How to Run a ROC Trip
If you’re reading this, chances are that you’ve been on a few trips and are now interested in running your own. Fantastic!
There is a bit of planning and paperwork to do, but everything is fairly straightforward. As a quick overview, you’ll first need permission from the relevant activity convenor, before working out the details and posting the trip to the club calendar. You’ll also fill out an intentions form to lodge with the club and RMIT Sport & Recreation (so we know where to look if you don’t come back!)
Running trips benefits everyone, so if you’ve got an idea for an awesome trip, please don’t hesitate to contact one of the convenors and get the ball rolling!
Before doing any actual organising, it’s important to make sure you’re actually suitable/qualified to run a trip for the kind of activity you’re thinking of. For some activities, like bushwalking, this may require you having been on some prior trips and have knowledge of reading a map and following a track. For others, such as rock climbing, this requires having previously completed in-club training. So the very first thing – check with the relevant convenor that you are eligible!
Next, figure out the specifics of the day: the activity, location, any necessary gear, and level of experience required for participants to join the trip. More particular details (e.g. gear) should also be defined, but can always be refined at a later date.
Once you have planned out all of the above, click on the button below to put the trip online via the management site. If it’s your first time entering the site, you’ll need to follow the prompts for your login access.
It’s important to get the trip live and up on our calendar as early as possible, in order to leave enough time for people to join up. Even if you’re unsure about some of the details (for example, you have dates but plan to determine location closer to the day), we still encourage you to post the trip – just make a note of this so people are aware of which details may change.
Once the trip is online, it is immediately available for participants to join. The system will automatically email you when someone signs up, so keep an eye out. Be sure to read the comments section of these emails in case somebody leaves a message for you. Your email and phone number will also appear on the trip details page, so you may be contacted for more information by interested club members. If you’d like your phone number to be hidden from the public site, please contact one of the website admins.
And that’s pre-planning done! Next, what to do in the 1-2 weeks leading up to the trip.
Okay, time for the tricky stuff. If this is your first time running a trip, we suggest getting started on this two weeks before the trip, or else no later than a week before.
- Confirming/waitlisting participants. Opening your trip on the management website, you should be able to see all the people who have signed up. You’ll need to work out how many people you’ll allow on the trip – this number will depend on how many people are available to drive, how many passengers they can accommodate, and the number of experienced attendees (you’ll need a healthy ratio of leaders to participants, which varies according to the activity).
Once this has been established, finalise the list of people attending. The best approach is generally to identify your leaders and drivers first, then allocate the rest of the participants accordingly. Update the participation status of these sign ups to ‘confirmed’ and mark those anyone who hasn’t fit as ‘waitlisted’. An automated email will be sent to each person, notifying them of their position on the trip or waitlist.
If you can see anything that may alter whether or not the trip goes ahead (like a beginner climbing trip with no checked-off anchor setters or a surfing trip with no drivers), then do whatever you can to change this ASAP! Posting in ROC’s Facebook group is usually the best way.
- Touching base with participants. Send out an email to confirmed participants ASAP after updating everyone’s status. Download the participants list, which includes all names and emails, via the trip page on the management site. Your email should include roughly the following:
- Request participants to let you know ASAP if they can no longer attend
- A reminder to hire any necessary gear from the gear room on Tuesday/Thursday evening
- That you’ll send out the carpool allocations in the coming days
- And a weather update never hurt
- Submitting official paperwork. There are a number of forms that need to be filled out and emailed to clubs@rmit.edu.au with a CC to info@roc.org.au at least 2 business days before the beginning of the trip.
This is really important! We are a university club, so we need to record all of our plans and activities to get trip approval, lest valid accident insurance becomes void for the trip. So DO NOT miss this step, or your trip may not be allowed to go ahead! Speak to your convenor about some pre-filled out forms you may also be able to access.
There are four pieces of paperwork to submit:
- Trip & Activity Intention Plan (download here)
- Safe Work Methods Statement (download here)
- Complete participants list, downloaded from the trip’s page on the management site
- A map showing routes from the trip location to the nearest hospital
- Organise carpooling. By now you’ve been on a few trips before, so you’re familiar with how ROC carpools are laid out – time to make one for your trip. Think logically and fill up the drivers spare seats with passengers who either live close by or on the way to the trip meeting point. A good aide can be found on your trip’s page on the management site – scroll to the bottom for a map of all drivers and passengers.
