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Club Policies

Financials:

  • General: The Holmdel Ski Club (herein, the Club) is a not-for-profit social club. Trips are run with the intention of each trip breaking even.   All trip participants share equally in the expenses of a trip such that trip participants do not benefit financially from any Club activity.  The Club's ByLaws are available here.  Each trip has a fixed price so that the participants know the final price when they commit to the trip. Any exceptions to the fixed price will be explicitly stated in the trip description. An example might be a potential increase in airline taxes or fuel surcharges which is beyond the Club's control.  There are also rare cases where a late signup for a non-double occupancy room might incur a "single surcharge" from  the service provider.
  • Membership: The Executive Committee determines when and how a person becomes a member.   The minimum requirements are that the person is at least 18 years of age and has attended a Club trip as a guest. Only members and their guests can participate on Club trips. Guests cannot bring along other guests. A prospective member is a non-member who has requested to be placed on the Club's mailing list.
  • Setting the Price:  The Club's Executive Committee estimates how many people are expected on the trip.  If the Club estimates 40 people, then the Club breaks even at 40 people, has a surplus if there is more than 40, and loses money if there is less than 40. The surplus and loss is usually very small, maybe between $5 and $10 per person.  If there is an anticipated surplus, then the Club will provide extras such as wine and cheese on the bus or a wine and cheese party at the resort.   If there is an anticipated loss, then some of the planned snacks or perks are eliminated.
  • Price Rates for Children/Seniors: The Club will try to be as fair as possible, passing back any savings to the child/senior.  Please realize that when the Club purchases group lift tickets, the age-related discounts, if any, might be different than the discounts associated with full-price tickets.  Proof of age will be required for special age-related rates, especially for seniors, children, and teenagers.
  • Minimum Age for Trip Participants: We all know that minors cannot legally sign a contract and are therefore not bound by the Club's liability waiver. However, despite what most parents believe, in most States, including New Jersey, a parent also cannot legally sign away their child's legal rights, so parental waivers are not always upheld in the courts.  The State or the child (upon reaching 18) have the right to sue for perceived negligent acts or injuries that have occurred to them during their childhood. Trip leaders and our Club's tour vendors are at risk of years of future legal liability anytime a child participates on a Club trip. Therefore, Club policy requires that participants must be at least 18 years old by the first day of the trip. 
  • Group Airline Tickets: The group airline tickets that the Club purchases are a contract between the airline(s) and the Tour Operator that the Club hires to act as our travel agent. The contract is _NOT_ between the airline and the individual passenger. Thus, individual passengers cannot make changes to their ticket even though it is in their name. All group airline tickets are required by law to have the exact same outbound (first leg) flight (same flight number, day, and time). If you are not comfortable with the no-outbound-deviation restriction on group airline tickets, then you should book your own airfare. Some airlines allow a deviation on the return flight for a small percentage of the group's seats. Please do not ask the trip leader to provide you with a different outbound flight. The answer will always be "no" since the airlines are bound by law for all aspects of a group ticket. The Club can only book group airline tickets. Individual tickets must be purchased directly by you.

    For all airline tickets, both group and individual, if you miss your outbound flight, your return flight will be automatically cancelled. It _MIGHT_ be possible that if you show up to the departure airport a few minutes after the flight departs, the airline's in-person ticket agent _MIGHT_ be able to reschedule you on another flight and rescind the automatic cancellation of your return flight. It is important that you plead with the ticket agent to rescind the automatic cancellation, since the agent might not be thinking of that aspect of your itinerary. If there is a weather issue that is impacting a group flight, the trip leader and Tour Operator will work with the airline to find a solution; do not contact the airline to try to make changes to your individual seat of a group ticket.
  • Electronic Payments:
      THE HOLMDEL SKI CLUB NOW ACCEPTS ZELLE FOR TRIP PAYMENTS.

    JUNE 19 2023 UPDATE: The ZELLE network is seeing lots of payments into the Holmdel Ski Club account and several banks are blocking member payments due to no prior history of your account sending money to the Club's account. To attain history, you can send several small deposits over several days. For your first ever Zelle transaction to the Club, send just $100 and wait for a response from the Club's Treasurer (Steve). The next day send $200, wait for a response.  The next day send $400.  The next day send $500. By now you should have sufficient history to send whatever amount you want. If you are sending a deposit for two or more people from the same Zelle account, please use the same daily strategy ($100, $200, $400, $500, any). 

    The Club encourages all members to use Zelle to send in their trip payments. Zelle is an electronic person-to-person payment system that typically is part of your online bank account's transfer-money capability. Zelle electronic payments typically hit the Club's bank within a few minutes, as opposed to billpay or checks that take 10-14 days.  Please use your bank's app or web site to access the Zelle transfer features. Avoid using the zelle.com web site because that method is limited to $500, and trip deposits are typically much more. 
    The Club's account identifier for Zelle is  treasury.hsc@gmail.com
    The first name on that account is: Holmdel
    The last name on that account is: Ski Club
    The account type is PERSONAL, not business.

    The Club does NOT accept Paypal, Venmo, ApplePay, PopMoney, or other electronic payments; Only Zelle.
    If your intended deposit amount exceeds your daily Zelle send-money amount, then it is okay to send the Club multiple deposits over several days.

