Surprises: taking care of details

One aspect of planning is to double check the who, what, when and where questions about a destination or event. One of the easiest problems is one of scheduling – to arrive at an ice cream parlor an hour after it has closed is to invite disappointment rather than pleasure.

• Businesses and organizations often have erratic schedules, change schedules seasonally, or for no apparent reason. Just because someone told you that a place was open at a certain time does not mean it will be open when you want to go there.
• Another issue is to make sure that you know where you are going – to show up at Utica Bowls, a ceramics shop, will not have the same impact on most groups as arriving at Utica Bowl, a bowling alley.
• Having an appropriate destination for a particular group is also an issue. A desired activity may only be available in a particular place that is not acceptable to the youth or to their parents. A Laser-tag parlor in an "adult entertainment area" might not go over well with some churches. These sorts of things are rather localized and dependent on knowing your group. Some groups can comfortably go into areas that other groups wouldn't think of trying. Doing a generic questioning of a few parents to get a sense of acceptability helps greatly. At the advice of a parent, for example, I put off a particular Unknown Destination for a couple of years until we had done enough of them that parents felt confident enough to not worry about their child's safety.
• Even small things need to be checked in advance. One "spontaneous" activity I introduced at a Canoe camp that began with a day long, miserable rain, was using a field for a mud slide. It was great fun and a real surprise for the group when I took off running, threw myself on the ground and slid 30 feet across the field. But this wouldn't have been fun if someone had slid into a spike or rock. Before the campers had arrived, I had checked out the field and the rest of the camp site – not with a mud slide in mind but just to check out the environment and to look for hazards and opportunities.
• Usually surprises require extra leadership – or at least extra drivers. These leaders/drivers do not necessarily have to be in on the surprise but they should be capable leaders that can improvise as necessary. In some situations the person in charge may have to be dealing with problems or issues involving the surprise and cannot be involved with the youth. It is therefore important to have adults capable of doing a good job of working creatively with the youth.
• We've all been in situations where the best laid plans go astray or need extra attention. It is important to have a person ready to either work out the problem or to keep the group moving in a positive direction. Someone on the team of leaders needs to be free enough from other responsibilities to handle the details.
• If the surprise is away from home it is important to have all the necessary supplies and equipment to be self sufficient. One technique I use is to have a pair of (very heavy!) catalog cases fully loaded with supplies: from balloons to string, games, Bibles and song books. This way I don't have to stop and think this issue through and pack each time we go anywhere. Even if you are going to a "retreat" setting where you would expect to find things like pencils and Bibles, it is a crisis to get there and then find out that something important is not there.