Baaack to School!

Ready or not, summer is coming to an end! Just like Billy Madison...it's time to go back to school! Get those last minute summer bucket list items crossed off your list, and get excited for classes to begin. What is the best part about school starting? It means we are that much closer to our Alternative Break Trips! You have completed and received feedback on your Trip Outlines. They are looking great, and we're looking forward to some really thoughtful and impactful trips. Here are a few more things you need to know to reach ABL success.


It's a Date!

Be sure those calendars are marked for our first meeting on Tuesday the 19th at 3:30 in UC 220. If you have a conflict, please let me know asap. It's kind of like ABC's 'the Bachelor', only without the actual date part, exotic locations, private concerts, tears or Chris Harrison...

#ABLove is even better than the Bachelor/ette love, because unlike the show, this kind lasts forever with the lasting impact that is left on each ABL, participant, and community.

1:1's with MaryAnn

Each ABL pair will need to choose a time to meet with me. These informal meetings will happen over the first few weeks of the school year. Be thinking about a time that will work for both you AND your partner to meet with me, so when we schedule these at our first meeting on Tuesday the 19th, things will run smoothly. This will be a great opportunity to get any questions answered and be sure we're all on the same page!

Restaurant Reservations

Have you made yours yet? Even if your trip isn't until this spring, it can't hurt to try! Making a reservation now will make things much easier down the road. Remember, it is still a good idea to check in closer to your trip to be sure your group reservation is still good to go. From burgers to spaghetti, your group will greatly enjoy their meal out!

ABL Spotlight: Jeff Sedghi

Say hello tho this week's highlighted break trip leader...Jeff! Read on to find out more about this Fall Break trip leader.

Year in School: Senior
Major: Marketing and Supply Chain
Favorite Restaurant: Tomato Head
Dream Job: Lead Anchor on SportsCenter
Spirit Animal: Arctic Fox
Favorite UT Tradition: Singing Rocky Top at football games
Travel Destination: Iran (to visit his dad's family)

Until next time!

-MPG-

ABL FAQs!

Hello, experienced break trip planners! You have now accomplished a major piece of the break trip puzzle. Lining up and confirming your housing and service was hard work, and you all deserve a trophy! Mailing a glinting, golden piece of hardware to each of you isn't the most feasible, so please accept this electronic token of our praise! Presented by......

ADELE!! 'Rumor Has It', she is also proud of your progress and excited that such thoughtful trips were prepared by 'Someone Like You'.:)

The 'Nitty Gritty'

Now that you've made significant progress on your trip plans, lets get down to the 'nitty gritty' of the logistics and details. As you begin thinking about your dinner out, sight seeing, and grocery shopping--feel free to use this next section for reference.

Dinner Out

A nice dinner out on the town will be a great way to celebrate the accomplishment of your group. After cooking all your own meals on a minimal budget all week, eating out will be like..

So what price range should you be looking for as you select restaurant options for your trip? Here is what you should be thinking through as you search.

$12-15 is the ballpark for your dinner out. You will want it to include tax, tip and any soft drinks so you may shoot for the following... 

16 ppl x $12 (drink included) meals = $192

$192 + sales tax (approx 10%) = $211.20

$211.20 + 20% tip = $253.44 (which divides out to $15.84 per person)

Therefore, you would need to budget $15 per person for a $12 meal. Don't forget: reservations are your friend! You should shoot for a restaurant that accepts reservations, and you should make them soon!

Cultural & Sight Seeing 

Though the majority of the time of your trips will be spent serving your community of choice, it is still important you experience a bit of your city's culture and learn about its history. For example, if you have a trip in Atlanta, and your theme ties in to the civil rights movement, why not visit Martin Luther King's home church? While in Chicago it wouldn't be right to leave without a visit to the Bean or a trek down the Magnificent Mile! Is there a market you could browse through showcasing the city's local flair? A parade or event supporting your service theme? If you have questions whether a particular outing would be an appropriate aspect to add to your trip, don't hesitate to ask!

