--- DeAnna Pearl <[log in to unmask]> wrote: >>I have had this happen more then once, especially when I have back to back groups. I have learned to flex the program, not my time, to accomodate tardyness. Stick to your guns on time frames and make sure the visiting group knows that ahead of time. I can't stress this enough. Teachers can get slack about times because we let them. As a former teacher and sub that has done a fair amount of school trips, it never failed to irk me that teachers have little sense of time nor impose that on their kids. We all know about traffic, delays, how long it takes to get kids on and off the bus and other things but yet we can't get kids from point A to point B in a timely fashion or even plan for contingencies. For example, buses are usually only available between a certain time frame because they are used for all schools in a district. But yet teachers will schedule buses to the wire and then get behind when the buses are late because they were late dropping kids off of school. Then they get irked when they have to leave early to get the buses back so they can start afternoon pickups. It makes me want to strangle them. But yet if we cut a program because they were late, we get the flack for it. Plus it's rare for a trip to be canceled at the last minute. Most likely, the school canceled the trip a while ago and didn't have the common curtesey to notify you. That is complete inexcusable to me. >>A nice letter stating your dissapointment and sorry that you missed them kind of thing would do the trick. Then ask what you could do for them in a future visit indicating to them your wanting for them to come back. See, I wouldn't even be nice because schools have been doing field trips since the beginning of time and should know better. I would be blunt and send a letter to the teacher(s) of the school group, the principal and the school board. Simply state that while you understand that emergencies come up and delays happen, you have a tight schedule and need notification of cancelations or late arrivals, preferably a week in advance. Also state that you had specifically hired extra people to work with the school group and not only were you inconvienced, but your employees' time was also wasted as well. If you really want to be bitchy, you can send them a bill or at least an example of how much it cost for the staff you hired and didn't work because of their lack of notification of the cancelation. Also mention that because they didn't contact you, other students were deprived of seeing the museum that could have taken their spot. Yes it's harsh and laying a guilt trip on people but schools will continue to cancel and blow museums off without notice until we put our feet down, esp. if we don't charge for visits. Plus there is no excuse for not contacting the museum about a canceled trip. I'd also put in a policy that if school groups don't contact you in a specified time period, you'll charge them a missed tour fee. Again, bitchy but if people know that money is at stake, they'll be more likely to come or at least cancel with enough notice. This is a common practice everywhere, doctor's offices, mechanics, theater, etc. so people shouldn't gripe about it. The rationale for this is that you are paying for staff to cover school visits so it ulitmately costs you for cancelations. Since you don't want to start charging or raise your prices because of cancelations, putting in a fee will keep the cost down for groups who actually do show up. Deb __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Sports - Coverage of the 2002 Olympic Games http://sports.yahoo.com ========================================================= Important Subscriber Information: The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes). If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).