Once this is finalised, email the allocations to passengers so they are aware of who they will be travelling with. Be sure to include everyone’s mobile number, suburb and email address, as they will communicate amongst themselves to organise meeting points. Make sure everyone is aware that it’s the job of the passenger to contact the driver to organise, and that the driver has final say on where to meet. It is not the job of your drivers to go far out of their way to accommodate passengers.
This email is also the best time to reiterate the information from your trip details – meeting point and time, what to bring, and any special considerations.
- Gear hire. If you need to take any club gear on the trip for everyone to use, make sure you find time to collect it from the gear room. Think ahead in case the gear you need is already hired out. And remember to pick up a first-aid kit (required on all club trips)!
Download the following forms to submit for your trip:
Other forms that may become relevant:
Gear
Firstly, make sure you remembered to pack all of the club gear needed, first aid kits, a copy of all trip paperwork, an updated car list and bring copies of all participants emergency contact details from the trip application forms. Also, don’t forget your own items and lunch! Continue on as you would when you’re just a trip participant – get in the car, meet at the meeting point! From there, make sure everyone has arrived and follow up with anyone who is missing.
Running and Safety
Chances are that you’ll have a more experienced club member with you to help with the running of the day. The instructions you give will depends on the activity and who you have to help you But remember that no matter who is there and how experienced they are/claim to be, YOU are the trip leader. Your say is final and you have the right to intervene with anything you see as unsafe/against club ethics. Safety first. Please! Remember safety briefing for everyone at the start – helmets if relevant, stay away from cliffs, let someone know if you go off to natures bathroom etc. Enjoy your day and just remember to keep an eye on anyone who is new to the club/activity. They may need help or just reassurance.
The main responsibilities post-trip are the trip payments and associated report.
This happens after the end of the trip, either in cash after packing up / while stopped for dinner on the way home, or worked out after the trip and payments handled via bank transfers. If being done on the day, have fun trying to give everyone back the correct change – rounding to $5 values can make this a lot easier! Exact amounts can be used if the calculations are done by transfer afterwards, but it is still often easier to use rounded values (given they’re within reason). It’s best to keep a record of your calculations, as you’ll need to provide summary values as part of the post trip report and it can also be handy in case of any issues with payments.
The general trip costs guidelines for what is paid are:
- Trip organiser and leaders, other exceptions = fuel cost (passenger) OR fuel owed to them (driver)
- Drivers = (hire rate x number of days) – fuel refund owed to them
- Passengers = (hire rate x number of days) + fuel cost
Gear Hire Rate
The gear hire rate is calculated on a per day basis, with the daily rates as follows:
- $10 per/day for rock climbing, hiking, caving
- $20 per/day for snow sports, surfing, snorkelling, MTB and paddling
These rates apply to everyone except:
- you, as the trip organiser
- leaders actively leading on the trip (the leaders nominated on the trip intention form or other people acting in leadership roles on the trip e.g. anchor setters, raft guides etc.)
- Be aware that just because someone is trained as a leader, does not mean they count as a leader on this trip. If someone is trained as a leader, but does not assume a leadership role on the trip, then they should be considered a participant.
- certain committee members (exec and gear officers on all trips, and activity convenors for trips within their activity)
- anyone who you, as the trip organiser, have sufficient reason to adjust the gear hire rates for (e.g. someone using all their own private gear should not have to pay any gear hire; someone who has some personal gear that they used, but who also has to use some ROC gear, might get a slight discount to the daily rate)
- training courses/trips (e.g. skills sessions required in order to ensure that a participant has a suitable skill level to participate in trips) usually get a discounted gear hire rate for all trainees, and free gear hire for instructors – check with the relevant convenor if you believe this applies to your trip
This money covers any activity gear that participant collected from the gear room; they should not have paid for this at the gear room. However, this money excludes general camping equipment and consumables (e.g. overalls, wetsuits), which participants will pay for when hiring. Some specialty camping gear or consumables may be considered activity gear – check with the relevant activity convenor if you are uncertain.
Fuel cost
The carpool fuel cost is calculated with the following formula:
- Fuel cost = total price of fuel from all drivers ÷ total number of passengers (drivers excluded)
Drivers do not pay for fuel when transporting passengers or equipment for trips. The total fuel cost is shared between all passengers, and the driver’s share is the maintenance required to cover for wear and tear on the vehicle. This share includes covering any repairs that are needed from the trip.
