Accounting is an important part of travel organizing. Money, time, amount of food, number of bags and the most important are counting the people you are with so that your trip would go smoothly.
Mount Pulag Climb I Organized last February 2010
You may not have noticed it when you attended group tours, joined some mountain hiking escapade or went with a simple friendly invite of friends to travel, organizers actually count a lot of times. It starts from the assembly, then to the riding of the bus, then on stop overs, when getting off the bus, while hiking, arrival so on and so forth until you part ways they are still counting in order to ensure that all people are accounted for and no one is left behind.
But counting so many times can take its toll on the mind or just a simple excitement for the trip would make you not so mathematically capable of counting and that’s when the usual mistake of an organizer begins.
Unnecessary Worry
When we were in Davao after our hike to Mount Apo (April 2007), one of our teammates was assigned as the tail to account for all the people we were with. He approached me and said “May kulang na isa. Andyan ikaw, si Lillian, Lowell, Winston, Mia, Yonna, TJ, Karen… May isa talagang kulang.” I answered “Nabilang mo na ba sarili mo?” “Oo nga ano. OK na tayo! Pwede na tayo umalis.”
Extension of the Problem
In our trip to the Hundred Island National Park in Alaminos, Pangasinan we were somewhat exploring the place and group expenses were first shouldered by someone. The breakdown of our group expenses was as follows
P1,500 – Dinner at Maxines by the Sea
P3,000 – Lodging at Korina’s Mansion
P2,000 – Food bought at the market and payment for the cook
P1,800 – Boat Rental for island hopping
——————-
P8,300 – TOTAL GROUP EXPENSE
We were 10 that time, but since I forgot to count myself I ended asking them for 923 Pesos instead of 830 Pesos only. Luckily, I realized it when we were still together and quickly gave back the 93 Pesos overshoot.
I believe in the saying Prevention is better than cure so when you count, start with yourself before you count others. But if you still fail to count yourself then just laugh at your own mistake, calm yourself down then count again starting with yourself then proceed to count others.
P.S. Even the most experienced travel organizers fall victim of not counting himself.