China Tour 2000: Handouts: Tour Proposal

New Trier High School
(General Tour mailing, May 18, 2000)

CHINA TOUR GROUP EMAIL
Sent Thursday, May 18, 2000

1. We have obtained our Chinese visas, and have your passports back in hand. We would STRONGLY PREFER to keep them locked up here at school rather than return them and possibly have one them get lost. However, if you MUST have your passport back, see Mr. Rosheger to get it.

2. We still have several people who have not turned in the legal/medical forms that were due this PAST MONDAY. We must have a quicker response to our needs for forms and payments if things are to stay on schedule. Some confusion regarding legal/medical forms... ALL STUDENTS MUST COMPLETE ALL FORMS. ADULTS MUST AT LEAST COMPLETE THE "RELEASE FORM," and are encourged to complete the medical form. Mr. Rosheger and Mr. Warrick do NOT read the medical forms, they are packaged immediately to be sent to Dr. Frelich. We understand the personal nature of this form for most people and we are only serving as a collection point for these forms. Furthermore, if you have any medical questions and wish to talk with Dr. Freilich, you can email him at freilichs@home.com or call him directly at his office (312) 372-8280.

3. We are now ready to bill people for unsold CDs. $5 will be added to your tour balance for each CD that you have as of FRIDAY, MAY 19. You can now continue to sell them for $15, but are not required to turn in any money. Keep the money for your use during the trip.

4. The current "ballpark" fundraising totals follow...
Online Auction= $2,000
NT memory plaques= $1,000
Weigh to Go= $500
Spring Orchestra Concert= $1,200
Spring Jazz Concert= $1,200
Items sold in lobby of concerts= $2,000
Chick Corea concert= $3,000
Shure Microphone Company= $2,500
"In school" Fortune Cookie sales benefited the individual salesperson (no group benefit)
CD Sales to benefit group is unknown so far. We know the individual benefits and those have been credited to the individuals.

Other "tour sponsors" such as the Fine Arts Association and Booster Club provided funds for special equipment, not for trip cost reduction.

5. Since our total fund-raising goal to meet minimum tour expenses was approximately $23,000, we are short by at least $10,000. This means that, primarily as a result of not reaching anything near our potential for the Chick Corea Concert, we will NOT be able to offer a reduction in trip costs to all students. Reductions will be the result of individual efforts at fund-raising, with the CD sales having been the primary mechanism for this. (Some students raised as much as $800 in cd sales to directly benefit themselves.)

By not raising all that was actually needed, we will not be able to afford to rent busses to travel into downtown Osaka or Tokyo. We will use our arrival evening to eat dinner at the hotel (at students expense) and explore the areas near the hotel, AND REST. When we pass back through Japan on our way home we will again need travelers to pay for their own dinners.

6. We have just posted on the tour webpage the flight information for both groups.... Chicago to Osaka, and Chicago to Toyko (actually Narita, Japan which is a suburb located 2 hours from downtown Tokyo)

7. We will VERY SOON begin having students sign up for the tour busses in China. WE WILL NEED TO MOVE QUICKLY WHEN THE SELECTION PROCESS STARTS.

8. Regarding the sleeper train.... all sleeper compartments are for 4 people. There are no options for putting people in a single sleeper compartment, or for NOT having married couples room with another married couple. We are told that in China, sleeper compartments are usually filled with complete strangers. At least we don't have to contend with that since they are putting on a few extra cars to accomidate our group. ALL COMPARTMENTS ARE TAKEN by putting four together. We will place male students with male students and females students with female students. Before we send the housing list to China next week, we will send it out via email for people to check and make suggestions. This is one of those, "When in Rome, do as the Romans do" types of things that we have no control over. Based on past tour experience, this is probably the first of several unique experiences we can expect.

9. No special rehearsals are planned for the groups from our last day of school with the seniors on Friday, May 26, and our first night in China at the hotel. We expect everyone to keep the music under control so we can pickup in China without losing any of our group performance skills.

10. There is NO tour group evening meeting next Tuesday, MAY 23. Our Chinese language classes will be held that day from 7:15 AM through advisory AND the same class repeated during 9th period through 3:30 AM. Anyone going on the tour is welcome to attend either of those language classes.

Keep your eye out for these updates since we will not be meeting in a large group again.