Well, here is my second to last post in this series!  Here are tips numbers 8 and 9.

Tip #8: Have little surprises.

 It’s great to start off with a bang. On our Utah trip we used to bring in fresh, hot, Krispy Kreme donuts immediately following our first night meeting. Other nights you can do very inexpensive things like provide popcorn while watching a movie. Beyond this, I also sought sponsors that might want to give away things as promotion for their company. For our Utah trip I simply went around to local sporting good stores, skate shops, etc. let them know we were doing a trip with college-age people, and asked them if they had anything we could hand out to the people in our meetings. We got everything from stickers to hand warmers to snowboards. It’s crazy how easy it was when I just took a few minutes and personally asked the owners. Anyway, having some very small things like this to give away in meeting times or on the bus can go a long way.

Tip #9: Provide Clear and Helpful Information. 

When the buses pulled up to the hotel for our Utah trip, we had registration ready to go. Students walked in, got their room key, a schedule for the week, and other pertinent details. Having a schedule printed on a half sheet of paper or on the back of their name tag is not expensive. We listed out what times things were, we provided bus schedules to the resort, city bus charts, times certain shops or restaurants were open in the area, movie times, and even gave them a list of options for them to do. Making this short and concise is best. In other words, don’t overwhelm them with a book, but provide clear information so you limit the amount of ongoing information needing to be relayed in your meeting times.