Work groups, such as on mission trips

It is common practice to divide groups into smaller work groups that mix and match the kids, breaking up family and clique groupings.

• It may be possible to mix and match in several combinations: pre-trip work groups (publicity, fund raising, etc), work site groups, non-worksite groups (cleanup, meals, worship, etc).
  
• Some groups can self-divide in a somewhat equitable fashion if they know the rules (no family members together, no best friends together, a good balance of numbers and genders. Threaten to manually redivide if they don't get it right.
  
• On a trip one team can be “Community Life” that determines what the group will do in the evening. If someone (this can be a pre-trip subcommittee) has researched before the trip what the possibilities are, determined financial limitations and other factors, they can make good recommendations.
  

luggage on trips

Often luggage space on a trip is a problem. I won't get into the incredible things some youth bring along... It is fair to restrict the amount of luggage they bring. However, this must, of course been done in advance. I have long ago abandoned trying to give detailed “what to bring” lists, focusing only on unusual or absolutely essential items. However, you can list luggage counts or dimensions.

Spending money on trips

Since it is my policy that all “required” expenses, food, lodging, entertainment entrance fees, etc are paid by the group I point out in advance that all expenses are paid. A youth can go on the trip without any money and not miss a thing. How we fund the trip differs from trip to trip: fees, fund-raising, whatever. This allows quietly giving scholarships (“stipends” as I called them because that hasn't the negative connotations “scholarships” has) on the sly without anyone being the wiser.
However, I also will mention if there will be opportunities to spend money (there may be shopping available).
I avoid entirely discussion about how much spending money a kid should bring. That is way too dependent on the individual circumstances of youth and their families.

Cell #s

Obvious, yet hard to have consistently available when needed: Someone should have each youth's cell phone number so they can call someone who hasn't shown up.

• On a trip, each counselor should have a copy, either a hard copy printout with essentials, including cell phone #s for everyone.
• Or have a session with all counselor present to all enter each #
• Collect cell #s and put in a database that you can access anytime
• In a regular meeting, if someone hasn't shown up that should have, ask if any in the room has their # and have them call the missing person.

Group Check in by Cell phone

Under certain circumstances with older youth, where the groups are spread out over a large area, it is acceptable to have every sub-group phone in their location and receive any messages or instructions.

Sleeping arrangements on trips

Generally, if the sleeping facilities require roommates of 2-3, have a small committee hammer out combinations that are compatible. Friends or family members can be together for this. Siblings often pack together and need to room together. Siblings are also the only ones that can be put together in a double bed.

Mission trip failures

Sometimes a project doesn't work out, fails or something disappointing happens afterward. That is again not why we do these things.

• Address these things directly and matter-of-factually.
  
• You do not need to apologize for yourself or for the people running the project.
  
• You can explain what happened
  
• Do not let yourself be disappointed or convey disappointment
  
• Theologize: we do not help others for ourselves but in a desire to serve people and God. How we feel about it is beside the point
  
• You may have helped in a situation in ways other than accomplishing the original goal. In some ways, relationships and being an example of Christian love is more important than fixing a roof
  

Mid week breaks for trips

For trips, camps, conferences, any week long event, but especially Mission Trips, plan a fun break midweek.  This can relieve tension give muscles and other things a break and can break up the "Third-Day Out Syndrome"  I usually would take them somewhere just for a "and now for something completely different" experience.  Often this was an amusement park, but also bowling, boardwalk, beach, etc.  We'd end with eating out together.

Boring car rides...

Have a travel game or two to start such as the license plate game, the billboard alphabet game, 20 questions, etc. Start these randomly during a long drive as needed and appropriate.

Mission trip budget issues

Most mission trip projects explicitly or implicitly expect groups coming in to cover the costs of the project. Plan this into the budget. You also will have unexpected expenses as you need to buy tools, rent equipment, etc as the project unfolds.

Late signups

Sometimes you can add people late without a great deal of penalty but this makes it even more likely for families to procrastinate in getting reservations in in the future.  Even if it is ok from an internal point of view (finances, planning, etc) Charge a late fee or some other penalty. 

"handing off a youth"

When a group is in a less controlled setting, where it is easy for a youth to get lost or disconnected from the rest of the group, assign each youth to an adult. Adults and youth should know that each youth should be within eyesight of one of the adults and the adult needs to know that they are responsible for that youth. Kids can't just drift from one group to another without a clear “hand-off.” In other words, if a youth wants to go with another group or one group decides to do one thing and another group wants to do something else so that some shuffling is reasonable and acceptable, one adult agrees to pass the youth to the other group and the other adult agrees to accept the youth. This needs to be explicit even if very informal. It is easy for the receiving adult to not know they have a new assignment or the sending adult not know they are no longer responsible for a youth and waste time searching for the “missing” youth.

keeping track of registrations

For large events, there is a lot of little things to keep track of when people are preregistering and again at check in. It is important for the leader of an event to not have to be involved in then check-in process – they need to be out greeting youth and parents. To make this possible, during preregistration, keep a spread sheet listing participant name, grade, assigned group or dorm or other significant information, date and amount of the deposit and date and amount of every payment toward the final cost. Before check in, highlight or list from the spread sheet those who still owe something. The checkin person/people can handle everything from there.

Check-in times at a theme park or equivalent

In a controlled situation where youth are allowed to go out on their own, such as at a Theme Park or a Mexican open market, it is important to have everyone all together in one place and at one time from time to time. Before spreading out have a clear and acknowledged meeting time and place.