Grocery Shopping

Remember to be thinking about when you will shop for groceries as you are updating your 'at a glance' documents. For example, it wouldn't be great to go serve immediately upon arriving in your city, work until five, then have to travel to WalMart, back to your housing, THEN cook dinner. Everyone would be hungry and tired, and the potential for a 'panda shopping' experience (see gif. above) would increase!

It may work best to have one ABL and the learning partner go shopping while the rest of the group works with a service site. Maybe you and your partner want to shop for supplies for your first couple meals in Knoxville before you even depart (we can give you money ahead of time to do this!). The office has a Sam's card, so if you wanted to pre-shop at Sam's ahead of time, that is definitely something we can work out! It is really up to you, but just be sure to factor grocery shopping in to your trip timeline.

Additionally, be on the lookout for a compilation of sample low cost meals that would be ideal for groups of 15 as the trips draw closer! Well fed people are happy people:)

ABL Spotlight

Introducing this week's featured Alternative Break Leader... Sarah O'Rourke! Read on to discover more about your fellow break trip leader:)

Year in school: Sophomore
Major/minor: Social Work Major/Psych and Public Health Minors
Past Alt Breaks experience: Marginalized Homeless Populations - NYC - Spring 2014
Favorite Knoxville restaurant/dish: Tupelo Honey Cafe - Meatloaf
Dream job: Executive Director of a non-profit
Spirit animal: Elephant
Favorite UT tradition: Singing Rocky Top with 100,000 friends in Neyland!
Dream travel destination: Ireland

Still have questions? Think the answer could help a fellow ABL out? Comment below with what you may need a more in depth explaination of. Have another part of the trip planning process you are getting hung up on? Comment so I can address it in the next MwithM installment to help your experience go more smoothly. Best of luck!



-MPG-

Take a TRIP with Alt Breaks: Trip Outline!

No big vacation plans for the summer? No worries! Lets pack up our minds with helpful tips to prepare us for our travels on a very important trip...the Trip Outline!

While the destination you had in mind may have looked like this....

the Trip Outline has a beauty all of its own!


Your Trip Outlines are coming along very well. We've got some great Alternative Break advendures ahead to look forward to! I just wanted to take a minute to touch on a few key aspects: housing logistics, schedule at a glance, and goal setting.

Housing Logistics

You have done the most important part of the housing section by filing in your location and info. Now don't forget the other critical part of the housing section. The distance to the nearest hospital and location of a nearby place to buy supplies (typically WalMart) being complete will make us happy as a trumpeting elephant with a ribbon baton.

Schedule at a Glance

This is a way for the 'trip timeline' section of your outline to become more visual. Many of you have already made a great start on this! Gold star:) If you complete the Schedule at a Glance chart completely, you shouldn't need to reiterate it on your Trip Outline's Trip Timeline, minute by minute guide section.

You each have something shared to your Google breaks account that looks something like this. 

It is completely yours to edit and update, so feel free to make any and all changes to make your trip run more smoothly. Remember-- once it is on this Schedule at a Glance, that means it is completely confirmed and good to go.

Goal Setting

You have seen the 'Goals for the Trip' section on the trip outline, but what are we really looking for? How do you make a goal? Like this...

ooooor for the less athletic and with more break trip relevance...the SMART Goals model. There are five spaces for you to list goals for your trip. Think about what you really want everyone involved to get out of the trip, any key takeaway points, or how you will determine success within the scope of your trip. SMART goals are

• Specific
• Measurable
• Attainable
• Relevant
• Time-bound

Specific

A goal is specific when it provides a description of what is to be accomplished. A specific goal is a focused goal. It will state exactly what the organization intends to accomplish.

Measurable

A goal is measurable if it is quantifiable. Measurement is accomplished by first obtaining or establishing base-line data. It will also have a target toward which progress can be measured, as well as benchmarks to measure progress along the way.

