Lodge trip

[goomba]

I'm trying to plan a out of state weekend trip for my lodge. Does anyone have any tips? Any information would be great.

 

[CLewey44]

I would see if the lodge would vote on sponsoring it, or at least some of it. Maybe cover the transportation. That way 15 people aren't driving 15 cars and you could all ride in a large van or something. Definitely want to bring the cooler and ice loaded down. Calling ahead to the hotel/inn with a large group could land you a discount as well. An outdoorsy outing this spring would be fun too. A couple of cabins on the lake, grill, and fishing rods, could be pretty fun.

 

[dfreybur]

Plan as far ahead as possible. Get the events as bundled as possible so it can be paid with a single payment per couple. More like a tour than like vacations in parallel.

 

[Carl_in_NH]

And no matter how much time you spend planning, expect that things will go wrong. Might be trivial, might be more than that, but it's always how you recover from whatever curve the situation throws at you that will be remembered in the end.

For the person doing the trip organizing it's always less of a vacation than the remainder of those going along. For this reason, rotate who organizes trips from one to the next. Give yourself a break

 

[goomba]

Thanks. We're hoping for June 2017 and I'd like to have a finalized plan by the end of February. I'm hoping for a weekend trip (Fri evening to Sunday morning) as I think three hours there, walking/touring, and three hours driving back would be a lot.

 

[Bloke]

Thanks. We're hoping for June 2017 and I'd like to have a finalized plan by the end of February. I'm hoping for a weekend trip (Fri evening to Sunday morning) as I think three hours there, walking/touring, and three hours driving back would be a lot.

I am generally away on two lodge trips per year with my two Craft Lodges. They are different but a few observations.

• Some like to go Fri-Sat-Sun but most people will want 1 night over - Sat night always works best and NOT on a long weekend - even with long notice our attendance is always down when we go on a long weekend.
  
• We've traveled once over 4 hours by car, it was a great destination and trip, but you dont have to go far to make it a good time. Most people want to travel 1-3 hours (we've surveyed three times over 8 years - worth doing that in your lodge) PM me if you want the questions..
  
• If you are taking ladies and kids - planning needs to be around them. We tyle (yep we always do a Sat meeting - generally a 2nd degree) to make sure we are done and having dinner by 6 pm to allow kids a decent time to eat. Depending on their ages, you might push it to 7 pm, but this might not be a consideration in your lodge.
• You can do Sun breakfast - but getting people together for more than that is herding cats - we find after b'fast on Sunday, people break off into small groups, but more often just family.
• Eating dinner and staying in the same venue is always good.. esp when it has a lounge (you can drink in without using a bar = byo) you can sit in until 3 am. The goal should be able to walk to lodge, dinner, entertainment and then bed...
• Try to have your lodge meeting when there are other activities for the ladies and kids to do (shopping and tourist stuff).
• Circulate a (PRACTICAL) schedule with clear times, locations and costs and email and mobile phone contacts of WM, SW, JW and a couple of other people

Our schedule has become pretty standard.

Check in then tyle around 3-4 pm depending on work and how far lodge room is from accommodation
5:30 - out of lodge, check on families, a sly beer
6 pm - dinner as a group, minimul formalities if any (WM normally says something though(
7:30 - dinner done - return to rooms
8 pm - activity. It is normal a evening tour. We've done ghost tour, historic asylum tour (the BEST but it was spooky, 12 YO never held my hand so tight!), tour of historic village. It should be kid friendly (they love the ghost tour - its always got the history component so its a mixed bag).
Afterwards.. many things might happen. .. kids put on a room with one minder, or just bedded down. some get an early might, but its really common we find a pub (or visiting everyone in the town!) sometimes solo but often with some of the girls.

The after dinner activity is a focus and often sets the schedule (we try to go in last spring or early autum) according to if it is in light or dark. Sunset is around 9 pm here, so if it needs light, we start counting back from 9 pm (activity = 60 min plus min travel & change time) = dinner finishes 7:30 - 90 min for dinner (depends on food, courses, style, we've done fine dining to a bbq by the local Scouts) = 6 pm for dinner start. Depending on work - say 2.5 hours for lodge plus 30 min set up= 3 pm tyle. Always work extra time in and make Freemasons wait for ladies, not ladies wait for Freemasons (happy wife , happy life etc etc.. plus it is rude to keep a GF waiting - remember this might be the first impression you make on a partner - dont get it wrong by leaving them ignored or by being late ).

Sunday
Breakfast - normally "from 9 am to 10 am" and people chat about what they will do. We've had discounted actitivies on Sundays but they are never will supported.

Designate a motel as a base - but let people book their own accom - dont get caught doing that.... its never gone well.

This year we are going to Tassie to work a degree, (that means a flight or boat trip) its about $600 pp plus spending money... it will be interesting to see how it goes, it is normally cheaper and a budget of $200 -$300 AUD will often see you through the w'end