Club Trip Leader Job Description

This page has practical advice from former trip leaders and rules from De Anza College, the Foothill De Anza District, the Outdoor Club constitution, bylaws or other votes.

Compiled by Mary Donahue, Outdoor Club Senior Faculty Advisor.

Every club officer and everyone designing/leading a club event, is expected to:

Act as a role model in all club activities, including using environmentally sound practices, and Leave no trace camping ethics. One example from that website is:
To truly be able to leave no trace and follow backcountry rules about camping the proper distance from a lake or digging your personal latrine hole the proper distance from water, etc., you will need to know how far 100 or 200 feet is. Lay out a tape measure at home and walk it and count your paces. And we often do this with each trip member before a trip.

Work to make all club events beginner friendly.

For most Outdoor Club trips, (especially the ones we have done for years) the faculty advisor is the trip leader, but club officers & members can read this webpage to be better informed, especially if they want to plan a new trip and be the trip leader. Any club member who has a 2.25 grade average can be a trip leader (for overnight trips, leaders must have participated in planning and running two previous overnights, or work with a co-leader who has).

Besides getting to be in charge of the trip, the trip leader gets paid a credit towards a future event when all the work and paperwork is done, $5 for a day trip plus 50 cents per person paid, or $10 plus 50 cents per person for an overnight trip. A bonus of $5 will be given for trips that break even.

 
Trip leaders either do the following personally or delegate it
and follow up to make sure it was done.

There are lots of people who are enthusiastic and make sincere sounding promises to help
and never come through.

 
cropped long narrow photo of part of the milky way

1. Dream up a trip. Plan it out, including costs, keeping the following in mind:

A) It must be in the United States (although club people have organized non-club trips to Baja, etc.). Until Aug. 2000 we could not go out of state- this could change again.

B) De Anza’s Risk Management does not want us to go skydiving, bungee jumping, parasailing, hang gliding, scuba diving, extreme whitewater rafting, or biking the coast highway. (But people can go on their own as a non-club event). From this we can extrapolate that cliff diving, a 30 mile hike in one day, rappelling off the Flint Center or jet ski races in the De Anza pool are not a prudent idea. So, if it’s something someone could get seriously hurt at, try it as a non-club event.

Likewise there are many other De Anza rules which must be followed, including no alcohol or drugs on any on- or off-campus event. But club people can choose to go for pizza and beer as a non-club event, or after the true end of an official event. (Any possible non-club events, even a last minute ‘Let’s go on a hike this weekend,’ can’t be discussed during our meetings, or publicized at our tables, including Club Day, so wait until after. That way if something goes wrong, De Anza won’t be held responsible.)

C) We need a mix of cheap and moderately priced events. Really expensive events are usually best as non-club sponsored, unless they have a great group rate, because we can’t get enough signups to cover expenses without raising the price too high.

D) It works best to leave the ski trips to the Ski Club, but people can ski or snowboard on our annual winter Yosemite camping trip.

E) A faculty or staff member (note more on faculty below) must be on the trip or at the event. Some faculty don’t want to be very involved, so you may need to simplify their involvement. BUT REMEMBER: Some people won’t participate (or parents won’t let them) if there’s not enough faculty involvement, so don’t ‘simplify’ too much. This is not meant to be a way to get around De Anza’s rules, but to work with them.

F) Only currently enrolled De Anza students, (part or full-time faculty, full time staff) can go on club events. Even though Foothill is in the same district, enrollment or employment at Foothill does not qualify anyone to go with us. People who want to go on an event between quarters (for example spring break or winter break) must have been enrolled the previous quarter, or already be enrolled in the following quarter. Faculty are subject to various rules depending on whether they are full time, ten month, part time, on sabbatical or Article 19 and should contact the club advisor well in advance of an event they want to participate in.

Some students have had their spouses enroll in a swim class, for example, to be able to go on trips. For the 2014 winter trip, one graduate currently at U.C. Santa Barbara wanted to go on the trip again, so she enrolled in a De Anza online class to be able to go.

This applies to faculty/staff spouses as well.

Special arrangements can be made for needed non-students (for example, someone who will do instruction on a trip or an interpreter for a deaf student). The form to be used and approved by Risk Management is (on-campus) ‘volunteer of record’ plus (off-campus) ‘student field trip/excursion volunteer roster.’ Ask for details if you think your trip will need this. Plan for it in advance, it can easily take weeks for paperwork to be done, and get required signatures and can take months for fingerprints to go through.

No, the volunteer roster can’t be used to get a spouse, future spouse, friend, etc. on a trip by pretending they are a useful person. The Risk Management rule is that they “provide necessary assistance in the activity.”

G) A trip/event needs to be planned completely, well in advance, to be advertised and promoted enough, or you just won’t get people signed up. Overnights need planning months in advance.

H) It has never worked well to try two big events on the same weekend, or sometimes even two weekends in a row. People just don’t have the time or money for two big expensive things in a row.

I) Most students can only attend events on weekends, but during breaks we can do weekday events.

People sometimes ask why we have surfing lessons in the afternoon on a school day, or very, very early in the morning. To be sure we have big enough waves we schedule surfing lessons for the time when there is an extra low tide going towards high, which only happens a few times in daylight hours each month.

J) Some of our most popular trips and events have been ones to try something new that it would be hard to try on your own (or just more fun with a group), such as surfing lessons, ocean kayaking, and winter camping. We have been complimented by the administration on the number of beginner-oriented, inclusive trips we do. As you plan, think about how to make your event easier for first-timers. (You were one once, remember?)

quite pink sunset:

2. If the club advisor does not have the time to be the official De Anza rep on your newly planned trip, you will need to find someone else.

Works with the club advisor to find a faculty or staff member to go on the trip (especially one interested in or with special knowledge of the subject of the trip). It is very wise to have them read this entire webpage before you try to get a commitment from them to do a trip.

Hint: Faculty are aware of how much work it is to be a club ‘advisor,’ so don’t use that term. Note that not all De Anza employees qualify as offcial staff. For example, a student hired to work as a lifeguard or security person would not qualify. The faculty member goes free (but pays for their own gas, lunch, etc.).

Other faculty going on a trip, just for fun, not to represent De Anza’s interests, usually go at a club member’s price and terms, unless we would lose money that way. This is to encourage more faculty to get to know us, so we might have more available to officially go on our trips.

thin line of gray colors made from a clouds photo
3. Learns regulations and informs trip members of them

(Firewood collecting allowed? Fires limited or banned? Food storage rules? Campground quiet hours? No volleyball in the campsite or on the beach? No bikes except on specific roads and paths?). The most important rules should be in writing in the trip agreement and receipt.

Park Service photo of a regular trip participant:

bear up a tree:

stop aquatic nuisance species: a sign that says stop aquatic nuisance species from entering the Greater Yellowstone area Boats, and anything that comes in contact with the water (a boat trailer that you drive into the water to launch, waders, paddles, Tevas, nets, etc.) must be cleaned before use in any waterway (except the De Anza swimming pool). When we use them in Grand Teton park, they must be cleaned again before use in Yellowstone waters and again when we come back to the Tetons and again when we get home. In Grand Teton park they often have inspection stations at the various park entrances that you must stop at each time, even if you were already inspected. There are places so infected we do not paddle there.

thin line of various colors of rocks

4. Gets an okay for all the details of the trip/event from the Club Executive Board (officers and advisor).

Makes fliers, (yes, De Anza has specific rules about posting fliers, and they have to be approved by the advisor or at an officers meeting before you post them).

Makes detailed receipts and trip agreements with safety rules, (often you can just adapt a current trip agreement for a current trip) and gets them approved by the club advisor. (Often a new faculty member you recruited to officially represent De Anza’s interests on the trip does not want to do much work before the trip, or has never done one of our trips and doesn’t understand all the rules.)

If necessary, (especially the first time we’ve tried out a potentially risky new event), helps the club advisor get the trip approved by the appropriate Administration and Risk Management representative(s).

Years ago the college made the club remove a Facebook page that some club members had made without consulting the club Executive Board (officers), and did not maintain. So now the De Anza College Outdoor Club does not have a Facebook page. Anything you find about the De Anza Outdoor Club on Facebook is not endorsed or sponsored by the De Anza Outdoor Club, De Anza College or the De Anza Foothill District.

TRIP CANCELLATION: be sure to put it in your trip info for every overnight trip with large numbers of people, and possibly for other trips, that we may not have the time to call everyone and cancel an event properly, so it is wise to check the website page about a trip before leaving on a major trip to see if the faculty person got suddenly sick or the Rangers closed the campground, for example. But we might not be able to tell people if that happens.

Before going to the club Executive Board, have suggestions ready for a trip price which will make the trip pay for itself, including paying for trip leader and faculty, propane use, fliers, etc. You will need a price that works even if few people sign up.

Club members should get a lower price and possibly an earlier sign-up. For most trips we charge $10 more for non-members.

Resists the temptation to do events totally for free. People were quite excited about, for example, a free wilderness first aid lecture. Many people said we should do it. Only the advisor and a handful of students attended, and the invited expert lecturer was offended and irritated. So, the club board usually decides to do something like the following: We charge $25 for a bike ride which really has no expenses. For people who actually show up, $15 will be credited towards a future event within one year, and $5 will go towards lunch or pizza, or ? after the ride. This way people have some money involved, and are likely to show up. Non-club events, where people just decide to go on their own, can be free, but be prepared to be disappointed at the turnout.

Once a price has been determined, stick to it. Even with our most popular trips, people wait until the last minute to sign up and it’s tempting to lower the price to get more signups.
Don’t get your ego involved too much in the number of people who sign up.

If there is a lower price for early signups, it means actual paid signups, not people who intended to sign up. You will very likely be pressured by people who want the lower price but didn’t get around to actually signing up within the required time.

Also suggest to the club board, and get approval for, use of parking spaces.

A group campsite might hold 40 people but only have parking for 5 cars. A solution to this is usually a space for the official faculty rep, (with the kayak trailer?) and the other available parking spaces going to the biggest carpools. Other drivers should be warned in writing in their receipt they will need to park elsewhere (day-use, for example) and might even need to pay an extra fee.

On one Yosemite trip with individual campsites we decided carpools of 3 or more got to park, everybody else would go to day use. This was because each campsite held 6 people, but only two cars. One guy showed up driving only himself, and parked in a site, saying he’d move later. Around 9 p.m. carpools started arriving, and this bozo wouldn’t move.

Since then, when we book numbers of individual campsites we have simply charged higher prices for smaller carpools. We can end up buying more campsites if lots of people want to drive as couples and want a campsite parking space, but we’re covered by the higher charge. And if it evens out because a four person carpool shares with a two person carpool in a campsite, we further assure that the trip will break even.

Does 1 through 4 before the trip is announced to the public and well in advance of the date. Please remember we need two weeks notice (three weeks for a major event, which is what most of our events are), to get our plans okayed on the Inter Club Council calendar, we have off-campus event (and overnight off-campus event) forms the advisor / faculty representative must complete at least two weeks in advance and get signatures from one or more Deans and/or Vice Presidents, and we need 8 to 24 weeks to get campsite reservations some places. Experience shows that the detailed work necessary for number 4 may be forgotten in the excitement of a trip already announced outside of the club Executive Board. Report back to the board, senior faculty advisor and faculty going on the trip during the time prior to the trip. This may require attending meetings regularly.

moon showing through clouds

5. Makes reservations or gets permits (back country permit, fire permit, etc.). Remember, we need to vote and fill out specific forms to be able to get reimbursed for expenditures. The trip leader usually does not have to put up their own money and wait for weeks to get paid back; the faculty advisor can frequently be talked into that. (And remember there is a month in the summer when Student Accounts does not issue any checks.)

water rippling

6. Registers trip members, usually at a club meeting, always with the advisor there. Want to get lots of people on your trip/event? Organize volunteers and register to set up a table in the Campus Center or out by the main fountain (yes, there are De Anza forms for this, too, and the advisor has to sign them).

This warning is at many of the club webpages:

“The Outdoor Club is a completely volunteer organization, neither the officers nor the advisor are paid. As a result you will not get the same ‘service’ from us as from a professional group.

We can’t always find a way to sign up people who can’t make it to our regular meetings, to a class when we are there, or to a table we have on campus. If none of the times we have available for signups are convenient for you, we don’t have enough people to be able to meet personally with you and sign you up.

People who wait until the last minute to sign up are sometimes left out.”

water rippling on lake

7. COVID changed how we have people pay for trips. (And we got tired of paying fees when people bounced checks.)
See: How to get a money order to pay for an Outdoor Club trip

Resists all temptation to let anyone (even a club officer) pay later. It can be very confusing to let people fill out forms for a trip or membership before they pay. We insist on payment and all needed forms at the same time.

At a Club Day table you can ask someone who says they want to sign up for a trip how they will be paying before you hand them paperwork to fill out. This way you can find out if they are not ready to pay, and often it turns out they really don’t understand everything about the trip. We have often heard from people when we ask them how they will pay:

I have to pay for this?”

or

“I thought De Anza paid for student trips!”

most of the Grand Teton range peaks

8.The club used to coordinate carpools, but we can’t anymore, because if an accident happened, De Anza might be held responsible.

Now we must have everyone signed-up sign a form saying we didn’t in any way provide transportation for them. Usually we incorporate the wording into our trip sign-up forms so there’s one less form to remember to have people sign. But you can give phone numbers of people on the trip to someone going on the trip, (if you got people’s permission in writing on their signup form) and let everyone find their own rides, or form carpools after a pre-trip meeting. Faculty (staff) can’t drive anyone to, from or during a trip, except in a emergency involving the safety of participants but can pull the kayak trailer if Risk Management says their driving record is okay. (Yup, more forms/deadlines.)

We should get driving info from each carpool, including make/model/license number of the vehicle, driver name, passengers names, the cell phone number of at least one phone they will have in the vehicle (even though a lot of the time in places we travel to cell phones don’t function) what time leaving, when they expect to arrive (on long distance road trip like to Grand Teton park, what route they will take).

On overnight trips drivers should bring extra door/trunk keys for riders, so riders can keep their stuff locked up but can still get to it when the driver is gone. De Anza expects each car will have a licensed, insured driver, be in good repair, and have enough seatbelts that work. Carpools / caravans should meet off campus- the parking lot you choose to meet at could have an event at it you did not know about and you can’t find each other – and occasionally cars left on campus for the weekend have been vandalized!

herd of elk, bull with head raised to bugle

9. For trips with meals provided, plans menu, computes cost, buys food, expects to do all the cleanup himself unless he pins down volunteers. Risk management does not allow us to prepare club-made meals, but we can serve orange juice and sweet rolls, or other commercially made food. Individual people on a trip can cook and share or potluck what they want, the Outdoor Club itself can’t.

part of a tree with sky and clouds behind

10. Double-checks concessionaire-provided equipment (helmets, lifejackets, single or tandem craft? etc.).

11. Anticipates what could shut down a trip and how to deal with it.

lg tower and warning sign Cowell's beach: warning beach top words 120 pxls:

12. Arranges group equipment including safety. Examples: First aid kit, water purification, propane supply, lifejackets, Garcia bear-resistant backpacker’s food containers. The official faculty representative for the trip usually brings the safety gear.

lake, moose, dark sky

13. Coordinates pickup, checkout and return of club group equipment. Cleans anything that needs it if he didn’t pin down volunteers or make sure it got done on the trip.

cloudy sky

14. Coordinates non-club equipment and supplies (firewood, borrowed dining canopies, etc.).

(FIREWOOD: As long as Sudden Oak Death is still a problem, we must follow quarantines of host material, including local (Santa Clara County and other infected coastal counties) firewood. We can’t even bring cut up scrap lumber or pallets. For Yosemite trips, for example, we need to buy it in the park, or bring Presto type “logs”(compressed sawdust and wax) or collect it in the park outside of Yosemite Valley since firewood collecting in Yosemite Valley is often illegal.)

ripples from drops on water

15. Runs pre-trip meeting(s) and/or orientation at the trip site including advising trip members on required equipment, campground regulations, trip safety, advisability of using sunscreen, bringing a flashlight (electric torch) on a day hike in case it runs late, drinking more water, always carrying their waterproof outerwear, etc.

Seriously considers having a mandatory pre-trip meeting as we have always had for more adventurous trips like backpacking or winter camping. Yes, it is hard for people to all come to such a meeting, but it makes it more likely they will actually be prepared for the event and have all the needed equipment. The faculty member on the trip may require a pre- trip meeting, and could even require people bring gear they will be using for it to be looked at and approved (example: a fully loaded backpack for a long backpack trip, or tents for winter camping.) OR the meeting is a good time for people who aren’t sure what to bring to voluntarily have gear looked at, including pitching that tent they were going to borrow.

a narrow band of sunset clouds

16. Works with other club officers or friends to enforce safety rules (examples: everyone must wear a fully zipped life jacket for ocean kayaking, and everyone must wear a helmet on a bike trip). Even when peer pressure makes it hard to do, protects the Outdoor Club’s and De Anza College’s interests, including, but not limited to, telling people not to build such a big bonfire, not to smoke in the campsite, keep the noise down (or go away from the campground where you won’t bother the neighbors when you loudly discuss needed changes to the U.S. constitution) and skipping some fun time on the trip to clean up after people who are either just being slobs or–possibly leading to a fine the club has to pay–breaking bear area food storage rules.

play it safe at the beach sign:

17. Works with a faculty/staff representative to make sure we pay the right amount to concessionaires (example: 20 people sailed the first day, but only 16 did the second day because four were too sunburned, so we shouldn’t be paying for 20 people for two days). Gets a detailed receipt from concessionaires when needed.

Example: “35 people times $20 for a basket weaving lesson equals $700” is simple enough and doesn’t need a detailed receipt. But add meals at various prices and a multi-day trip in which different numbers of people were involved on different days and we can’t submit a receipt that just has a total dollar amount–we need to break down the details.

Usually the faculty rep pays fees with their credit card and waits for the required paperwork to be completed to get reimbursed, instead of a student paying and needing to wait.

sea gull flying

18. After the trip, reviews the ‘books’ for the trip. Calculates costs and profits (if any). (There are no refunds on club events unless we cancel.) Figures out any needed improvements for the next trip, and puts them in writing in a note to the next year’s trip leader.

line of blue bubbles

19. Never leaves a trip early (except for medical problems), even if it’s boring, or raining the whole time, or all the people he knows have gone home early. This means the trip leader needs to ride with people who realize they will be the last car leaving, and preferably are good-natured enough to help clean up and pack up a campsite.

long stripe of tree leaves with blue sky showing through
20. When all the post-trip work is done, reminds the club to put it in the minutes to vote them a trip leader’s credit towards a future event.

21. Pats self on back because sometimes no one else will.

fog over colors blue and green in a narrow photo strip

wildlife warning sign:

About Risk Management

There are a lot of reasons to not have clubs at a college. You’ve seen in the news stories about spring break parties getting out of hand. A couple of incidents like that (even miles away from De Anza), has been enough to get some of the powers-that-be at De Anza not wanting to take the risk of having clubs. They are, after all, not necessary for your education.

But most of the De Anza community knows that clubs are beneficial, not only because members are more likely to get better grades and more likely to graduate, but because it gives students leadership opportunities (and having fun counts, too).

So the various risks of having clubs are ‘managed’ by De Anza’s Risk Management office.

One way is to require that every club activity has a faculty or staff member present for all events, club business or social meetings. This is mostly done by a faculty member who is willing to commit extra time, and be a faculty advisor to the club.

The faculty advisor represents De Anza’s interests, and must be present at all business and social meetings, must sign all financial documents, and tries to give advice when members and officers are making decisions.

Another way risks are managed is that some things which are dangerous are forbidden. Some are obvious, like bungee jumping or hanggliding. Most students would agree those are things they should try on their own time, not when De Anza might have to pay money for their injuries. Others are ones that a lot of students disagree with, but have been shown (in some cases because of lawsuits at other schools), to be too big a risk for De Anza to take, such as scuba diving, extreme whitewater rafting, or biking the coast highway.

In this trip leader’s job description you read about the statement students (as well as staff, faculty) must sign to go on an event which says that they are completely responsible for their own transportation. The main form besides this is either the “student field trip/excursion agreement voluntary assumption of risk” for adult participants over 17- or – “student field trip/excursion agreement minor authorization release and notification.,” which parents/guardians of students 17 or younger must sign. (They must sign all forms, trip agreements, etc. People under 18 can’t legally make contracts. Occasionally a parent must show up at the site (caving, for example) to sign concessionaire’s releases, the student won’t be trusted to bring the form home to be signed.)

Some people seem to think that releases really “aren’t worth the paper they are written on.” Don’t fall for this, and don’t tell the student not to worry about reading the release(s), or trip agreements. Give people plenty of time to read and understand the documents.

When you read one of the student field trip/excursion agreements, notice that you authorize the consent to any medical exam or treatment the faculty representative deems necessary for your safety and protection.

Forms such as these, and any wording required by Risk Management in our trip documents, also helps us do events that might otherwise not be allowed.

As this is being written, the Outdoor Club has a good reputation. We are the longest term customers of the surfing lesson and ocean kayak outfitters, and they welcome us back. The ocean kayak outfitter has blacklisted some of our students from renting from them again, but knows the offending behavior was not the club’s fault, and that we tried to stop it.

We also have a good reputation with De Anza’s Risk Management office. In 1998 the insurance company wanted to stop all ocean kayak trips because of trouble at a different school. Risk Management told the insurance carrier that if the trip is being led by Mary Donahue, (Outdoor Club Advisor, and author of the material you are reading), it will be safe, and not a liability problem that needs canceling.

Then Risk Management contacted the club advisor, reviewed our plans, and we were set to go. No cancellation by the insurance company.

Lifejackets must be worn and fully zipped up. When we sign people up, we not only put it in writing, we often personally tell each person that it is important, and we really want everyone to wear a life jacket, even excellent swimmers and experienced canoeists.

This works. And a few people who may have not wanted to wear them (hurts their macho image?) might have been relieved they did, if for no other reason than it can be much easier to help someone else who ended up in the water if you have your jacket on and they have theirs.

One other thing of interest happened in 1998. A dad really didn’t want his daughter to go winter camping. He tried to convince her, but she was determined. So he called the director of Student Activities and complained about the trip’s safety. She got me on conference call and I defended the plans, answering every one of his concerns. This was a good thing, because it turned out what he was trying to do was get the whole trip canceled as being unsafe just to keep his daughter from going on the trip.

So the bottom line is, we are still able to do adventurous things because we have a good reputation with Risk Management, with the Rangers where we regularly camp, and the outfitters who rent to us or give us lessons. Our trips are well planned, with safety aspects thought out, so we are able to override the concerns of the insurance company, and a particularly over-protective dad.

row of rocks carved into brick shapes

About Practical Jokes

Some people seem to make it easy to not like them. On a trip with heavy weather, when all chores take longer or even are quite difficult, people who won’t help can be annoying. Sometimes personality conflicts are magnified by close association on a trip.

If you become angry with someone on a trip, do not take retribution in the form of a prank.

For practical jokes that are meant to be fun, think them through to their ultimate end so they really will be fun.

Don’t impair the safety of anyone on the trip. People should not be sent the wrong way on a trail. Gear should not be left out in the rain. An empty steak package should not be left next to a tent to attract animals overnight and scare the occupants. Vehicles or equipment should not be disabled.

The following is excerpted from “If at All Possible, Involve a Cow. The Book of College Pranks.”

“Prank Rule # 2: Think things through.

Originally, I included in this book a list of students killed in college pranks, tweaking them for their stupidity. But I found the list, too deeply tinctured with malice for my taste.

The fatal pranks all shared a common thread. They were dumb. Whether climbing atop an elevator for a ride, setting off smoke bombs in the dead of the night, or doing push-ups in the middle of a busy intersection, they all contained some gaping flaw in conceptualization. A moment’s thought would have saved their lives.

The fact that the participants were too drunk to reflect on what they were doing is another matter. What is important for budding pranksters to keep in mind before doing a prank is the importance of examining it from all sides. Avoiding death is just the first concern. Another is to predict what the results of the prank will be. Will the car explode? Will the enraged president expel you from school? Will the priceless artifact be damaged?

These are the sort of questions you need to ask yourself, the most important being: Is this the sort of thing I am going to enjoy talking about over beers for the rest of my life?

This is why the common, Saran Wrap-on-the-toilet-seat sort of pranks usually fall flat. The “and then .. .” part of the prank just isn’t interesting. Beginning your story “I snuck into Biff’s room and placed Saran Wrap over his toilet seat,” sounds promising enough, but the “and then” invariably is, at best, “he was surprised and some pee got on the floor.” Not exactly Gravity’s Rainbow.”

raindrops on ends of spruce needles

All officers of every club at De Anza College are required by the InterClubCouncil (ICC) to read the ICC Financial Code and reading it would be a good idea for anyone who wants to run a new trip.

https://www.deanza.edu/clubs/documents/codes/ICC-Financial-Code.pdf

When you do, you will note that there are limits on what clubs are allowed to spend on various things, that clubs need to keep in mind when planning anything they want to get money from the ICC for.

If a club gets money from the ICC there are time limits for when the money must be spent.

“All printed materials must be printed on recycled paper and state “Printing funded(partially) by ICC” on all the materials.”

= = = =

“Club event will follow Per Meal Policy: (which includes tax and tip)

Breakfast will not exceed $10.00

Lunch will not exceed $15.00

Dinner will not exceed $30.00

The amount needs to include tax and tip per person. An original, itemized receipt needs to be attached to a requisition for reimbursement. ”

The club is never allowed to pay over those dollar amounts, even if we have enough money without asking the ICC for some, even if we wanted to thank officers by using money we won for best-decorated club day table, award for best video, perfect attendance at ICC meetings and other requirements, etc.

= = = =

“No part of the expense of any event may be paid from money collected” – this means that if we collect cash payments from people for trips, the money must go directly to Student Accounts and can’t be used to pay for a campsite, kayak rental, etc.

“NO DEFICIT SPENDING WILL BE ALLOWED. No funds will be advanced on a petty cash basis.”
(Yes, you might guess that this is in the code because clubs have previously tried to spend money they did not yet have and were in arrears.)

“Any club sponsoring an event needs to provide a copy of the minutes or a club financial action form from the club meeting which approved this event before requesting a check. The requisition should list clearly the amounts for the miscellaneous expenses, such as food, date of event and number of people attending event.”

FINES:

“If a club signs up for an ICC sponsored event/entertainment slot and fails to participate then there will be a $25 fine that will be deducted from their club account by one of the ICC Officers.. .”

“There will be a $25 fine for any club that fails to clean up its area at Club Day . . .” (This is why we are always careful to not only clean up around our own table after we pack up on club day, but anything that might be blown into our “area” and seem to be left by us. This is also why the ICC officers must come by the area and take a look and report back that the area was clean.)

“If a club signs up for an ICC sponsored event, then they have up to (1) week in advance to notify one of the ICC Officers or the ICC Advisor about a change/cancellation to prevent a fine”

“If the club has less than $25 left in their account to pay off their ICC Fine, then the ICC Officers will determine what community services the club must do instead of the fine.”

Clubs are not allowed to contract for many things without more than the usual advance permission:

“Contracts for orchestras, facility rental, entertainers, athletic events, speakers, etc., must be signed by Director of Fiscal Services.”

I did not include everything from the ICC Financial Code in this outline at this webpage and again, each club officer is supposed to read it and it would be wise for people who want to design a new trip to read it.

https://www.deanza.edu/clubs/documents/codes/ICC-Financial-Code.pdf

six coyotes

Everyone in every De Anza College club needs to fill out and sign a release for each club off-campus event. You can print one in advance at release form, but you or your parent/guardian will need to sign it in person when you sign up for a trip.

wildflowers

Some Universities have additional requirements for trip leaders, such as

“First Aid and CPR certification required, Wilderness First Aid and/or Wilderness First Responder preferred”

and the Outdoor Club really likes to be able to tell people when we have an EMT on a trip, since it makes parents more confident in letting their children go on a trip.

If you are an EMT or are certified in first aid and/or CPR/AED, please let us know. Yup, you guessed it, De Anza has a class for Red Cross first aid certification.

calf and adult bison

Safe Distances from Wildlife includes reasons to stay away from even friendly seeming animals in parks, and charts and photos to better be able to determine and visualize how far away from wildlife you need to stay to be safe (and obey laws that do have penalties).

Safe driving in rain and fog has info on, you guessed it, safe driving in rain, fog (and snow).

Top reasons not to speed in a National Park has a lot of defensive driving advice.

Prepare for winter driving has tips for using tire chains, tricks for dealing with frozen car locks, how to prepare your vehicle for winter driving, a winter survival kit for your car, what to do if you get stranded and how to keep windows from fogging up.

Have more fun camping has info on tent selection, how to build a campfire that doesn’t smoke and lots more.

Road trip advice and etiquette has practical advice from experienced and newbie carpoolers on cross country trips, including
ways to keep from being so bored;
planning before the trip; safety issues; drowsy driving; packing;
road trip games, storytelling, debates and discussions;
links to gas price watch sites,

and how to deal with windows that are fogging up faster than your navigator can wipe it off.

Carpool FAQs

recommended extra reading:
chapter 17, “Leadership,” from Mountaineering, the Freedom of the Hills, which you can find at many public libraries.

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