Paper Work

 

Although many people are lazy about reading, even vital information about their holiday, it is worthwhile sending it.  Many of the potential guests ring and ask for it and when told that it has been put into print on the leaflet already sent, undertake to find the paper and keep it for reference.  It is usual practice for us to find something else to disclose about five weeks prior to departure so as to have an excuse for another circular.  This reminds a few of the lethargic folk that it would be reassuring to receive payment and to stimulate a few others who applied some months before and have now discovered that they do or cannot accompany us.  Having sent off these, it is possible to fill the empty spaces with ‘reserves’, people who thought that seven or eight weeks before is ‘in plenty of time’.  Others may have cancelled and may have assumed that we would understand that their buddy would not go alone.  As there are always more than a hundred others going is not the same.  If one cancels, it can easily result in one, two or more cancellations.  It is often thought that one official cancellation implies a number of others.

 

Having received responses from the second circular, all is plain sailing until the great day.  There are often others who genuinely cannot come with us for understandable reasons and these are comparatively easy to manage.  With such vulnerable folk, a stroke or a heart attack often intervenes and the payment is returned in full with genuine expressions of sympathy.

 

But the third circular is the most important and vital.  Whatever you do, request the helpers to give them all a circular when they arrive at the departure point.  Not that this is going to be read by most of them but the gist of the information will percolate through the rest of the passengers relayed from the conscientious one or two who do read it.  But the primary purpose of this ‘departure’ circular is for ticking off the guests as they arrive at the departure point.  A typed list of names is much less practical.  Ticks can be large or small and can encompass more than one line so that a missing name can be overlooked.  The escort attempting to find a name, can miss a passenger sliding past who is anxious to sit on the front seat or the back seat or one not over the wheel.  She is not worried that her name has not been ticked off on the list.  She knows she is there and sooner or later she will rectify the omission.  If everyone knows that he or she has to collect a sheet of paper, before they board their transport, they will wait patiently to collect it.

 

Although this last circular may contain little of importance, possibly a few suggestions about outings or other entertainment, it serves a useful purpose by reminding many of them of other information which they will have received.  Chalet numbers are a prime example.  Someone allocated to chalet 89 will cheerfully and confidentially make their way to chalet 98.  So the folk in 98 will aggressively accuse the organiser of mixing up the guests.  Why is someone else in their chalet?  It can be a lengthy business visiting the accommodation, looking up and down the lists and discovering where the intruder ought to be.  So much simpler to request a glimpse of the circular and discovering the error.  So the number of each person’s chalet is on the final circular.  But even this is not foolproof.  One year the circular was successful so long as the party was seeking their accommodation and getting themselves settled in.  But in the dining room, chaos reigned.  It seemed a good idea to write in good bold numbers the chalet accommodation and note, again in good bold numbers but on the back of the slip of paper, the number of the table in the dining room.  This was all explained clearly on the circular.

 

“Your chalet number is at the top of the slip of paper” read the paragraph; “turn over to see the number of you table”.

 

Wrong!  Since seldom does anyone read the circular, a score or more went to the table in the dining room which coincided with the number of their chalets.  Consequently, around each table accommodating six or eight people, milled ten, twelve or more folk while other tables remained ignored.  In vain did the Camp staff attempt to persuade some of the indignant diners to transfer to the empty seats.  They wanted to be at a table with their friends and they were not going to move until it was all sorted out properly.  It took a quarter of an hour or more to turn over the slips of paper on which all the relevant information was noted and to get the meal started.  By that time, the waitresses and waiters were exasperated, the food was cooling rapidly and the entire meal finished late.  Our party, for a few hours was a blooming nuisance.

 

So now we put all the vital information on one side of a piece of paper.  The writing has to be smaller and not very clear to those with poor eyesight but that can be a minor disadvantage against the confusion which we experienced previously.

 

So paper work is a useful tool in organisation.  The lesson learned was not to try to include all the guidance, information and suggestions in one fell swoop.  It would save postage, but it can leave no wary gap into which some practical action can be introduced which might otherwise be overlooked.