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Travel and Logistics Coordination (TLC) Hosting EOS, Departure Day and Arrivals Planning. Roles of Travel and Logistics Team. National TLC: Confirming Int’l travel with partners (FEB – MAY for returns, APR – JUL for arrivals)
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Travel and Logistics Coordination (TLC)Hosting EOS, Departure Day and Arrivals Planning
Roles of Travel and LogisticsTeam National TLC: • Confirming Int’l travel with partners (FEB – MAY for returns, APR – JUL for arrivals) • Departure Day site and Arrival gateway hotel selection and management, with Regional Travel and Logistics Coord. (RTLC’s). • Budgeting • Bus Routings for EOS, with RTLC’s. • Domestic flight and charter bus bookings for Arrivals. • Bus chaperon tickets for EOS and Arrivals. • Data entry for int’l/domestic flights and charter buses. • Nametag mailing for D-Day to vols and to partners for Arrivals. • Setting hosting dates for Master Travel Plan with Chief Program Officer – Hosting.
Role of Travel and Logistics Regional TLC: • Communication with AT’s, EOS Coord/Local vols regarding EOS, Departure Day and Arrivals. • Oversight of Departure Day site and Arrival hotel in gateways. • Supplies/materials for all local orientations, including manuals, student pins, t-shirts, luggage tags, etc. • Bus Routings for EOS within budgetary restrictions. • Working with our bus vendor to book EOS buses. • Bus chaperon travel for both Arrivals/EOS. • Early Return and Program Release. • Volunteer recruitment for Departure Day, Arrivals and airport transits.
A Bit of History—Hosting Arrival Orientations • 1970’s-1980’s: 2 gateways (LAX/NYC) and 4 Arrival “waves”. • Students arrived MON-WED and had orientation on rolling basis. • All students would OT (Onward Travel) on Friday or Saturday to one of 100+ “distribution” cities via charter buses/flights. • Travel Reps – 70+ volunteers were responsible for notifying host families of travel and coord. pick ups. • In late 1980’s, moved towards local, survival orientation • Early 1990’s, began planning for local orientation sites. Students were flown from arrivals (LA/NYC) directly to these sites for “survival” orientation.
A Bit of History—Hosting Arrival Orientations • In the following two years, we added more sites for larger, regional orientations. • Creation of Area Teams included responsibility for holding local orientations. AT’s given $ for orientations. • In 1994, opened Chicago as international gateway and required that partners fly students to region they would be hosted in. • Regional offices created around this time. • Timely placements became imperative as partners were now purchasing int’l tickets to three gateways and there were more sites. • Throughout 1990’s, more sites added as # of AT’s increased. Currently have 68 orientation sites. • In 2002, we added Houston and Seattle as gateways
History of Bus Trips/End-of-Stay • Int’l gateways (LAX/NYC) were booked by country group, not by region, so students had to bus, then fly, in each direction to return to correct gateway. • Bus trips were 2-3 weeks: • To allow students to see other parts of country. • Separation from host family. • Inexpensive way to get students back to gateway. • East of Rockies, bus went to NY, West to LA. • LAX D-Day was one day earlier to allow NY departing students to fly red-eyes and depart with country groups the following day. We continue to have them one day apart as the logistics are more complicated with 5 gateways.
History of Bus Trips/End-of-Stay –cont’d • Addition of Chicago as gateway and move to regional flights allowed for shorter bus trips. • More challenging for AT’s to find communities to host students on bus trips. • With addition of Houston and Seattle, shorter distances for students to travel. • National Council voted to move to the EOS model in 2002 and implement EOS Guidelines.
What’s on the Horizon? • Global Link – migration and training • Analysis of changes to Arrival dates • Hosting Distribution sites vs. Arrival Orientation sites. • Survey of Arrival Orientations
“Gee, we really do a great job!” For our hosting programs: • Departures: over 2500 students departed on 225 + flights over 3 days of travel. • Arrivals: repeat of above in reverse! • Excellent student support – 24/7 Travel duty officer • Superior customer service. • Experienced and dedicated staff – both regional and national. • Summer staff – our ability to train 10 seasonal staff and have a cohesive team up to speed in two weeks. • We have high expectations of ourselves to do an excellent job • Problem solving skills • Relationship with AFS Travel and STA Travel. • Relationships with vendors (hotels, sites, charter bus company). • We love the students!! • We have fun and we like each other
