Transportation to Invitationals?

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Re: Transportation to Invitationals?

Post by drcubbin »

wzhang5460 wrote:Please respect each other, I don't think what Kate said was very nice. Great job Bay Academy for doing really well last year, wishing you guys luck this year at States. I've heard that you've been talking with our coach, but in case you didn't know Gelinas has rarely or never carpooled, usually we rent a bus. Carpooling may result in difficulties if a parent suddenly can't make it, a single car stuck in a traffic jam, etc. I'm not a coach but a captain for our team and I would suggest just charging a bit more for the members so you guys could get to the Invys as a team together. It helps with team spirit when the entire team is on the bus and makes logistics easier.
Thanks wz! Yes, we are still tossing ideas around. We have all Invys covered except one, then States and who knows! But it is always an honor to compete side by side with Gelinas! Thanks again! ;)
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Re: Transportation to Invitationals?

Post by Galahad »

drcubbin wrote:
wzhang5460 wrote:Please respect each other, I don't think what Kate said was very nice. Great job Bay Academy for doing really well last year, wishing you guys luck this year at States. I've heard that you've been talking with our coach, but in case you didn't know Gelinas has rarely or never carpooled, usually we rent a bus. Carpooling may result in difficulties if a parent suddenly can't make it, a single car stuck in a traffic jam, etc. I'm not a coach but a captain for our team and I would suggest just charging a bit more for the members so you guys could get to the Invys as a team together. It helps with team spirit when the entire team is on the bus and makes logistics easier.
Thanks wz! Yes, we are still tossing ideas around. We have all Invys covered except one, then States and who knows! But it is always an honor to compete side by side with Gelinas! Thanks again! ;)
Honestly, raising the price for an invite by $10 shouldn't kill anybody. If you truly want to do well (without the pressure and risk from admin), I'd say just go for the bus. Plus, everybody loves bus rides hah. Everything is organized and you can do a headcount right there. No need to worry about one person running late, nor someone forgetting a build event. Carpooling works, but for far, important invites, buses are the way to go.

I'd be willing to pay $100 more if it means being able to compete and travel with my buds in SciO.
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Re: Transportation to Invitationals?

Post by Unome »

drcubbin wrote:We have been very lucky over the past few years. Our team has received a certain amount of grant money each year making travel much less painless. This year, we lost one of our big grants and so I am wondering how other teams get to/from their events. We could still charter buses and have the students pick up part of the cost, or we could easily carpool with one van carrying all of our materials. How does everyone else do this?
Eternal problem, getting admin to stop fussing. I don't have any useful advice on that - we didn't have very many invitationals at a distance far enough to need to coordinate transport. When/if we did, we would generally use a bus, because they weren't quite so expensive (around $60 for a one-day trip and perhaps twice that for an overnight, including hotel costs) and we tended not to need them for more than one or two tournaments.
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Re: Transportation to Invitationals?

Post by drcubbin »

Galahad wrote:
drcubbin wrote:
wzhang5460 wrote:Please respect each other, I don't think what Kate said was very nice. Great job Bay Academy for doing really well last year, wishing you guys luck this year at States. I've heard that you've been talking with our coach, but in case you didn't know Gelinas has rarely or never carpooled, usually we rent a bus. Carpooling may result in difficulties if a parent suddenly can't make it, a single car stuck in a traffic jam, etc. I'm not a coach but a captain for our team and I would suggest just charging a bit more for the members so you guys could get to the Invys as a team together. It helps with team spirit when the entire team is on the bus and makes logistics easier.
Thanks wz! Yes, we are still tossing ideas around. We have all Invys covered except one, then States and who knows! But it is always an honor to compete side by side with Gelinas! Thanks again! ;)
Honestly, raising the price for an invite by $10 shouldn't kill anybody. If you truly want to do well (without the pressure and risk from admin), I'd say just go for the bus. Plus, everybody loves bus rides hah. Everything is organized and you can do a headcount right there. No need to worry about one person running late, nor someone forgetting a build event. Carpooling works, but for far, important invites, buses are the way to go.

I'd be willing to pay $100 more if it means being able to compete and travel with my buds in SciO.
We are currently paying about $4,500 for the bus at events like Cornell (as the hotel is not the big ticket item). Does anyone have any better quotes? This price tag is what's causing the angst :shock:
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Re: Transportation to Invitationals?

Post by Galahad »

drcubbin wrote:
Galahad wrote:
drcubbin wrote: Thanks wz! Yes, we are still tossing ideas around. We have all Invys covered except one, then States and who knows! But it is always an honor to compete side by side with Gelinas! Thanks again! ;)
Honestly, raising the price for an invite by $10 shouldn't kill anybody. If you truly want to do well (without the pressure and risk from admin), I'd say just go for the bus. Plus, everybody loves bus rides hah. Everything is organized and you can do a headcount right there. No need to worry about one person running late, nor someone forgetting a build event. Carpooling works, but for far, important invites, buses are the way to go.

I'd be willing to pay $100 more if it means being able to compete and travel with my buds in SciO.
We are currently paying about $4,500 for the bus at events like Cornell (as the hotel is not the big ticket item). Does anyone have any better quotes? This price tag is what's causing the angst :shock:
How many are you taking?
When we travel we ask the students to cough up the full amount for airfare, which is usually $500-$600
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Re: Transportation to Invitationals?

