Assignment
INSTRUCTIONS
After several years of hard work, you are going to graduate from SUNY Canton! Your family (however you define it) will be attending Commencement, and they will spend a total of 3 days in the area. They've never been up here or to the Adirondack region* before, so besides attending Commencement, they want to see where you've spent the last few years**. You have been given the responsibility of planning their trip to and from their home(s) and for planning the activities they will participate in while they are here. One day will be taken up by Commencement and accompanying activities, but the other 2 days will be for other activities that you plan.
Unknown to your family, you've just accepted a full-time job in the region and will surprise them with the good news when they arrive. Your family will want to be convinced that the Adirondack region is a "good" place for you (however you define "good") and that they will enjoy visiting you here***. So, how will you show them that you're doing the right thing (as least for now) in accepting a job in the Adirondack region, and what will you plan to ensure they have an enjoyable visit?
*For the purposes of this assignment, please consider the Adirondack region as including the following New York State counties, but do NOT try to incorporate the entire region in your planning! If my son tried this with me, I would have not been happy! Again, it needs to make sense. You only have 3 days, so should you be trying to traverse hundreds of miles? You MAY wish to include activities in more than 1 county, but again, you have to be realistic. Check a map of the Adirondacks or of New York State to actually see where different counties are to one another if you want to do this.
- Clinton County - Essex County - Franklin County - Fulton County
- Franklin County - Fulton County - Hamilton County - Herkimer County
- Lewis County - Oneida County - Saratoga County - St. Lawrence County
- Warren County - Washington County
You will need to take into account your knowledge of your family and what they will need and desire. Feel free to actually talk with your family about this assignment and let them review your proposed submissions! They may have suggestions or see gaps to address.
Your plans need to make sense, so you may not want to plan a hike if your group of guests includes someone who can't/won't hike (like me!). However, you COULD still plan a hike IF whoever is not included has some other plan made for him/her/them. Nobody says your entire group has to stay together 24/7. However, there should be SOME occasion(s) where your group IS together (e.g. for a meal).
You will need to consider alternative plans if some of your original plans may not work out (e.g. if you plan an outdoor activity but it rains and the activity is canceled, what might you do?). Some good online sites to begin getting ideas from are: https://visitadirondacks.com,https://www.adirondack.net/maps/regionmaps/adkarea.cfm, andhttps://apa.ny.gov/about_park/Don't forget that your textbook can offer some sources and ideas too. If your family might be interested in a cultural or heritage site, check out Chapter 11, for example.Feel free to contact (politely, please) local Chambers of Commerce and other local sources for ideas. Please let them know though that this is for a class assignment so they can decide if they have the time to help you. You do NOT want to make a travel agent think you are really booking a trip and waste his/her professional time!You will need to look up information about SUNY Canton's Commencement so you can plan that day as well. One place to start is www.canton.edu/Commencement. Since the ceremony and reception afterwards are coordinated for you, this could be the easiest day for you to plan! However, take into consideration when you want your guests to arrive in town, when they will leave, and before and after activities. Planning for Commencement Day could also give you an opportunity to have a chat with your advisor about what Commencement Day is usually like, since most faculty do attend and participate. You also need to be aware of your own personality and preferences. In real life, would you book certain services online? Would you include someone else in the planning? Would you want to use a travel agent? Please note that for this assignment, I need to see what YOU would do as the trip coordinator. So, if you WOULD include someone else in the planning (including travel agents), you should consider that YOU are still considered the person most familiar with your family. You would therefore take the lead in informing anyone else involved of what needs to be done and why, even if you turn over the actual execution (e.g. booking airline tickets) to someone else.
TRAVEL PROPOSAL FORMATTING REQUIREMENTS (point deductions if not adhered to):
• 3 pages MAXIMUM (not including the title page, reference pages, or appendices). This works out to about 1 page per day of your planned visit, including Commencement Day. Use black ink only. No colors anywhere.
• Use Microsoft Word only, NOT Microsoft Works.
• Upload your travel proposal as .doc, .docx, or .rtf only. No PDF's.
• Save your travel proposal with your name as in the following example: Smith_J - Rough Draft
• Provide a title page with your name, the name of your travel proposal, and the date of submission.
• Margins: 1" margins all around. This document has 1" margins all around.
• Line spacing: 1.5. This document is written with 1.5 line spacing. In the assignment though, do NOT skip extra lines between paragraphs.
• Page numbers are required. The numbers should go EITHER at the top or the bottom of the page, and can either be centered or on the right side of the page. The title page does NOT have a page number. Page numbers start on the first page of the travel proposal itself.
• Indentations: Indent each paragraph.
• Font styles: Ariel, Calibri, or Times New Roman. This document is written in Calibri.
• Font size: 12 point. This is BIGGER than in this document.
• APA formatting for citations and references of the journal article and any other source you use.
• Diagrams and graphs (if any) are to be put into appendices at the end of the travel proposal.