Heard on NRPAnet: supervision on overnight trips.How do you handle staffing on department-sponsored overnight trips arranged through tour companies, especially for trips involving senior citizens? That was a recent question on NRPA's listserv, NRPAnet. For information on how to join the discussion, select "NRPAnet" from the right-hand side right-hand side n → derecha right-hand side right n → rechte Seite f right-hand side n → lato destro of NRPA's Web site (www.nrpa.org See .org. (networking) org - The top-level domain for organisations or individuals that don't fit any other top-level domain (national, com, edu, or gov). Though many have .org domains, it was never intended to be limited to non-profit organisations. RFC 1591. ). Here are some of the responses to the overnight-staffing query. "Our department sends a supervisory salaried staff on overnight trips. It's it's 1. Contraction of it is. 2. Contraction of it has. See Usage Note at its. it's it is or it has it's be ~have usually my special events coordinator or me. We normally don't don't 1. Contraction of do not. 2. Nonstandard Contraction of does not. n. A statement of what should not be done: a list of the dos and don'ts. send staff if we arrange for the trip to be escorted by the travel agent, but do require a trip report from unescorted trips. As far as compensation, it's part of their working schedule (8-hour day)." "We pay a part-time part-time adj. For or during less than the customary or standard time: a part-time job. part staff person to coordinate and set up the trips. She receives an hourly wage for that. In addition, when she serves as tour guide, she's she's 1. Contraction of she is: She's going away for the weekend. 2. Contraction of she has: She's been to the symphony twice this month. paid a stipend sti·pend n. A fixed and regular payment, such as a salary for services rendered or an allowance. [Middle English stipendie, from Old French, from Latin st per trip, plus receives free admission. We have one big tour each year, such as to Alaska Alaska (əlă`skə), largest in area of the United States but third smallest (exceeding only Vermont and Wyoming) in population, occupying the northwest extremity of the North American continent, separated from the coterminous United States , Canada Canada (kăn`ədə), independent nation (2001 pop. 30,007,094), 3,851,787 sq mi (9,976,128 sq km), N North America. Canada occupies all of North America N of the United States (and E of Alaska) except for Greenland and the French islands of , Hawaii, etc. In this case, the staff person who guides the trip receives only the free trip, and no other compensation." "I've been doing trips for seniors for almost 25 years. In the beginning, I used travel agents to put together my overnight trips, but we didn't use escorts from the travel agency, I have several young seniors who are retired and work part-time for the city. They do all the escorting for me, and are paid ten hours per day for overnight trips. We don't do more than three-day trips, so their weekly hours would never go over 40. For the past 15 years, I've done all the overnight trips myself and never use a travel agency or tour company. This includes booking our hotel, restaurants, attractions and buses. Obviously, I can do these trips much cheaper by not using a third person." "We send a staff person on all overnight trips of 20 and more people. This person is usually a salaried staff member, and their wages are covered in their regular salary. Occasionally we need to send a non-salaried staff member, and they receive only what they would have been paid during their regular working hours. The cost of the trip is covered either through the tour company or additional monies added to the cost of the trip the seniors have to pay." "At the present time, we do only one overnight trip per year; it lasts five days and four nights. We don't use a tour company to plan this trip. I plan it, making the necessary arrangements and reservations with the facility, hotel and bus company. The trip is escorted by me and my husband, who assists but isn't compensated. This way we still have two escorts and only one staff person is out of the office. I am a full-time employee and am compensated for the time I'm with our participants--from breakfast throughout the day until they retire for the evening." "For overnight trips arranged through tour companies, we do send staff to oversee and represent the city. With seniors, we feel it's important to have a department representative go along to take care of some of the smaller things and give more personal attention to the participants. We send full-time salaried staff on these trips so that we don't run into compensation issues. We used to send an hourly staff members, but the issues of how many hours to pay for, etc. became a problem." |
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