Attainable

There should be a realistic chance that a goal can be accomplished. This does not mean or imply that goals should be easy. On the contrary, a goal should be challenging. An attainable goal should also allow for flexibility.

Relevant

Goals should be appropriate to and consistent with the mission and vision of the organization. Each goal adopted by the organization should be one that moves the organization toward the achievement of its vision.

Time-bound

Finally a goal must be bound by time. That is, it must have a starting and ending point. It should also have some intermediate points at which progress can be assessed.

You can use this model to help shape meaningful goals. These can be as simple as 'we want to make sure we don't lose anyone' or as thoughtful as 'we want to return to Knoxville with the ability to view and serve our community through the lens of our trip theme', etc. Happy goal setting!

ABL Spotlight!

Introducing the newest feature of Mondays with MaryAnn, the ABL spotlight. We can get to know more about the members of our ABL family through this nifty segment. Meet this week's featured break trip leader...Matt Klein! Who knows, you could be next!

Year in school-  Junior

Major- Nutrition

Break Trip Experience- Fall 2013 Health and Wellness through the Lifespan trip to Charlotte, NC and Spring 2014 Children Living in Crime and Poverty trip to Chicago, IL.
If you could be one kitchen utensil, what would you be? A spatula...they are pretty cool
Three words that describe you- Passionate, fun, responsible

Dream job- Dean of Students at a large university
Favorite restaurant/dish in Knoxville- Downtown Grill and Brewery, get the Santa Fe Burger!
Spirit Animal- Domestic house cat

Don't Forget...

-Confirmed service sites are due today

-Web description due next Monday. Be thinking of a few brief sentences to describe your trip's theme and service. These will be added to our website to give potential participants a better idea of what they are in for.

-AFB trip leaders: Mark your calendars, we will begin our weekly meetings the day before classes start (Tues Aug 19th at UC 220, 3:30-5pm). Plan to meet each Tuesday from the 19th through your trips, same time and place. ASB leaders, your training will start late first semester, so be on the lookout for more details in the future.


-MPG-

Communication: It Makes the Break Trip World Go Round

Communication can be tricky. It is very possible for location, busy schedules or simply not being able to get our point across (see below:) to interfere with effective interactions.

There are plenty of ways that communication can go wrong, but here are a few ways to make sure it goes right! Successful communication with community partners and each other is the golden ticket to success. If Charlie could do it, so can we!

Community Partners

Contacting Sites

Get out your binder from April Training Day and dust off those cobwebs. Don't forget about these excellent resources, such as the Contacting Sites section. A few particularly helpful sections include...

• Common questions to ask service organizations
• A sample phone script
• Specifics about how to keep an effective phone log
• Random tidbits to help you succeed!

You'll notice the original Contacting Sites document is attached to the email that contained this blog link for your reference.

Each Other

Use your Google Drive

The Alt Break accounts you share with your co-trip leader aka partner in crime seem pretty standard...but don't overlook their greatness! The Google Drive you can both access is an incredible way to make sure you and your fellow trip leader are on the same page. Keep a running call/progress log going so at any time you know what the other is up to...it's like being psychic...how neato is that?

Touch Base

Talk to your fellow trip leader. Call each other up to decide if a service site fits with your theme, drop each other a text with news on a site confirmation, meet up at Starbucks to work on your trip outline, send a carrier pigeon, smoke signal....really anything...just make sure you are touching base.

Don't be this guy. He is definitely NOT touching base...

Roger? 10-4? Copy.

Sending an email to inquire about a service site? Copy your fellow trip leader. Sending an email to MaryAnn or Kate with a question that the answer will benefit both of you? Copy your fellow trip leader. Sending an email to basically anyone regarding your trip? Can't hurt to Cc: your buddy. It is easier to read an email quick than be out of the loop on the planning process. 

Over and out.


-MPG-