Things We’ve Learned Over The Years
1.Luggage Sort: When traveling with larger groups, we found that marking luggage with pink duct tape for the girls and blue for the boys, made the process of finding bags much easier.
2.Current Photo: A security measure we use when sending students into public places, is to take a picture with a cell phone or digital camera, so you have a current picture of each student if someone gets lost or goes missing. This can be done while students are on a bus or in a van before they are dismissed for the activity.
3.Wristband Contact Information: We put our key leader contact information on plastic wristbands for each student so they have an adult contact number if something should happen. This can be as simple as writing the information on a wristband with a permanent Sharpie marker.
4.Buddy System: To ensure that everyone is on the bus after various stops, we ask students to make sure the person they are sitting next to (their “buddy”) is there.
5.Bus Rotation: To get to know students on bus trips, we have found it effective to have the people sitting in the aisle seats to rotate every few minutes in order to meet and find out some basic information about the people sitting by the windows. We usually rotate every 3-4 minutes and provide some guided questions to ask.
6.When you do a car wash fundraiser, pre-sell tickets to ensure you actually make money. Give each kid at least 10 tickets to sell to family and friends ahead of time.
7.Have a pre-trip parent meeting to go over logistics and paperwork for parents. This allows parents the chance to meet you and other adults who will be taking care of their child.
8.When kids sign up on an interest sheet at club for a trip, have them also list their parents name and cell # so you can follow up with parents.
9.Only do fundraisers where kids make 100% of the profits whenever it’s possible.
10.Delegate trip logistics to any/all adult volunteers.
11.Let your leaders board the bus first to ensure that they get to sit by kids, and not all at the front of the bus.
12.Separate guys/girls on the bus when driving through the night to ensure that nothing “sketchy” happens while it’s dark. This simple step can avoid absolute heartache for you and your ministry team.
13.Never put a staff person and a student in the same double bed – leaders sleep on the floor or in single bed.
14.Find a way to eliminate cell phones during your trip.
15.Have a one-on-one apt. with every kid while on the trip (you or your volunteers).
16.Train your volunteers how to share their testimony and present the Gospel.
17.Lock up all valuables as soon as you arrive at your location.
18.Make sure all your leaders have a watch, especially if you can’t use cell phones.
19.Always do same gender small groups. This allows for more intimacy while sharing.
20.Make sure all medication is labeled and turned into your trip leader. Kids can NOT keep medication on their person - that is an accident waiting to happen.
21.Make sure all parents have an emergency # to reach you.
22.Create a parent phone tree to communicate your update arrival time back at home, or in cases of emergency.
23.Only let people over the age of 21 drive your vehicles. (Make sure all drivers have submitted the proper paper work to YFC in order to transport students.)
24.Make sure all leaders have filled out a background check prior to the trip.
25.Take a photo of all kids/leaders on day 1 so you can know who people are and can call people by their names.
26.Set up a trip reunion while on the trip back home. Don’t wait until a week after the trip to set this up, as you’ll never get full participation.
27.Keep kids health forms confidential. Make sure there is a copy in each vehicle.
28.Read through Health forms before you get on the bus for a trip. Highlight any "major" health concerns and notify the staff that will be responsible for that student. If you don’t have time to do this, have a parent, volunteer, or admin person from your office help you. Don’t skip this!
Questions? Contact the YFC Outside Team at