• This prevents inadvertent games of tag: sending people out to locate youth who then get lost.
  
• If the group decides to change plans everyone is there and the change can happen immediately.
  
• It is not acceptable for a youth to report for someone else. Miscommunication is too easy in such a situation.
  

Menarche at camp or on a trip

If you are in a situation where there are girls that have not yet achieved menarche (you may not know who has and who hasn't, but if you are working with middle school or younger girls, the likelihood is high) there is a very good chance that one of them will have their first period on the trip, camp or overnight. This is a Murphy's Law kind of thing.

• Come prepared with proper supplies.
  
• Have a “mother figure” along (a camp “nurse” or some other designated caring individual).
  
• Have female counselors sensitive to the possibility and when they suspect, have them ask and if true get them to the “mother.”
  
• The mother figure should take care of immediate issues, give them love and attention.
  
• Have the girl call her mother to share the news.
  

Publicity and promotion for an Unknown Destination Trip

Along with advanced planning is advanced publicity - especially the first few times. As we have all experienced, getting people to actually respond to publicity, whether it is print, media or personal announcements is frustratingly difficult. An item has to be brought up again and again, in every way possible. Publicity for the Unknown Destination trip can be as playful as the activity itself. Tease with the unknown aspect. One year I had a line "Where? We will be going to sdwev [this word was actually in a symbol font which I don't have available in this blog]." Some of my computer literate young people tried doing font substitutions to see if I had actually given the destination in code. This created an even more interest in the trip.

One important part of all publicity and all conversations or correspondence with parents is to assure them that you know exactly where you are going and what you will be doing with their child -- that everything is worked out in detail and that parents will receive a complete itinerary just before you drive away. This is hard for a lot of parents and it may difficult at first to get parental support. As I will explain later, there will be a lot of pressure to fill parents in ahead of the event and this could destroy the trip – for this event to work as advertised, it is important to assure parents without giving them advanced information. If a particular youth has a particular medical or other condition that has to be taken into consideration, find out from the parent what the condition is. In most cases you can adjust the trip to work around the concern and assure the parent that everything will be all right. In some cases you may need to tell a parent that the child may have a problem or be exposed to something that may affect the condition. It then becomes the parent's decision whether or not to send the child. You can be sensitive to the youth's situation without being bullied into revealing what you won't reveal to other parents.

Having a spouse go along on a youth trip

• Make sure you truly understand your spouse's feelings about being involved in your youth work. The calling to youth work is yours, not necessary your spouse's.
  
• It is best that if spouses goes along on a trip that they have a relatively benign position out of the mainstream of decision making and social pressures (cook, nurse, driver, arrangements person...). Otherwise relationships get too complicated.
  
• It probably is not best for an entire family to be along on an extended trip.
  

Accounting and money for large activities and trips

Leaders of youth are often more interested in the youth and the activity at hand than the mundane matters of money – and many a youth leader has gotten in hot water for mishandling of money. So here are some comments about money:

• Always have extra cash on hand to bail out a kid or two.
• Try to arrange to have a cash advance for fast-food and incidental expenses. I generally plan on $5/kid for breakfast, $5/kid for lunch and $10/kid for dinner for fast-food meals. If someone wants to spend more than this allotment, they can do so out of their own spending money. Often a youth who doesn't spend their allotment will cover the cost of the youth that needs more than the average.
• For fast food meals and other receiptless situations – issue kids or groups of kids whole bills (such as a $20 bill to a group of four) and get the change back and put in an envelope (I always keep a supply of dollar bill sized envelopes at hand). At a more leisurely time you can count the change and calculate the total cost of the meal or activity and put this on your ledger (I use the back of the envelope for a temporary ledger).
• Get a receipt for cash spent any time you can and stick in the envelope.
• If you can sell the Trustees on it, get a corporate credit card, if not, get a credit card separate from your own that you use only for church related activities. Use it any time this is possible, carrying large amounts of cash is a pain and potentially dangerous and harder to account for.
• Always produce a balance sheet of any complicated or expensive activities.

An annoying youth on a trip

On a trip, when people are shut up for long periods during travel, sometimes, there is a particularly difficult youth that is driving the other kids or the driver crazy or when two or more youth are a particularly bad combination, you may need to force a shuffle. You may find a driver or a youth that can handle an annoying youth (but don't let this be a parent). However, no one should have to be annoyed continually on a trip.

Staying in an unfamiliar church building

On trips when you use a church unknown to the youth there are a number of considerations for making good use:

• Scout out the church on arrival. You may need to make some spaces off limits for wild games (like Sardines). Some places need to be avoided altogether.
  
• Find equably comfortable spaces for sleeping in. The sleeping rooms are to be off-limits, including during games.
  
• Establish a good common room for worship, Bible Study, wild games, and hanging out.
  
• Scout out the kitchen to see what it does or doesn't have.
  
• Find cleaning supplies.
  
• Most churches do not have showers, so plan on that.
  
• Play Sardines, preferably in the middle of the night. If you don't know the game, check Wikipedia and read the “Hide and Seek” version. (A freebee hint on Sardines – have the first person to find the sardine become the next sardine, not the last person, as it is commonly played, but, as with the traditional version, the next round is started only after everyone has found and hidden with the sardine.)
  
• Make sure the church is put back together and is cleaner than you found it so that yours or other groups will be allowed to stay there in the future.