01. Who can join River City Field Trips?

02. What trips can I sign up for?

03. Do I have to pay for adults, babies, etc?

04. How do I sign up for field trips?

05. How can I see what I've signed up for?

06. Will I receive my tickets in the mail?

07. I've never been on a field trip before, what do I do?

08. How do I pay?

09. Why was my Paypal payment refunded?

10. Why haven't you responded to my email?

11. Do you have a calendar of events?

12. How can I help?

13. More about RCFT

14. How does a field trip come to be?

01. Anyone who homeschools their children can join RCFT group, even if you're only homeschooling your preschooler. Return to Top

02. Each field trip is listed on our field trips page http://rivercityfieldtrips.org/field_trips.html. At the bottom of each entry, it will says "accepting reservations," "need 2 point people," "need 1 backup point person," or some combination of those. If we are accepting reservations for that field trip, it will say "Accepting Reservations." If it does not say "Accepting Reservations," then we cannot accept a reservation for that field trip. Return to Top

03. Whether or not adults, babies, toddlers, etc have to pay is completely dependent upon the venue that we are visiting. Some venues require even 1 y/o's to pay, while others allow adults, and children up to 6 to enter for free. You can check each field trip to see how much it costs by going to our field trips page http://rivercityfieldtrips.org/field_trips.html, clicking on the field trip you would like to attend, and reading the details at the bottom of the webpage for that field trip. It will say "Ticket Price: $X", and will either have 1 ticket price listed for everyone, or will say what age groups are excluded from this payment for example, "children 3 and under are free" would mean that adults, and any child 4 and older needs to pay for entry. Return to Top

04. You can sign up for any field trip by emailing rivercityfieldtrips@gmail.com with the following information:
Event and time
Your first and last name
Total number of people attending (please include the ages of all children and if they’re participating if applicable)
Your telephone number
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05. You can check our database any time to see what you have signed up for. It is available as an Excel file and a Google Document, and is located on our webpage at http://rivercityfieldtrips.org/field_trips.html. Return to Top

06. Generally, our field trips do not have tickets. We will meet up at the venue, and go in together as a group, much like a "regular" school. Return to Top

07. After you've signed up and paid for your field trip, you may be wondering, "What now?" We will send you an email 1-2 days before your trip outlining the time you should arrive, where the venue is, who you need to check in with, and any other pertinent information that you will need. Please be aware that your group may not be able to sit together. All seats are filled, in order, just like with a regular school group. We do our best to keep families together, but we cannot guarantee it. If we have to split groups or families, we try to split those with multiple adults, so that an adult from each family can remain with their children. Usually, if a family is split, they are seated at the table directly beside their family, or in the row directly behind their family. If you are unwilling to be separated from your group, you may want to reconsider joining us on field trips. Return to Top

08. Payment information can be found on our website at http://rivercityfieldtrips.org/payment.html. Please, pay special attention to the Paypal instructions. If you do not follow them closely, your payment may end up being refunded. We cannot accept payments in which we incur fees. You are welcome to pay for as many trips as you'd like using 1 check or 1 Paypal payment, but please include what trip(s) you are paying for with your payment.Return to Top

09. Paypal payments are refunded when we incur fees for your Paypal payment. You can avoid this hassle by following the Paypal instructions on our webpage at http://rivercityfieldtrips.org/payment.html or you can pay using a check. Return to Top

10. It can take us a while to respond to emails. We receive about 1,000 emails during a school year. Please be patient. We will respond as quickly as we can.Return to Top

11. We have a calendar of events that lists events for RCFT, as well as events hosted by other groups for homeschoolers. You can check out our Google Calendar and click on the details to see what each event is. Return to Top

12. We always need people to volunteer to be "Point Person." A point person is the person who arrives a little before everyone else, talks to the people at the venue to let them know that we will be gathered soon, and checks people off a list that is sent to them. The Point Person is the "leader" of the field trip, but mainly just acts as a liaison between the venue and our group. We also welcome anyone to contact us with field trip ideas, especially if they would like to schedule a field trip for RCFT. Return to Top

13. River City Field Trips has been around since at least 2006. It's leaders have changed over the years, but our mission remains the same. We try to offer diverse field trips that we think people will enjoy, and offer staples that you can rely on every year. We average around 28 field trips a year. We think that one of the best things about homeschooling is the freedom to enjoy things like field trips! We have a small committee that corresponds and/or meets monthly. The day to day, the field trip planning, database, website, facebook page, and emails are all maintained by Jackie. Return to Top

14. It really isn't as simple as it seems when you are planning field trips for a very diverse group of 500+ homeschooling families. We book a lot of our theatre field trips at the end of the preceding year. We call or email a venue, receive information from them, start a correspondence, look at our numbers for attendance for similar trips from previous years, commit to a certain day, time, and number of people, design a webpage for the field trip, update the field trips page of the website to reflect the new field trip, create a new database page, post the trip to our webpage, post the trip to our Yahoo group, and wait for questions and reservations. We send and receive over 1,000 emails a school year, as well as postal mail, and telephone correspondence. Once we receive an email to book a reservation, we enter all of the information into our database, send an email back to the person with their confirmation and total, and update both of our online databases. Once we have filled our trip/the payment deadline passes, we contact the venue again to adjust our numbers if necessary. If we need more seats because we have a waiting list, we have see if there are seats available, if there are, we have to contact the waiting list, and get their payments, and then contact the venue again to book the extra seats. If there isn't a waiting list, we receive confirmation of our total from the venue, and mail in our payment. We then send out an email to the point person to get their description and send them the checklist. We send out an email to the group going with the details of the trip, where to go, who to look for, etc. After the trip, we have to update the website, and database to reflect that the trip is no longer available. I'm sure I left out some of the details, but you get the picture :) Return to Top