LUSSC Ski Trip!

LUSSC has two trips to the alps which are a highlight of being in LUSSC, therefore, a lot of planning and organisation needs to go into it to make sure it's a success!

1. Ski Companies

One of the most important things we needed to decide was what ski company we were going to book our trip with. There are multiple companies that offer competitive prices to universities. The companies we considered were:

• Ski Alpine
• Off the Piste
• Wasteland
• Outgoing

What LUSSC is looking for:

• They can accommodate the amount of members we want to bring on the trip for a competitive price
• As LUSSC is one of the smaller university groups, that we will have the same access to facilities and will receive the same attention as the larger groups
• Support on getting members onto the trip and having a contact that we can reach if we have any problems.

To evaluate the companies, the holiday rep and myself went to meet with them all. Ski alpine seemed the most personal service, however, Outgoing had more competitive prices. We wanted both of those for our ski trips so negotiations had to happen! Using the prices we'd been offered with Outgoing, we managed to get the prices down with Ski Alpine and ended up with a contract that would benefit our members immensely. 

2. Leading up to the trip

Promotion of the holiday:

• We incorporated promotion of the holiday with freshers fair, that I talked about in my last post. This was the best way to get new members to join and also to promote it to non members. 
• We took flyers to halls and had a ski alpine representative up for the duration of freshers fair to advertise Ski Alpine as a company and get people onto the trip. 
• The same rep also joined us on our first social which had approximately 150 people attending.
• Using social media such as Facebook and email, we could update all our members on the holiday and advertise the booking date.
• We created a video to show people what the trip last year looked like which gave people an idea of the trip

LUSSC's Homemade Video:

We managed to book 96 people onto the trip which exceeded 55 from the Christmas before. The increase in promotion as well as the great deal we managed to get meant we managed to exceed our expectations!

Reflection:

• Time management: Promoting the trip was a lot of hard work and very time consuming. Keeping the committee motivated to keep on promoting was essential. Making rotas meant that we all could put in the same amount of time and work this around our other commitments and rotas will be used for other purposes.
• Negotiating: Evaluating the different ski companies was essential to make sure we had the best contract that benefited members. Meeting with all the companies meant we knew what was on the market and could negotiate. This will be passed on to the committee next year so they are also able to find the best contract.
• Social media: the facebook group as well as email meant we could access all the people that signed up on freshers fair and could make a bigger awareness of the trip. This allowed us to get a large number booked onto the trip.

Career Future

Another aspect, for teaching, I have developed is my 'classroom management' skills. If i can control 100 university students on holiday in the Alps, I feel more confident that I can control 30 pupils in a classroom! As well as this, we had multiple issues on the trips such as illnesses, injuries, and small problems like people losing things. All of which I had to deal with and as well would be common problems in a classroom!