Post by Unome »

drcubbin wrote:
Galahad wrote:
drcubbin wrote: Thanks wz! Yes, we are still tossing ideas around. We have all Invys covered except one, then States and who knows! But it is always an honor to compete side by side with Gelinas! Thanks again! ;)
Honestly, raising the price for an invite by $10 shouldn't kill anybody. If you truly want to do well (without the pressure and risk from admin), I'd say just go for the bus. Plus, everybody loves bus rides hah. Everything is organized and you can do a headcount right there. No need to worry about one person running late, nor someone forgetting a build event. Carpooling works, but for far, important invites, buses are the way to go.

I'd be willing to pay $100 more if it means being able to compete and travel with my buds in SciO.
We are currently paying about $4,500 for the bus at events like Cornell (as the hotel is not the big ticket item). Does anyone have any better quotes? This price tag is what's causing the angst :shock:
Yeah that sounds high, I would have expected $3500 or so for that trip. Are you returning on Saturday?

For whoever was asking earlier in the thread, I believe Solon MS attends 7-9 Invitationals per year.
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Re: Transportation to Invitationals?

Post by drcubbin »

Galahad wrote:
drcubbin wrote:
Galahad wrote:
Honestly, raising the price for an invite by $10 shouldn't kill anybody. If you truly want to do well (without the pressure and risk from admin), I'd say just go for the bus. Plus, everybody loves bus rides hah. Everything is organized and you can do a headcount right there. No need to worry about one person running late, nor someone forgetting a build event. Carpooling works, but for far, important invites, buses are the way to go.

I'd be willing to pay $100 more if it means being able to compete and travel with my buds in SciO.
We are currently paying about $4,500 for the bus at events like Cornell (as the hotel is not the big ticket item). Does anyone have any better quotes? This price tag is what's causing the angst :shock:
How many are you taking?
When we travel we ask the students to cough up the full amount for airfare, which is usually $500-$600
I actually just did a quick search and came up with a bus $1,000 less. That brings total for 2 teams to $170/student (Harvard Invy) and 3 teams $130/student (Cornell). This includes all food, bus and hotel. Ok, that's better :)
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Re: Transportation to Invitationals?

Post by kate! »

drcubbin wrote:(And Kate, we have always admired R.C. Murphy's achievements, so I'm not really sure where the attitude regarding little ol' Bay Academy is coming from. Since we're no threat, why the concern? And Kate, you should be looking at total points, not placements. So thank you, EastStroudsburg13, for providing Kate with that much needed context.)
Sorry for coming off as rude. I've never been to more than 3 competitions per season, and I did just fine without all those invitationals, so my opinion reflects off of that. I think each team should do what works for them, so if you guys are able to improve through that, then that's what works for you. You did well at LISO, so if you can utilize your strategy, then you'll be able to do well at states. Good luck at your next invitationals.
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Re: Transportation to Invitationals?

Post by IvanGe »

drcubbin wrote:
wzhang5460 wrote:Please respect each other, I don't think what Kate said was very nice. Great job Bay Academy for doing really well last year, wishing you guys luck this year at States. I've heard that you've been talking with our coach, but in case you didn't know Gelinas has rarely or never carpooled, usually we rent a bus. Carpooling may result in difficulties if a parent suddenly can't make it, a single car stuck in a traffic jam, etc. I'm not a coach but a captain for our team and I would suggest just charging a bit more for the members so you guys could get to the Invys as a team together. It helps with team spirit when the entire team is on the bus and makes logistics easier.
Thanks wz! Yes, we are still tossing ideas around. We have all Invys covered except one, then States and who knows! But it is always an honor to compete side by side with Gelinas! Thanks again! ;)
Agreed. Wishing y'all luck at your next few invys and at states! What we usually do is add up all the costs and then divide by the number of people we have going. Our busses usually fit around 58 people, not sure if that correlates to the cost. This may vary since we might get some generous donations from our districts STEM program, but I'm pretty sure this is what we did for Rustin. We usually charge over $150 per student if it's an overnight trip.
Last edited by IvanGe on December 21st, 2018, 5:55 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Transportation to Invitationals?

Post by emmalasagna »

IvanGe wrote:
drcubbin wrote:
wzhang5460 wrote:Please respect each other, I don't think what Kate said was very nice. Great job Bay Academy for doing really well last year, wishing you guys luck this year at States. I've heard that you've been talking with our coach, but in case you didn't know Gelinas has rarely or never carpooled, usually we rent a bus. Carpooling may result in difficulties if a parent suddenly can't make it, a single car stuck in a traffic jam, etc. I'm not a coach but a captain for our team and I would suggest just charging a bit more for the members so you guys could get to the Invys as a team together. It helps with team spirit when the entire team is on the bus and makes logistics easier.
Thanks wz! Yes, we are still tossing ideas around. We have all Invys covered except one, then States and who knows! But it is always an honor to compete side by side with Gelinas! Thanks again! ;)
Agreed. What we usually do is add up all the costs and then divide by the number of people we have going. This may vary since we might get some generous donations from our districts STEM program, but I'm pretty sure this is what we did for Rustin. We usually charge over $150 per student if it's an overnight trip.

Pretty much the same thing for our team.
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