Growing Your ACIS Group? Throw a Registration Party

ACIS Group Leader Rebecca shares one of her favorite ACIS trip recruiting tools: A registration party for students!

I have to give credit for this amazing idea to Carmela Aliffi, a former colleague who traveled with ACIS for many years. She noticed that common questions were coming up when students were registering for a trip on the ACIS website:

• Who will I room with?
• What kind of trip insurance should I choose?
• How long will I have to make my trip payments?

So, to make a communal space for students to get those answers all at once, she started having ACIS Registration Parties. It began as a way to help the existing participants, but it has since evolved into a useful recruiting tool.

How to Host a Registration Party

I usually set a date for a Registration Party about a week after an initial information meeting. That gives time for the students to take info home to their parents (and for you to email all the info home just to make sure their parents actually see it!); for you to field some questions via email; and for families to think about their interest level.

I usually hold the Registration Party during homeroom since at my school everyone has homeroom at the same time, but after school might work better for others. Make sure to check your school calendar for conflicts.

The basic set-up for a Registration Party is to have each student bring their own device – i.e. laptop or tablet – and a credit card if they think they want to make a down payment.

You would then email everyone the link to your TripSite, project the ACIS website on a large screen, and walk through the registration process step-by-step with your travelers.

The party aspect is up to you! You might order pizza or bring baked goods, and have some fun music from your tour destination playing in the background.

Top Reasons You Should Hold a Registration Party

As I’ve continued to host these gatherings, I’ve seen many benefits in the recruitment process. Here are some things I love about a Registration Party:

• It starts building community among your travelers.
  
• It means you and ACIS get their contact info ASAP. (I send out emails to travelers who are currently registered and encourage them to invite their friends.)
  
• It creates incentive to register early since the kids know they’ll have help.
  
• It gives you an excuse to send a reminder email about the party (and therefore registration) as a nudge to the parents.
  
• It gives you a chance to answer questions.
  
• It lets you explain options like monthly auto-pay and the different insurance levels.
  
• It’s a chance to get to know your travelers if you don’t already teach all of them personally. I love conversations about what draws a student to a particular trip and what they hope to get out of it.

For more recruiting insights, download our 101 guide to planning an ACIS Tour!