Welcome to the Pentagon Ski Club!

Becoming a Trip Leader

The club's most important objective is to provide enjoyable trips for our members so that they keep coming back. We believe that the quality of our trip leaders distinguishes us from other ski clubs. We have a cadre of dedicated, experienced trip leaders to provide our skiers with well-run trips.

How Trip Leaders Are Chosen

Trip leaders are selected by the PSC Leadership Council each May/June for upcoming trips. The Council monitors the feedback from trip participants to assure that the trips we run and the associated trip leaders are meeting our members' expectations.

Responsibilities of a Trip Leader

Trip leaders are responsible for the complete organization and running of the trip, from start to finish. These responsibilities typically include:

▪    Preparing a descriptive flyer to advertise the trip on the club's website.

▪    Conducting frequent communications with trip participants and with our selected tour operator/broker (travel agent) on details related to the trip.

▪    Working with the tour operator to arrange travel for special circumstances, such as skiers originating from another airport.

▪    Working with the resort, through the tour operator, to assure that the bedding configuration matches the mix of singles and couples. This may require allowing sales only to couples as a trip fills up.

▪    Hosting a pre-trip party (however, these are pretty much a thing of the past, post-Covid).

▪    Maintaining detailed financial records, and coordinating payments to the broker with the club treasurer.

▪   Coordinating logistics for the trip, which on some trips is at several mountains requiring ground transportation.

▪    Arranging the trip's social activities, which typically includes a welcome/pizza party and a group dinner.

▪    Providing assistance during the trip to skiers that may become injured or ill, or encounter other emergencies.

Benefits of Being a Trip Leader

The most important benefit of leading a ski trip is the satisfaction gained when the trip goes well and everyone has a great time.  A significant amount of effort goes into running a trip, and trip leaders are reimbursed for the cost of the transportation, lodging and lift tickets on the trip they are running.  However, when you consider the amount of effort required to plan and run a trip, the main reason most trip leaders lead trips is the enjoyment they get from providing a service to our members.

Trip Leaders Are Needed

We are always looking for people with leadership and people skills to run trips for the club.  It's important that trip leaders like helping people to have fun, are well organized, and take satisfaction in a job well done.  We have instituted a mentoring program for training prospective trip leaders.

Trainees work directly with an experienced trip leader on the running of a trip for one season.  The trainees are expected to be hands-on in accomplishing all necessary activities assigned by the trip leader to support the trip.  The trainees are also expected to attend Council meetings and membership meetings.

Getting Started

Club members interested in being a trip leader trainee should contact our Council members, who can answer questions or explain the process in more detail.

Trip Leader Support Tools

Several documents are available here to help support current and prospective trip leaders:

Trip Leader's Guide (2015 Edition) (406k - pdf) - Walks you step-by-step through running a trip.

Trip Critique Form (71k - .doc) - Ask your skiers to fill this out at the end of the trip.