The purpose of these Trip Financial Guidelines is to provide a common basis of how trip costs are planned, establish refund/review policies when actual costs are out of line with planned costs, and establish Trip Coordinator/Trip Leader responsibilities. The intent is to insure that trips are priced and administered in a fair but fiscally responsible manner.

The Trip Coordinator and/or Trip Leaders will determine all included costs associated with each trip:

• Miscellaneous trip expenses that can be reasonable to expect the club to reimburse:copies, maps, telephone, reservations, coordination;
• Room;
• Meals when planned and included as part of the trip costs;
• Trail fees when planned and included as part of the trip costs;
• Social functions when planned and included as part of the trip costs;
• Tips when planned and included as part of the trip costs.

A contingency of 5 or 10% will be added to the estimated cost to cover possible unforeseen costs on this or other Club trips or losses in other years:

• New trips with uncertain costs will be priced at 10% above estimated costs;
• Low cost trips under $50 estimated cost will be priced at 10% above estimated costs;
• High risk trips (e.g. trips with high fixed cost accommodations like condos or other high fixed costs like buses or uncertain expenses like currency exchange rates) will be priced at 10% above estimated costs;
• Established trips except as noted previously will be priced at 5% above estimated costs.

Round the estimated cost plus the contingency up to nearest dollar and use this as the member price for participating in a trip.

Trip overages beyond, and only beyond, 5% of actual costs shall be refunded to the members by the Treasurer subject to a $10 minimum refund. Any refund shall occur in the current accounting year. The trip leader shall report overages and shortfalls to the treasurer as soon as practical after the trip. It is anticipated that trips will be priced so that refunds are usually not necessary.

Actual costs greater than the trip price are to be brought to the attention of the Board for review. Trip leaders are not to collect additional money on the trip above the published trip price unless prior approval of the Board is obtained.

Revenue from complimentary packages that were not part of the calculated cost will go into the Club Treasury.

Trip Leaders will monitor their trip sign up to insure that enough members are signed up by the cancellation dates for rooms, buses, etc. for the trip to pay for itself. Trip Leaders are responsible to make cancellations when the trip is not full. The Trip Coordinator will oversee this and will notify the Board and Officers of any risks. In general each trip is expected to pay for itself.

Exceptions to these Guidelines are trips like the out west trips or gamblers trips in which members simply share costs.

Refer to the most current Trip Reservation Policy on the WSTC Trip Reservation Form (attached) for further information (e.g. eligibility, trip reservation process, trip refunds).