A guide for future committee members organising trips; by Jarv April 2007. Last Update Feb 2013 by Rhys.
As long as possible in Advance
Trips need Drivers. Without enough people to drive the minibus, nothing will happen. Once you have drivers, or the expectation of drivers, start a list collecting names.
12 is the maximum number in a 15 seater minibus, before having to resort to such faff as the roof rack (though this is not too much extra effort).
- Trips to the Wales and Mendips involve about 4hrs drive, and are good for non-SRT trips.
- Trips to Yorkshire and Derbyshire involve about 6 and 5hrs drive respectively, and are better for SRT trips.
A trip to Mendips / Wales is possible with just one driver, wheras a solo driving trip to Yorkshire would be extremely unpleasent. Of course, you ideally want many more - as the driver could become ill over the weekend.
The Term Before
Book the Minibus. Bookings are actually only processed 2 weeks in advance, but sit in some weird queue if you submit them earlier.
For a weekend trip, our typical times are from 17:00 on Friday to 23:59 on Sunday.
Book a hut Choose a hut, and book it. The various region club's websites are are pretty good now-a-days. The wardens are usually pretty bad at emails, so phoning is the way forward.
Our general hut preference is as follows:
- Yorkshire Greenclose (NPC) for general caving, BPF (RRCPC) if one intends to do Saturday trips in Easeghyll
- Derbyshire Orpheus, followed by Chapel (TSG)
- Wales WSG for general caving, SWCC if long Saturday trips in OFD
- Mendips Belfry (BEC) for party atmosphere, SMCC for its fine collection of spoons
2 weeks in advance
Everything starts getting more real here. The minibus booking should have been processed, and the person making the booking should have received a confirmation email. CHECK THOSE DATES! Don't end up with a minibus supposedly returning at 11:59am on Sunday, or one that you can only pick up at 6am on Saturday!
Tuesday before
This is crunch time! Make sure that everyone releases that they're coming at this point; that everything is booked & that all is go!
Try to get as many people as possible to pack on this Tuesday. It makes Friday a lot less hectic.
The Fateful Friday
You need to:
- Pick up keys from SAC; probably filling in some forms at the time. They'll tell you what and where
- Submit an 'Activity Registration' on eActivities. This requires a list of people going on the trip.
- Pick up any hut keys if they've been posted down. Or make sure you have any magic pin codes /etc. , and know where the hut is.
- Pick up the minibus (you'll need a driver). Make sure they sign the hire form, and do all the magic checks. Its acceptable to drive over to outside stores before doing _all_ the checks - but at least make sure it has 4 wheels + etc. If the bus is severely screwed, there should be a magic yellow form on the driver seat. Don't just sit on it & driver off...
- Sort out the freshers / novices. Someone should be down at stores to open up, make sure everyone packs everything necessary & etc.
- Shopping. This is a dark art. Its impossible to give a 'typical' shop list as tastes change, offers come and go - and strangest of all, caver's consumption of various foods is extremely seasonal. For instance, very little cheese is consumed in summer. More than £5 per person and you're useless. Don't forget to check what was left over from the last weekends, and also to occasionally buy the non-perishables (spices, pepper, etc.)
Never the less, here's an attempt at a 'things to remember'.
ThingsToBuy
- DON'T FORGET THE FLIPPING MAP! Its been annotated with locations of most huts and caves, and works with no electricity.
Other useful ThingsToBring...
