Post by Mike R. on Aug 9, 2011 12:22:32 GMT -5
Our visit to the Great Lakes Naval Memorial & Museum last May achieved its primary goal of providing grant-funded field trips to elementary school students, but the trip was not completely successful.
We had rough conditions on the way in and the captain could not initially dock alongside the retired USCG cutter McLane as planned. This meant that the captain had to maneuver the FGW into position alongside the McLane the following morning. This maneuver was still being completed when the students arrived, so the docents had to do more of the program ashore.
The seven Daisy Brook Elementary field trips, which were funded by the Fremont Area Community Foundation, went off without any serious problems. The students and teachers seemed to be satisfied with their experiences.
We asked GLNMM to seek additional groups, and they signed up Fruitport and Nims schools for three trips and two trips respectively. One Fruitport trip and one Nims trip had to be cancelled due to inclement conditions. Both of these trips were funded by the participants. There was talk of a partial refund, but we did not follow up on this, nor did we make an effort to reschedule.
The Fruitport groups were also problematic in that not all of the students were able to pay for the boat ride. About half the students only paid for GLNMM admission, presumably because that's what their families could afford. We were able to add another boatload using Gerber money, and the teacher in charge assured me that the remainder did not want to sail, but this is doubtful, and accommodating the group that wasn't sailing complicated the program. We should probably stick to our "nobody gets left on the dock" policy in the future and just offer dockside tours if not all students can go.
Follow up was inadequate for all field trips. We did not get as much feedback from Daisy Brook teachers as we might have because I did not send them follow-up questionnaires soon enough after the trip. We should have pursued the question of refunds more conscientiously. Although the customers appear to have dropped the matter, we may have lost potential repeat business and grant partners.
Scheduling and the absence of a relief captain were also a problem. It did not occur to us to offer to reschedule the cancelled trips for the two weekdays we had off during the May trip, possibly because those were the captain's only days off during a period of over 3 weeks (I made the mistake of scheduling additional field trips immediately upon our return to South Haven). Some of the crew were working almost as hard, especially our intern. Getting enough crew and docents for all days was a challenge.
Publicity was inadequate. We asked GLNMM to handle publicity. They put out a press release, but that was all. Not enough people knew the boat was there. None of the public sails were more than half-full, and two were cancelled.
We were also late in arranging for showers for the crew at a nearby marina and a hotel room for the captain. We ended up paying a small fee to use the showers. We traded four daysail tickets for a hotel room for the captain for part of the time we were there (the crew also got some use out of it).
All things considered, the Daisy Brook Elementary field trips went well, and we can be confident that we will do business with them and the FACF again. GLNMM would also like to continue their relationship with us. There were a number of minor problems with this trip, but none of them were insurmountable. With improved planning that incorporates lessons learned on this trip, future trips to Muskegon should go more smoothly.
We had rough conditions on the way in and the captain could not initially dock alongside the retired USCG cutter McLane as planned. This meant that the captain had to maneuver the FGW into position alongside the McLane the following morning. This maneuver was still being completed when the students arrived, so the docents had to do more of the program ashore.
The seven Daisy Brook Elementary field trips, which were funded by the Fremont Area Community Foundation, went off without any serious problems. The students and teachers seemed to be satisfied with their experiences.
We asked GLNMM to seek additional groups, and they signed up Fruitport and Nims schools for three trips and two trips respectively. One Fruitport trip and one Nims trip had to be cancelled due to inclement conditions. Both of these trips were funded by the participants. There was talk of a partial refund, but we did not follow up on this, nor did we make an effort to reschedule.
The Fruitport groups were also problematic in that not all of the students were able to pay for the boat ride. About half the students only paid for GLNMM admission, presumably because that's what their families could afford. We were able to add another boatload using Gerber money, and the teacher in charge assured me that the remainder did not want to sail, but this is doubtful, and accommodating the group that wasn't sailing complicated the program. We should probably stick to our "nobody gets left on the dock" policy in the future and just offer dockside tours if not all students can go.
Follow up was inadequate for all field trips. We did not get as much feedback from Daisy Brook teachers as we might have because I did not send them follow-up questionnaires soon enough after the trip. We should have pursued the question of refunds more conscientiously. Although the customers appear to have dropped the matter, we may have lost potential repeat business and grant partners.
Scheduling and the absence of a relief captain were also a problem. It did not occur to us to offer to reschedule the cancelled trips for the two weekdays we had off during the May trip, possibly because those were the captain's only days off during a period of over 3 weeks (I made the mistake of scheduling additional field trips immediately upon our return to South Haven). Some of the crew were working almost as hard, especially our intern. Getting enough crew and docents for all days was a challenge.
Publicity was inadequate. We asked GLNMM to handle publicity. They put out a press release, but that was all. Not enough people knew the boat was there. None of the public sails were more than half-full, and two were cancelled.
We were also late in arranging for showers for the crew at a nearby marina and a hotel room for the captain. We ended up paying a small fee to use the showers. We traded four daysail tickets for a hotel room for the captain for part of the time we were there (the crew also got some use out of it).
All things considered, the Daisy Brook Elementary field trips went well, and we can be confident that we will do business with them and the FACF again. GLNMM would also like to continue their relationship with us. There were a number of minor problems with this trip, but none of them were insurmountable. With improved planning that incorporates lessons learned on this trip, future trips to Muskegon should go more smoothly.