We are asked hundreds of questions, of
course, but some seem to repeat themselves often, and are
included here. Don't forget - you can always call us on our
teacher's
toll-free hotline - 1.800.222.2001. We would
love to talk to you.
Please click on any of the following
questions or simply scroll down through this page to see
them all:
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What is the organizer's role?
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Every
ACTS Education Program needs an organizer.
At American Christian Tours this person is most often a teacher or administrator,
but can also be another school staff person or a volunteer
parent. The organizer is our contact with the group.
Occasionally there are two organizers (for example, two
eighth grade teachers) but even then we would prefer that
one be made the "primary" organizer, so we don't have to
track down more than one person every time a decision is
to be made. It is the organizer who works out with us
details concerning exactly what education program is to be offered,
the program dates, etc. Depending on the size of your group,
the organizer will then appoint a number of chaperones.
These chaperones can be teachers, school staff, or
parents. Each chaperone will likely have primary
responsibility for a number of students. We have all kinds
of advice for you on this subject. Give us a call.
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Organizers promote the
education program.
ACTS provides you with customized Itineraries
and Registration forms, support materials including our
promotional DVD (for classroom use and parent information
night), posters, and plenty of advice.
Organizers and chaperones are
not responsible for collecting money. ACTS Accounting
Department works directly with each family.
Remember, and this is important, as far as we know ACTS and its sister company, are the only student
tour providers in the United States that use a client
trust account, administered by a firm of independent
Certified Public Accountants (CPA's) for the protection of
your money. Other student tour providers have trust
accounts to be sure, but they are almost always
self-administered. In other words the tour provider can
access your money. They're not supposed to, of course, but
they can. ACTS can't. Your money is safely
in the hands of the independent Certified Public
Accountant firm of Anderson, Hager & Moe, who pays the
bills and only pays ACTS five (5) business
days after your education program is over.
ACTS
Education Program
Leaders are with your group 24 hours a day from the time you arrive at your first
destination until you are on your way home.
ACTS
Education Program Leaders take care of all arrangements, provide
on-going commentary, and in general run the trip. The
organizer helps if decisions need to be made and, of
course, with supervision and discipline.
ACTS
provides nighttime hall staff to watch over your group at our hotels.
Return to index of
questions or just continue to scroll down the page.
If I am the organizer do I have to pay to be on the
education program?
No. As long as you have at least ten paying participants,
your own participation would be at no charge. Depending on
how many paying participants you do have, you will be able
to offer complimentary spots to other chaperones. We use a
formula, actually two formulas, for calculating the number
of complimentary spots. You don't actually pick a formula, we
simply apply whichever works out best for you once we know
exactly how many paid participants there will be. Either one
person goes complimentary for every ten paying participants (formula
one) or one person goes complimentary for every fifteen paying
participants and we establish a scholarship fund in the
amount of $25 for every paying participant to be used as the
organizer sees fit (formula two). You can even split
complimentary
spots if you wish and give chaperones partially paid trips.
Return to index of
questions or just continue to scroll down the page.
When do I call to book my education program?
Most programs will be
booked almost one year in advance. Organizers will call well
before school lets out for summer to book their group for
the following spring. The next most popular booking period
is the first few weeks that school is back in the fall,
again to book groups for the upcoming spring. Very few
organizers will call after the first part of November to
plan an education program for the upcoming spring, although it can be
done. Because
ACTS has a client trust account
administered by a firm of independent Certified Public
Accountants (CPA's), we are seeing more and more schools
book programs two and even three years in advance.
Organizers and parents know the money is safe so they are
comfortable paying deposits and making payments that far in
advance. Very small monthly payments can be worked out for
these programs booked for two or more years away.
Return to index of
questions or just continue to scroll down the page.
How many participants are needed to make up an education
program group?
Your group will either "stand alone" or be a "matched"
group. If you are flying to the east coast and have 35 or
more paying participants your group will stand alone. If you
are coming to the east coast by motorcoach and have 40 or
more paying participants your group will also stand alone.
If you expect fewer than these numbers of paying
participants then we will match you with another group and
you will participate in an education program together. Many of our groups are matched
groups! Perhaps a third of all our groups are made up
of students from more than one school. Because
ACTS
works only with Christian schools, you can be sure that your
students, and even more importantly their parents, will be
comfortable with the schools we match you with. And, of
course, we will be sensitive to your school's philosophy as
we put together matches.
