Chapter 9
Evaluating AMC Adventure Travel Trips
We continually evaluate the quality of our AMC Adventure Travel (AMC-AT) trips. We
do this by distributing online surveys to all trip participants. The information from the
surveys is used to evaluate trip leaders and provides valuable feedback concerning the
success of their trip. An AMC staff member oversees the surveys and a summary report
that is emailed to the Leader, the Co-leader and the AMC-AT Chair once enough
responses have been received.
The AMC-AT Chair brings to the attention of the AMC-AT Committee (AMC-ATC) any
trip:
1. That has sufficient survey responses of a negative nature indicating a serious
problem. Serious problems may include leader competency, clearly improper
handling of finances and/or participants, and failure to follow the program
described in the prospectus (without a valid reason).
2. That has inadequate, questionable or overdue financial reports..
3. That has more participants than the number approved by the AMC-ATC.
4. For which the President, another AMC official, or staff member has received a
letter of complaint.
 Investigation of Reported Problems
When a phone call from the AMC-AT Chair or the Adventure Travel Programs Manager
fails to resolve a problem satisfactorily, there is a review procedure.
1. The AMC-AT Chair or the Adventure Travel Programs Manager will inform the
members of the AMC-AT Executive Committee. One or two other AMC-ATC
members may also be involved.
2. The AMC-AT Executive Committee has a monthly conference call, but calls can
be arranged by any member on an as needed basis.
3. If the AMC-AT Chair or the Adventure Travel Programs Manager have not
already debriefed the leaders of a trip that has been identified as having had
problems, another member of the Executive Committee may volunteer to do so.
4. The Executive Committee may then clear the Leader or Co-leader, assign the
Leader to a mentor, recommend that the Leader attend additional training, or limit
the type of trips the Leader is allowed to lead.
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5. This Executive Committee serves in place of the full AMC-ATC and has the
authority to act between meetings and will make recommendations to the full
membership of the AMC-ATC, including the possible disqualification of a leader.
Such considerations will be reviewed in an executive session at the next meeting
of the AMC-ATC.
6. Removing or downgrading the status of a Leader is a sensitive matter. There are
several important considerations. First, problems should be investigated quickly
and thoroughly. Second, the Leader should be given a chance to explain what
caused the problem or to provide evidence that the complaint is not valid. Finally,
any investigation should be continued until the investigators reach a consensus.
7. The Leaders of a trip may appeal a decision of the Executive Committee to the
entire AMC-ATC. This session will be conducted in an executive session.
8. If a Leader is removed from the AMC-AT leadership roster, the AMC-AT Chair
confidentially shares this information with other Club and Chapter Committee
Chairs. This is to reduce the Club’s risk in other leadership areas.
 Interpreting Trip Evaluation Surveys
Post trip surveys are a tool that you, as a leader, and the AMC-ATC can use to make trip
offerings better for the future. While the surveys are a tool for the Committee to uncover
problems, their primary purpose is to enable leaders to lead better trips. Leaders should
examine the survey results carefully to determine what it is you may need to improve,
and in what ways you were successful.
Look at the overall tone of the summary to get a feel for general participant attitudes.
The following are a few things to look at:

If there is only one negative or ambivalent comment, it may mean that there was
someone on your trip that simply did not mesh with your particular style of
leadership or with the group. (We all have styles of leading and yours may not sit
well with 100% of the public – this is a fact of life). If you know who your
problem person was, ask yourself how you could have improved their enjoyment.
You can learn from this one unsatisfied person

If there are two or more negative or ambivalent responses from unrelated people,
you and the AMC-ATC should probably be concerned. The AMC-AT Executive
Committee may decide to speak directly to the Leaders about it. The goal is not to
condemn Leaders but to improve all AMC Adventure Travel trips.

Remember that the survey asks for feedback on many aspects of the trip. While
some comments may relate directly to your leadership, others may provide
feedback on logistics that could be improved if you or another person decides to
run the trip again in the future.
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