Tour Bus

General Palm Springs area.

Tour Bus

Postby Perry » Tue May 16, 2006 7:04 pm

http://www.misoapbox.com/2006/05/attendees_lost_.html

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May 11, 2006
Attendees Lost and Found
Posted by Marshall Krantz

This has got to be a meeting planner's next-to-worst nightmare: People involved in a group-sanctioned function suffer a near-death experience.

That's exactly what happened in Palm Springs this week. Brandon Day was attending a conference sponsored by Securian Financial Group along with his partner, Gina Allen, when the pair got lost while on a hiking excursion in the mountains high above the desert resort.

They spent three, bone-chilling nights in the wilderness before being rescued Tuesday. Miraculously, they found the backpack of a man who himself became lost in the mountains the year before and is now presumed dead. Among his gear were some matches, with which Day and Allen started a fire, thus alerting rescuers to their whereabouts. You can read a more detailed account here.

The excursion was offered through the conference and conducted by a local destination management company, West Coast Transportation & Events, according to Emily Bird, public relations director at the JW Marriott Desert Springs Resort, where the conference was held.

For more information, Bird referred me to a Tom Burns, who she said was the meeting organizer, and gave me his telephone number. I left messages for Burns and Securian's communications department today but received no reply.

I also telephoned West Coast Transportation & Events. A woman there refused to comment other than to refer me to Tom Burns, with the same phone number that Bird gave me, which is for the area of St. Paul, Minn., where Securian is headquartered. West Coast appears involved but prefers stonewalling to full disclosure.

Clearly, someone--and probably several someones--has some 'splainin' to do. Just exactly how did they misplace a couple of attendees?

As is often the case in these tales of hikers lost, Day and Allen were ill-prepared for a possible emergency. They wore only light clothing, had no food, and carried no survival tools like a whistle, signaling mirror, or matches.

For those meeting planners considering outdoor adventures for their groups, I suggest--after, of course, not losing the attendees--that a day pack complete with survival kit would make a lovely room gift.
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West Coast Transportation

Postby Cy Kaicener » Tue May 16, 2006 7:58 pm

I wonder what West Coast Transportation is trying to cover up by not being co operative. Tom Burns is not saying anything. I am glad Scott 2 suggested helping.
. Please visit my website at www.hiking4health.com for more information especially the Links.
http://cys-hiking-adventures.blogspot.com
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Postby AlanK » Tue May 16, 2006 8:48 pm

Back in 1992 I attended a conference in New Hampshire. Sunday was a day off and the organizers arranged for transportation for all of the attendees to the Mt. Washington area. Before we left the bus, an organizer stepped inside and announced that no one should even consider hiking to the summit because we didn't have sufficient time. He made the consequences sound pretty dire. As soon as he left, I got up and, as I left the bus, asked if anyone wanted to hike to the summit with me. A couple of German grad students and I took off and had a great hike. We returned with several hours to spare. We all had a good laugh when we learned that about 30 people ended up doing the hike.

Tour organizers can make rules and issue warnings, but in the end adults make their own decisions. We willfully ignored explicit warnings, but our decision does not look too bad in hindsight. The poor couple that got lost on San Jacinto did not fare as well. But whose fault was it? I'd say that the responsibility lies with adults who make their own decisions.

Of course, if the organizers arrange for a guided hike, they should keep track of the group. I admit that I have not read the stories carefully enough to really judge this case.
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Postby Perry » Tue May 16, 2006 9:06 pm

It appears that they used a bus. Certainly the two hikers created their own situation initially. The issue of interest here is the time delay between when they were missing and when the search began, and of course the silence about what happened.
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Postby AlanK » Tue May 16, 2006 9:20 pm

They are certainly not likely to be tagged as "The Caring Tour Bus Company."

In my case, there was a threat that the bus would leave without anyone who was late. At least we'd have deserved it. :-)
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