Guest Contributor:
Don Stinson, Director of Bands, Joliet Central High School, Joliet, IL
One aspect of student travel planning that’s often overlooked: effective, well-organized trip communications with families.
Most often, parents are financing the trip, so it’s understandable that they’ll want to be kept in the loop. But which elements of the trip need to be communicated? And when? And which of the seemingly infinite communications options should you use?
In this post, we’ll break it down and make it simple. Let’s start at the very top.
A simple trip communication system should give families four things:
- One place to find current information
- A clear difference between reference information and action items
- A reliable schedule for updates
- A way to recognize urgent messages.
Set those up early, and every message has a clear place in the system. Let’s dig into the details!
Give Families One Place to Look for Reference Information
Pick one home for the core information families need to reference throughout the planning process. Typically, this includes the trip overview, dates, current cost, deadlines, and who to contact with questions.
Use a method that families already have access to and your school already approves — a class webpage, a shared folder, or a section of your school’s platform.
This space doesn’t have to store every message you send. It holds the current version of the things families check more than once.
For my trips, I upload everything into one Google Drive folder and send families that link with each trip email. If I update an itinerary, form, or other document, I let families know by email and point them back to the same folder. They don’t have to hunt through old messages to figure out which version is current.
If you’re working with a travel partner like Bob Rogers Travel, decide where the information they provide fits into that system, too. Families may receive itineraries, payment information, or other trip details from more than one source, but you can still give them one place to find the current version.
Update your main source when approved information changes. Pro tip: Label everything with the date. “Trip Overview – updated Oct. 14” tells a parent more than “Trip Overview (2) FINAL revised.pdf” ever will.
Ask your families early in the process if they need information in another format or translated into a different language. Building that in at the start is easier than adding it three weeks before departure.
Retire the Old Version
When you replace a document, say so in the same message: “This replaces the Sept. 8 version.” Then take the old one down from wherever it lives. Old flyers can have a long life on refrigerator doors, and a parent working from one isn’t being careless. They may simply be using the version they were given.
Action Items and Urgent Updates Get Special Treatment
As noted above, reference information – like the itinerary, packing list, code of conduct, and rules – belongs in your main trip page or folder.
But action items – like a form, a payment deadline, or a signature you need by Friday – belong in their own message.
When we mix the two, we risk burying the important part. A required action item sitting in paragraph four of a long update looks a lot like background information – not something families need to act on.
And, of course, there are the occasional urgent updates. These deserve a dedicated message too.
Here’s an overview that captures the “what, where, when and how” of different types of communications:
| Information Type | Where It Lives | When It Changes | How Families Are Alerted |
| Trip overview | Central trip page or folder | When approved details change | Posted centrally, referenced in later updates |
| Forms and deadlines | Central page, plus a direct reminder | At each deadline | Reminder message, with a copy posted centrally |
| Routine updates | Standard communication channel | Based on the planning stage | Through the standard channel |
| Urgent updates | School-approved method | As needed | Immediate alert by approved method |
Put the Ask at the Top
Try to stick to the rule of “one clear ask per message.” If families need to do something, put the ask at the top with the deadline, not at the end after the reminder about concert dress.
Use the same few labels every time: Trip Update, Action Needed, Reminder.
“Action Needed: Medical Form Due Friday” makes the request much clearer than “Just following up.”
Read It Like a Parent
Read your own message the way a parent will read it: on a phone, half-distracted, between two other things. Can they tell at a glance whether this needs anything from them? If not, move the ask up.
Set a Communication Schedule for Routine Updates
Communication today is easy. Maybe a little too easy.
My children’s schools send updates. School #1 sends a weekly update — everything you need in one email on Friday at 3 p.m.
School #2 sends an email, text, and smoke signal every time a kid sneezes.
School #2 communicates so much that I end up missing important items. I’m parsing emails looking for the call time for my kids’ holiday program, but all I can find is an apology from the cafeteria that Wednesday’s soup has changed from chicken noodle to chicken dumpling.
Meanwhile, I can get all the information I need from School #1 in about 30 seconds by opening the email and copying what I need to my calendar and to-do list.
Try to be like School #1.
Set a communication schedule and use a routine communication channel. That gives families a sense of when to expect information and keeps routine updates from arriving at random.
How often you communicate depends on where you are in the trip process. Early updates can be spread out. As the trip gets closer, there’s more for families to act on. If you’ve established a regular schedule and there’s no news, a short note can still confirm that the current information stands. “No changes this week” may be all you need.
Define What an Urgent Message Is
If everything is important, nothing is important.
Avoid marking messages as urgent just to “make sure they’re seen.” If families see “URGENT” too often, they may stop recognizing when something actually needs their immediate attention.
There are messages that can’t wait, like urgent changes to schedules, pickup times or meeting locations. Decide ahead of time what qualifies as urgent and how you’ll communicate it. Some directors choose a separate channel, such as a district-approved text service, or simply put “urgent” in the subject line of the email.
Save urgent labels for truly urgent items.
Keep Your System Simple
Streamlining communication doesn’t necessarily require new software. It simply requires deciding where information lives and how it moves.
If your system is causing confusion, start with the part creating the biggest current problem. It may be an outdated flyer or a text thread your families can’t find. Maybe you have multiple versions of an itinerary sitting in the same digital folder. Fix one problem first, then build out from there.
When families know where to look, what they need to do, and when they’ll hear from you next, you have a defined system to point them back to. You’ll also spend less time answering the same questions repeatedly or correcting confusion.
Working with a travel partner like Bob Rogers Travel gives you access to valuable tools, resources, and templates to make communicating with parents easier. To learn more about how BRT can streamline every part of your trip planning process, start a conversation with their team. You’ll be glad you did.
This post is part of a “How-To” series, brought to you by BRT and our extended family of music educators. For more how-tos, visit our Travel Notes blog.
