) Find out how many people typically go and work out what the staff-to-client/participant ratio is. You can handle, say, 40-50 people in a tour bus by yourself but on a longer stint, everyone needs to be spelled and I wouldn't want to be in a group where the ratio was anything more than 20 adults-per-staff-member.

3) If you're going into areas where your institution regularly files for extra medical travel coverage for you (the areas where this is necessary are usually listed with your OSR and I believe come from the US Dept. of State) be sure the tour company is giving you similar coverage.

Check your own medical policies as well to be sure you're covered for any sites you might be going through on your way there--you may have your own itinerary if this is a place you often go for your own research, and be covered for those places, but the tour company may have another routing and if there are stopovers and you get sick at one of them, you don't want to be paying out-of-pocket because it's in a non-covered place.

4) You could also work out something of the per diem from the USDS website to get a sense of your probable expenses and how what they're paying you and what they're covering for you works out to your income level:

   http://aoprals.state.gov/web920/per_diem_action.asp?MenuHide=1&CountryCode=0000 

Again, that's probably moot if you know the area well from having visited it before, but I usually have my own "haunts" for my research sites where I stay and hang out, and they'd be much less expensive than anything I'd be expected to do if I were guiding a group there....so I'd want to factor in some extra personal expenses as well, probably.

5) I would usually work up an evening presentation before the day's tour, (I do Ppts but you could just do slides or even just a short talk) and have handouts prepared for the next day's activity in advance; some people take these very seriously and want to "study up."

Others are really there for the off-hand interest and they're the ones you want to watch out for; they're more likely to wander off, goof up your time tables by getting lost and not paying attention to schedules, find some item in a shop and spend hours bargaining for it, not have their luggage out in the hall the night before an early AM departure, etc.


Tour guiding is fun but it requires certain kinds of preparation and the ability to keep a very careful watch on all the participants at once. Your sense of enthusiasm, etc. is certainly a large part of it, but they're like kids on holiday (hmmm...in fact, they ARE usually just slightly older kids on holiday.....)

In other words, study any materials you have on cat-herding with a sub-study on flea-herding and you should be OK.

Have fun.
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notaprof
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« Reply #2 on: April 17, 2010, 09:46:01 AM »

I would suggest getting written confirmation about the exact duties you are expected to perform.  
- Will the company providing the logistics have someone accompanying the group to take care of details when things go wrong?  Or is a staff member from the alumni/ae office also accompanying you?
- Are you on call 24/7? Or are you there merely to provide informative talks on the sights to be seen?  
- Is there someone else to call if a participant becomes ill/has an accident/is mugged/is assaulted or are you the responsible party?  Is there someone else along to stay back with a participant while you move on with the group?  
- What happens if you become ill or have an accident?

Since these are not students, I would hope that you have a lesser responsibility to the group.  It might be a good idea to look at the expectations for faculty in a faculty-led program at your institution to get an idea of the responsibility you might be taking on for this group.  If your institution doesn't do faculty-led programs, Michigan State has a very comprehensive handbook on line.  It may be useful to look over this and make sure that the logistics company is taking care of all these other things.

One advantage of working with students is that you have a stick to use to keep them in line - they are getting a grade for the trip and they can be disciplined or dismissed from the group if they misbehave.  They will have gone through an admission process and would have had an orientation and a health screening to make sure they can physically manage any challenging parts of the trip, etc.  You will not be choosing who is going to participate on an alumni/ae trip.  You will not be able to dismiss or discipline an alumni/ae group member who causes any problems - drunken or obnoxious behavior, keeping the group waiting at every meeting point, etc.  I would have a strict rule that if someone is not at the meeting point on time, they will be left behind and will have to make their own way to the next stop or back to the hotel.

Hopefully your group will be composed of older and more mature people because most recent (young) alumni/ae would probably not be able to afford the trip.  That brings up another point - many alumni/ae events are related to fund-raising for the college so you may be expected to schmooze and generally keep everyone happy on this trip and that may require dealing with unpleasant people along the way and keeping a smile on your face the whole time.

After all these precautions, I would also add that it could be a lot of fun.  I have known of such trips that turned out wonderfully and I have heard of groups where just one participant was such a pain in the backside that it ruined parts of the trip for everyone, even the leader.
« Last Edit: April 17, 2010, 09:47:45 AM by notaprof » Logged

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babbinacara
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« Reply #3 on: April 19, 2010, 02:32:51 AM »

Many thanks for the detailed replies. I may print these out for when I talk to the alumni/ae office.
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dellaroux
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« Reply #4 on: April 19, 2010, 05:29:24 AM »

You might also want to look up sites like Elder Hostel and Eco-Tourism for some parallax.

Also these educational travel sites (for groups of students, again, but with some of the same issues in mind) are helpful in planning and thinking about group needs and responsibilities in advance:

1) ACIS: http://www.acis.com/

2) EF Educational Travel: http://www.eftours.com/

You could also possibly call one of the agents at one of these places, or some other similar office, and discuss generally the kinds of things you'd be thinking about if you were going to lead a group of adults on a trip, or what they'd do with you and how they'd advise you to set up such a tour if you were going to do it with them. (Who knows? You might enjoy this one so much that you'll want to!)

I think a former colleague who with their spouse was doing extreme eco-tourist stuff (think, rafting in the Amazon, only not quite that well-known a site) might still be around and available if you wanted to contact them; PM me if so. (...and I'll see if they're on a land line at the moment!)
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How am I?: There are four levels: Alive, Alert, Awake & Functioning. Right now, I'm standing upright & moving forward.

We are gifted superfluously--the cosmos is more generous than we can ask or imagine.
promovenda
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« Reply #5 on: April 19, 2010, 07:37:00 AM »

Posting for updates; I may be doing this in the near future.
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