Travel is an integral part of a successful band program. After experiencing many trips, here are a few thoughts that we consider as part of our program.. I encourage everyone to plan 2-4 years into the future to consider options and prepare your students, parents, and community. By giving the school administration, band staff, and ban parents the chance to be part of the decision, you are able to build great mutual support.

Do what is comfortable for your community. Some communities have no concern with distant travel, particularly foreign travel, others are more conservative. You must start where they are comfortable and move forward. We travel every other year to give families time to raise the funds and have been able to keep interest and support very high. As a general rule, 90% or more of your band should be able to go on the trip if it is right for your community.

Do not let travel detract from the rest of your program. The real reason for our program to exist is to ensure quality music education for our students. If all you highlight for the public is marching band or travel, that is all they will recognize as your value in the school. We constantly fight this perception by placing small ensembles in community and school events and promoting the student success in clinics, concerts, festivals, and scholarships. On non-trip years, we promote these smaller ensembles with their own smaller travel experiences.

Pick a reputable travel company that has a track record of success for the trip you are planning. Request sample itineraries and prices. You can save your students hundred of dollars by bidding with multiple companies. This requires some effort to ensure that the packages are equal. Be sure to specify what inclusions are required.

Bring along an administrator. We prefer to take one along and assign them no responsibilities. This gives the principals great contact with your students and parents and helps them become an advocate for your band. Spend the money and bring along a tour guide. They will relieve you of many details and be an advocate for you on the trip.

Schedule a send-off performance before you go. Invite community leaders to the event, introduce them, let them speak to the kids and parents about what they are about to do. Help them by providing advance information about you trip, the goals, and highlights that the students will experience. Publicize this event so the local media can support your program, and consider having a parent send back daily reports to the local paper so the trip becomes a multiple day event for the community.

Try to find unique historical or cultural experiences that will expand the experience for the students. Our kids have done native dances on the beach in the Bahamas, home stays in Miami, shopped with the natives in Santee Alley while in Los Angeles, and spent hours exploring Chinatown in NYC. On a trip to Hawaii, we invited historians and WWII vets in to talk to our kids about Pearl Harbor. These efforts help you with support from your administration, fellow faculty members, and the parents.

Pacing your trip is everything. Running behind schedule will happen sometimes, but if it happens all the time something is wrong. Trying to pack your days to the point of losing sleep is going to result in disaster. Although all kids will try to stay up at night, giving them 7-8 hours to rest in their rooms is critical. By giving them the chance to travel on foot during the day, they typically see much more and find resting much easier at night. On our trips to NYC, we place kids in tour groups of ten with a chaperone, establish guidelines, and let them roam selected parts of Manhattan in four hour blocks of time. When planning these outings, consider the length of time needed for a real experience.

Develop with a chaperone committee a complete package of the trip with rooming lists, bus lists, information about each stop on the trip, etc. Distribute at the pre-trip chaperone meeting a final package and give them time to digest and ask questions. With this information, they can actually run the trip with day-to-day events. Help them figure out how they can best handle each event that occurs in advance. As an example, when you are pulling 8-10 buses away from each stop, the director cannot check roll effectively. Assign each bus a lead chaperone who ensures that all are in attendance. Have them report when they are ready. A short nightly meeting with chaperones while on the trip can clear up questions and allow you to deal with concerns that come up each day.

Even good kids will create mischief if they feel they can get away with it. If a problem occurs, deal with it within school policy. Some parents will try to take care of problems themselves, this works well on prevention, but not with actual misbehavior. Review school policies with the chaperones prior to the trip so they understand where their responsibilities end and yours begin. Ultimately, you are responsible for everything on the trip. The chaperones can help you immensely by making sure that you are aware of what you need to know.

Handling money can be an exhausting process. Have a trusted treasurer or group of band parents handle all the accounting of trip expenses. Check the books with the each month. Our best efforts have resulted when all monies are mailed to a post office box to avoid deposits st the band office. Consider building in a small amount over the total cost of th trip for surprises. Any residual amount can be used to fund an event for the kids, but it is always best to have a little extra not enough. Set up a payment plan that has set deadlines and policies for refunds. Giving families twelve months to fund the trip makes this work for almost every child.

With proper planning, travel can do many positive things for you and your program. The sense of unity, support, and anticipation helps everyone involved in your band operate for the good of the program. By approaching travel with a long-term approach, you can build support for your program for years to come.

Tom Stites is now in his thirtieth year of teaching and his twenty-first year at Science Hill High School. Extensive travel with groups numbering over five-hundred students, chaperones, and parents has built a great reputation and community support for the SHHS Bands.