If you know your numbers will be less that 35 paying
participants, we can also look at adjusting your trip cost
per person so that your group can still stand alone.
Ask your
ACTS
Education
Program Consultant Team for
additional information.
Return to index of
questions or just continue to scroll down the page.
How many people can we bring on the education program? There is no
upper limit. We have worked with groups of over 450
participants and very routinely work with groups of well
over 200 participants. These groups are divided into
motorcoach-sized "teams" and each team has its own
ACTS
Education
Program Leader.
Return to index of
questions or just continue to scroll down the page.
Who can we bring on the education program?
That's pretty much up to you.
The great majority of our schools allow students and
parents, as well as an occasional grandparent. A few
restrict the trip to students and teachers. A very few open
the trip up to members of the community. Expectations
are key, so make sure that adults interested in coming on
the trip know that the trip is designed for students.
Return to index of
questions or just continue to scroll down the page.
Should we mix grade levels?
No, you shouldn't, but
you may choose to. Many of our schools have too few
students in a particular grade to have a "stand alone"
group. In these cases
ACTS would prefer that
you let us match you with another school. However, if for
one reason or the other you don't want to match, then you
might combine two grades. For example, you might combine
your fifth and sixth grades, your seventh and eighth grades,
or your eleventh and twelfth grades. If you do this, you
would then go on to offer the education program every second year. Keep
in mind that it would be to
ACTS financial
advantage in your first year to have you combine grades.
It's simple - more students in the first year. But we would
rather have you bring fewer students and match because we
know that your education program will grow and we would rather see you
have the continuity of an every year program. No matter
which you choose, we'll work hard to give you a great
education program.
Return to index of
questions or just continue to scroll down the page.
When should we travel?
The overwhelming majority of
schools participate in our education programs during regular school
time. The two most popular months are April and May,
although March is a close third. More schools every year are
realizing the advantages of pre-season and are traveling in
January, February, and very early March. During these times
there are virtually NO lines and NO crowds. Of
course the weather is a factor, but much of what we do is
indoors. Only about ten percent of schools
travel during spring break or after school lets out for the
summer.
In recent years, autumn has also become a
popular time to travel. We have a number of schools
that annually travel in September and October. The
weather has cooled down a bit, the leaves are beginning to
turn, and the crowds have diminished.
Return to index of
questions or just continue to scroll down the page.
What types of hotels does
ACTS use?
Quality and Superior tourist
class hotels. In
Washington, D.C.,
ACTS uses as its primary
hotels major downtown Washington, D.C. properties. Our
two main hotels are either on Capitol Hill or right off the
National Mall - with no additional "downtown" surcharge. In Williamsburg and New York City
ACTS
usually uses either the Embassy Suites or Quality
Suites as primary hotels.
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questions or just continue to scroll down the page.
How many people are in each room at the hotel?
Generally, either two adults or four students are
accommodated in each room. Every room will have two large
beds, with the exception that there might be a single king sized bed if
the room is being used by a married couple. For purposes of
room assignments, complimentary organizers and other chaperones are
accommodated just like paying adults, two people per room.
There is a possibility that a third person might be put into
an adult room, or a fifth person into a student room, using
a rollaway bed, if numbers of participants do not divide
evenly by twos or fours. The organizer makes rooming
assignments.
Return to index of
questions or just continue to scroll down the page.
How are payments made?
Payments are made directly to
ACTS.
Except for the deposit, which is never more than ten percent
of the tour price, the payments are made payable directly to
the client trust account at Dairy State Bank, an FDIC
insured bank (in California, all payments, including the
deposit, are made payable to the client trust account).
Normally a deposit is first paid, and then ninety days
before the departure date and then again sixty
days before the departure date two approximately equal payments are
made to fully pay for the education program.
Return to index of
questions or just continue to scroll down the page.
Are there behavior guidelines, dress codes, and the like
on the education program? Yes. These are spelled out in our
Education Program Registration and Medical Release forms, which are sent to
you along with detailed education program itineraries when you book
your ACTS Education Program. It is all common sense
information.
Return to index of
questions or just continue to scroll down the page.
Does
ACTS provide any pre-program educational support
materials? Absolutely. ACTS provides a
workbook - The ACTS Explorer, to each one of
your participating students. This workbook provides pre-program
and post-program activities, on-sight quizzes, facts, maps, and
other information related to the sights you will see. A
section of the workbook also includes journal pages to be
filled out by your students.
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questions
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