For project week, my group initially decided to go and do a hiking trip in Vietnam, however, this plan needed to change due to other groups also wanting to use the same provider. As a result, we decided to plan a biking trip in Cambodia which while not our first option, was still something that focused on the activity aspect of CAS which is what we wanted to do. Although we were not able to visit due to the pandemic, there were still a lot of benefits to me and our group as a whole during the planning stage of the trip.
The most important aspect of the planning stage was determining our roles within the group, and who would be responsible for what. This was especially significant for our group since we were a group of 6 and we had to ensure that multiple people weren’t working in the same area for no reason. By doing this we were able to distribute the tasks amongst us, thereby allowing each of us to have input into designing the ideal trip for our group. Another major part of the planning stage was communication, not only between us as group members, but also the provider we had chosen to organise the cycling trip with, in Cambodia. There were constantly emails exchanged to and from the provider so that all the details of our trip could be planned out, and that the trip would fit into the budget that was set for us. Lastly, organisation was a significant skill that was developed through the planning process. As a group, we had to have all our materials in one place so that our supervisor could easily access it as well as us being able to send relevant parts to the provider. Additionally, we also had to plan out and consider what we would do should something go wrong on the trip and this required us to create a document outlining where the nearest hospital was and other safety measures such as that. This entire process of coming up with a detailed plan was quite challenging but was definitely worth the effort and time as it helped develop many different planning skills, even though we weren’t able to go in the end.
#CAS