There may be other factors that require consideration when calculating fuel cost; you will need to use your discretion for these types of situations. Some common examples are:
| Driver chooses not to participate in the carpool, drives separately from the group | Driver is not eligible for any fuel reimbursement |
| Driver chooses not to participate in the carpool, but the trip requires other cars to transport bulky or large amounts of group gear that the driver will use | May be appropriate to include the driver as a “passenger” or to charge the driver a small amount (e.g. $5-20) |
| Driver and passenger choose not to participate in the carpool, drive together but separately from the group | May be appropriate to exclude these participants from the carpool, and have them sort their own transport costs |
| Driver chooses to take only one passenger or to make part of their car unavailable for use for the trip (common when people have vans/SUVs they plan to sleep in) | May be appropriate for the driver to only have 50% of their fuel cost reimbursed |
Trip Payments
Once you have the gear hire cost and car pool costs, you can calculate the overall trip payments/refunds that are required.
One of our friendly committee members has also created a spreadsheet that can do these gear/fuel calculations automatically! You can download this from your trip’s page on the management site, punch in the relevant numbers, and it spits out what everyone owes or is owed – much easier 🙂
It can be found here – please create a copy for editing in your own Google Drive, or download and edit the spreadsheet locally.
However, there are several common issues that can be encountered while doing the trip payments.
If a driver does not reply to the trip organisers request for their fuel costs then
– Provided that there has been at least 2 weeks after the initial contact by the trip organiser, and a minimum of 2 attempts to contact the driver made using different contact methods
– make their best guess of a reasonable estimate of the likely fuel costs (eg using similar cars on the trip, or the fuel rating estimated distance travelled)
– use this estimated fuel cost to finalise trip payments. If they do this then they must record who the driver was and what the estimated fuel cost was in the post trip report.
If the driver replies after the trip organiser has done this then they should direct the driver to contact the executive committee(treasurer/well being to handle it).
If they can provide a reasonable explanation for why they did not provide their fuel, then they may have their fuel refunded by the treasurer from the bank account charging it to the trip, using the estimated value made by the trip organiser.
If the driver believes that this amount is significantly inaccurate, then they can request for it to be modified, which may be approved if sufficient justification is provided
Participants not paying
If a participant does not transfer the trip cost to the trip organisers when requested then
– Provided that there has been at least 1 month after the initial contact by the trip organiser, and a minimum of 2 attempts to contact the participant made using at least 2 different contact methods
– can complete the post trip report, while also recording the person, contact dates and methods and amount owed there and forwarding it to the executive.
When this report is received, the member owing trip fees will have their account temporarily deactivated, and it will not be reactivated until such time as they pay the outstanding fees. This deactivation will continue even if they purchase a membership for a subsequent year.
There are a lot of other unusual situations that may occur. If something does happen and you aren’t sure what the best thing to do is to contact the relevant convenor, or the wellbeing officer. Some examples of situations, and their responses are shown below
- A passenger forces a driver to drive significantly out of their way. While the driver is well within their rights to drop the passenger off at the initial agreed upon pickup/drop off point, if the detour is taken, the passenger is solely responsible for paying the full cost of that extra detour (eg demanding to be driven significantly out of the way to be dropped at their house, being driven from camp out to a point with reception)
- A driver gets a flat tyre and/or damages their vehicle on a trip – they are responsible for paying for the repair/replacement.
- A driver provides an unrealistic fuel cost – in this case it is within the rights of a trip organiser to request justification/evidence of the given cost, and if they do not respond or provide sufficient justification/evidence then the trip organiser can adjust the cost to a more realistic value after consulting the relevant convenor and/or wellbeing officer.
Post-trip report
A couple of days after the trip you will receive an email prompting you to fill in a web form with the money incoming (from participants) / outgoing (to drivers, etc.) and some details on how the trip went, any issues, injuries, etc. that we should know. Please do this promptly as it helps with the club’s accounting and reporting.
The post-trip web form will also include the club’s bank details, where you can deposit the takings from the trip (money incoming – money outgoing). When making the transfer, please ensure to do so in a single transaction and to include a description exactly as will be described in the form.
Trip 〈Trip ID〉 〈Your Name〉
For e.g., Trip 2101 Sandy
Bank Details:
BSB: 063 262
Account#: 1025 1748
Name: RMIT Outdoors Club
Bank: Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA)