The organiser will receive bookings by email, telephone or letter. No booking is confirmed until full payment for accommodation has been received and bookings normally close on the Monday prior to the weekend meet/holiday.
The organiser should ensure that everyone booking on a trip is a member, if in doubt check with membership@estc.org.uk, or is appropriately covered by the potential member right to attend one event of no more than three nights before deciding whether to join the Club.
Meals are normally three courses. It is helpful if the people preparing starters and puddings know what the main course is as this helps ensure a balanced meal. Cooks need to be made aware of dietary requirements and should try to accommodate them where possible. New members should not normally be allocated a major responsibility on a first meet. The allocation for milk is half a pint per person per day split between full and semi-skimmed. Check if participants require wine and what colour they prefer. The allocation of wine is about half a bottle per person per meal. You may ask for volunteers to buy milk and/or wine. People should supply receipts for any food and wine they buy for a meet.
2. Organise transport and allocate driversBased on the information on the booking form, the organiser circulates a list of contact details, car drivers and people requiring lifts in cars, with pick up points, by the Tuesday prior to the weekend. It is assumed, unless there is a specific opt-out stated on a booking form, that everyone in the Edinburgh area is in the car pool. This is to ensure that everyone can attend the meet/holiday irrespective of whether or not they are a car owner and/or are new to the Club and don’t know whom to ask for a lift, although there can be no guarantee that a lift can be arranged for everyone. The return journeys can be negotiated on the last day of the meet. The reimbursement per car is currently 25p per mile, the total cost of which will be split amongst all those sharing transport to and/or from the meet.
3. Ensure all participants are familiar with what is required of them and what they need to bringParticipants need to bring:
Issue a reminder that Saturday’s evening meal with wine (optional) is provided communally and milk is provided for breakfasts. Unless explicitly stated all other meals are a participant’s own responsibility.
Check with the Treasurer whether or not you need to take an ESTC cheque to pay any outstanding accommodations charges. Remember to pay before leaving on Sunday morning.
4. Responsibility for everyone’s safetyThe Club recognises that ski touring and other mountain activities carry a danger of personal injury or death. Participants in these activities should be aware of and accept these risks and take responsibility for their own actions and involvement.
All members of a group undertaking Club activities owe a duty of care to the people with whom they share the activity; and this extends to wearing appropriate clothing and being properly equipped to cope with foreseeable hazards. It is difficult to discharge this duty of care unless members of the group stay in visual contact.
Members on skiing trips have the responsibility to check that their equipment is in sound condition and appropriate to the envisaged activity.
All members involved in Club activities must be aware that those perceived as ‘in charge’, i.e. leading walks, ski trips, cycle rides or climbs, are not necessarily qualified, do not need to be qualified and are not regarded by the Club, nor regard themselves, as technical experts.
The safety of members is their own responsibility but the Club has a duty of care to make sure that relevant weather forecasts and avalanche reports for the trip are consulted and taken into account and that people are encouraged to use ice axes and crampons where appropriate. Inappropriately dressed members should be advised of the need to wear clothing appropriate to the circumstances. Where members consistently refuse to act on advice, the Committee should be informed to decide on appropriate action.
Where individuals have higher levels of experience, offer advice or have assumed de facto responsibility for route finding etc, they have a greater duty of care. They are expected to ensure that they:
The meet organiser shall ensure that a route card is filled in for all members participating in activities. Each party shall inform the meet organiser by phone by the agreed time when they have safely finished their activity. The meet organiser must make arrangements to receive such calls in a timely manner and initiate action if a group does not report in by the agreed time.
The meet organiser should ensure that they have the current emergency contact sheet for participants attending the meet as this is required for passing to the emergency services if required. There should be no need for the organiser to use the emergency contact sheet.
If there is a worryingly long delay in the party’s return, the police should be notified. If required, the police will contact Mountain Rescue. There is no hard and fast rule about what length of delay merits contacting the police but it would be better to make the police aware at the earliest opportunity and not wait until it is too late. The police prefer to be made aware so that they can make initial enquiries, such as checking local hospital, checking that the car is where they said it would be, and if their car is not where they said it would be, check the home address in case the person went home and has not told anyone; this has been known. Better a false alarm with good intent than waiting until it has all gone wrong.
In the event of anyone being injured to the extent that they are unable to make contact themselves with their own contacts, the police will do it.
5. Calculating Charges Accommodation costsMembers are charged for all the nights of a meet/holiday and payment must be made before the start.
Members who are unable to attend meets/holidays are not refunded accommodation payments unless they give enough notice for a replacement for their place to be found. Refer all requests for payments to be returned to the Treasurer.
The Club will charge the same rate for children as is charged by the venue. If children are small and they share their parents’ two-bed room, there will be no charge, subject to the venue’s own policies.
There are proformas designed to help calculate what individuals owe and are owed. It is the meet organiser's responsibility to follow the framework and ensure that the payments are made on Saturday evening/Sunday morning. It is wise to have some change to facilitate payments. Members should normally pay their whole costs in cash and there should not be any deficit. However, if there is, request a cheque when you return the completed expenses sheet to the Treasurer. If you complete the transport costs and food costs first this will provide you with the information you need to complete calculations of payments due from individuals.
CateringRound up the payment of costs of food and wine to individuals who bought them as these rounded up sums are entered in the calculations of the cost per member and are thus fully recovered. Account should be taken of members who did not drink wine.
If there are extraordinary costs these should normally be spread in a similar manner across all members of the weekend, unless there is a clear and compelling case to attribute them directly.
Add all the expenses to be reclaimed for each individual and enter in total payments column. The meal charge is the total costs of food divided by the number of people dining on Saturday evening. The wine cost is the total cost divided by the number who partook. People who are not present for the meal should be noted as absent in the food column.
TravelSome members are sensitive about the issue of travel costs and except in exceptional circumstances these should be calculated to include both travel to and from the meet and travel during the meet.
Expenses Columns. The total travel costs of the drivers are divided by all the people in the car pool including drivers and rounded up to the nearest £. This sum is entered in the Travel Charge column. Enter Independent if the member did not participate at all in shared transport.
Keep the calculations as simple as possible. You may have to include independent drivers in the pool for local transportation. In general, drivers may end up with a negative total, i.e. they are owed money from the pool but other people generally will owe money to the pool. In general the sum of payments out will be slightly less than the sum of payments.
You should establish the mileage to the accommodation either by either a mileometer or by Multimap or equivalent routefinder software.
Instruction costsThe cost of instruction is spread across all those who booked instruction and is the cost of instruction divided by the number booked for instruction. This principle should be applied to any group equipment hire or other group fees.
Calculate the balance to be paid by/to the individualThe amount to be paid to the
organiser by each individual is:
(The total charges to the individual less any deposit) minus (the total
payments due to the individual).
Return proforma and any funds to the Treasurer within one week of returning from the meet.
6. Meet ReportThe meet organiser should allocate responsibility for a participant to prepare a report for the website; this report should also include a comment on the accommodation’s facilities and their fitness for purpose.
7. PetsPets are not allowed on Club meets unless everyone is agreeable and the accommodation has no policy restricting animals.
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Notify webmaster when the meet/holiday is full |
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| 3 weeks before |
Phone instructor or training organiser to confirm Monitor bookings Ensure full payment of accommodation costs is made timeously. |
| 2 weeks before |
Confirm key arrangements and payment to accommodation Confirm ski hire arrangements are in place. |
| 1 week before |
Issue confirmation email to all participants with contact details and final arrangements. Check and confirm all transport arrangements, including leaving times and venues, with all participants. Allocate cooking tasks and seek confirmation of menu from cooks to ensure menu is compatible. Allocate shopping tasks. |
| 1 week after |
Send copy of expenditure totals, cheques etc. to treasurer Send copy of the meet report to the webmaster for uploading onto website |
© Copyright Edinburgh Ski Touring Club 2010. e-mail: webmaster@estc.org.uk. Last updated June 2010.