08.04.2013 (4276 Days Ago)
| News Title | Commitment |
COMMITMENT
What is it?
By definition it means an obligation, a promise, a pledge, a moral obligation, a social obligation.
And where this is leading you ask? It is leading to trip participants; to those who for different reasons enter on to more than 1 trip at any given time. I won’t try to get into why this happens, but it does and it does and with regularity.
It is easy for someone to look ahead to the clubs schedule, check out what trips are there, for a certain weekend and then to sign up online to 1, or 2, or 3 of them. Then wait to pick and choose which 1 to go on at the last minute.
This is occurring a lot of late and the following is what happened to one of my recent trips.
The trip was on the schedule for some weeks ahead of time and filled up quite quickly, 9 in total confirmed, and ended up with 8 on the waiting list for a total of 17 in all. As the weekend neared, I had calls from, and spoke with, a couple of people on the waiting list and I told them that no one had cancelled, so what then happened was that those on the waiting list took their names off of the waiting list and made other plans. Wouldn’t you?
So the waiting list started getting smaller as those on the waiting list made their other plans, right?
On the Wednesday prior to the trip leaving, 72 hours prior to leaving, the cancellations started. In that last 72 hours there were 9 cancellations! 4 on Friday alone!
So of the 17 who wanted to come there were now just 2 left! So read that again. Of the original 17 there were just 2 left!
The end result was that those on the waiting list who wanted to come had made their other plans. At 9:30 that Friday evening I checked other trips for that particular weekend and found many names were on other trips that had just cancelled at the last minute from mine. And lo and behold there was 1 who had cancelled from mine and was still listed on2 other trips for that weekend and get this, there was 1 person still listed on 3 other trips!
So where is the commitment? Where is the moral, social obligation in all of this? For those who put their names on more than 1 trip at a time are taking away the opportunity of others who want to go from others who are committed to go. And that is without mentioning the frustration of the trip organizer. In speaking to other trip leaders about this 1 organizer that has had a person sign onto 4 of his trips but has never met that person because they are always a last minute cancellation!
COMMITMENT
Dave Scanlon
jvercammen wrote 4256 Days Ago (positive) 1I fully agree with Dave because I had a similar experience with a beginner overnight trip that I organized for the Marriot Basin in early April. I had a long wait list for the months leading up to the trip but similar to Dave in the three days prior to our departure most of the trip participants bailed, and at least half of those who bailed signed up for other trips. What was particularly frustrating is that several participants did not reply to my e-mail when I contacted them specifically to ask if they were still committed to my trip. In the end there was one person who was committed and one person who was possible going to come. At that point I cancelled and I personally lost the $96 dollars that I sent to the Whistler Alpine Club to reserve the Wendy Thompson Hut. Indeed, where is the commitment?0 points-
adrianlazar wrote 4258 Days Ago (positive) 1I fully agree with Dave on this. However, people may not realize, but word of mouth is a powerful tool. No list or other tool is necessary to keep track of offenders. Organizers to exchange info on participants... and those who offend usually lose in the long run by not being allowed on certain trips.
I personally do keep track of a short list of people that I would not sign up on my trips for exactly the behavior described above.0 points -
GregH wrote 4268 Days Ago (neutral) 0Keep track of the bailers and after a certain number of instances(3?), limit them to "standby" lists only. In addition, create a "Brass Bailer" award for the worst offender every year and present them with the "award" at the AGM.0 points -
ScottNelson wrote 4270 Days Ago (positive) 1How about changing the website so a member cannot sign up for overlapping trips.0 points -
peterm wrote 4273 Days Ago (neutral) 0Mmmmm.....well Dave perhaps like Santa keep a list of who is naughty and who is nice. Then give it to Santa.
I had a conversation, I cannot remember who with though, about this sort of thing before the new website was operational. I seem to recall that this sort of behaviour would show up on the offending member profile. Perhaps I was just dreaming. I'll check.0 points