    Soon after you send your payment via Zelle, you will receive an email from the Club's Treasurer confirming receipt of your money.
  • Sending Trip Checks via Your Bank's BillPayer Service:   If you are using a BillPayer service to send your trip payment then make sure that the name you enter into the system is Holmdel Ski Club (First Name: Holmdel, Last Name: Ski Club). Use the following for address:

    PO Box 2500
    Frisco, CO 80443-2500


    The Club does not use account-numbers for trip participants, so you can leave "account number" blank or enter any random value.  If you need a phone number, please use the Treasurer's personal phone number of 732-610-7565. If you need a contact name, use Steven Krapes. Email: treasury@holmdelskiclub.org. Upon issuing the BillPayer transaction, please send an email to treasury@holmdelskiclub.org and the trip leader's email address so that they can anticipate your letter and reply to your email when the letter is received.  Please do not use the Treasurer's personal phone number via Zelle. While that transfer will go through, the money will be sent to the Treasurer's personal bank account, not the Club's account.
  • Physical Checks for all trips are to be made payable to "Holmdel Ski Club" and mailed to the Club's treasurer at the address below (Yep, it's in Colorado). The Club strongly encourages members to use their bank's Zelle service to send trip deposits, rather than sending a handwritten letter. Letters might take 10-14 days to be delivered. If your billpay service requires a phone number, please use 732-610-7565. Upon mailing, please send an email to treasury@holmdelskiclub.org and the trip leader's email address so that they can anticipate your letter and reply to your email when the letter is received.  Note that since the Treasurer's address is a PO Box (there is no USPS home delivery in this small town, everyone must have a PO Box at the post office to get mail), you will not be able to use UPS, FedEx, DHL, or any delivery service other than the United States Postal Service.

    Holmdel Ski Club
    PO Box 2500
    Frisco, CO 80443-2500

  • Please Send Your Own Check: Your name (or your spouse's name) should be listed in the upper left hand "payer" section of the check you send to the Club. Billpay checks contain the name(s) of the account owners. This suggestion is for proof of payment should you need to make an insurance claim. The Club does not care who pays for your trip, but insurance companies do. We have had situations where a friend paid the Club for someone else's trip and it was an additional headache for the trip participant to prove to an insurance company that they actually paid for the trip, and how much. Club records contain who deposited funds and on whose behalf those funds are assigned. Insurance companies typically reach out to the Club's Treasurer to confirm who paid for a person's trip and how much was paid.
  • Additional Surcharges:  Any additional airline tax or fuel surcharge imposed before our final ticketing is beyond the Club's control and will require an adjustment in the final price to be paid by the trip participants.  If the airline charges for checked baggage, then the trip participant is responsible for that payment.
  • Bounced Check Bank Fee:  If you write a check to the Club and it bounces, then you must reimburse the club for the bank fee that is imposed onto the Club.   Your reservation, deposit, and/or final payment will not be considered complete until the bank fee is paid.   Typically, the bank fee is around $20 per check.
  • Single Signup Rate Policy: If a person signs up for a trip as a single and requests a roommate, with the goal of reserving a spot at the double occupancy rate, the Club will attempt to match the single person with a roommate of the same gender.  If a roommate match is not immediately available, the single person who signed up will be given an unconfirmed reservation.  As soon as the Club is successful in finding a roommate match for the single person, the single person's unconfirmed reservation is promoted to a confirmed reservation at the Double Occupancy rate. If the Club is unable to find a roommate match by the trip's Final Payment Due Date, then the single person will be given a choice of one of three options:
    • Cancel their reservation with a full and immediate refund.
    • Cancel their reservation (eligible for a full refund) and go on a wait list with a contingency sign-up if/when another single person subsequently signs-up for the trip so that both would pay the Double Occupancy Rate; or
    • Pay for the upgrade to a Single Occupancy room, if available, possibly with a contingency of being refunded for the upgrade price if another single person looking for a roommate subsequently signs-up for the trip.

    Contact the trip leader if you are signing up as a single and want to find out if there is another person that is looking for a roommate.  Note: If a person cancels and the Club is left with a single person in a double occupancy room, then the person who cancels will be responsible for the single person surcharge if the club is unable to find a replacement.  See the Club's entire cancellation policy below.

    Interpretive Observation: Since only the last male or the last female to sign-up on a given trip would possibly be subject to the above Single Signup Rate Policy, it is highly advantageous for singles to sign-up as soon as the trips are announced.  Note that under no circumstances would a single person for whom the Club cannot find a roommate ever be forced to pay a single surcharge or suffer any financial loss. 

  • Trip Insurance: All participants are encouraged to consider purchasing commercially available trip cancellation or trip medical insurance, especially for international trips where your employer or Medicare medical insurance is not accepted. Providers frequently have policies that support pre-existing medical conditions but only if the enrollee purchases the policy within a certain number of days from the initial trip deposit. The definition of what constitutes an initial trip deposit can vary with different insurance companies. Is it the date the person wrote a check or is it the date that a person was confirmed on a trip? For people sending the Club money during a pre-registration phase or for waitlisted people, these dates could be weeks or even months apart. Note that trip delay insurance typically only covers expenses that you incur as a result of the delay, such as meals or a hotel. If the trip departure is delayed due to weather and you stay home until the rescheduled flight departs, you typically don't incur trip delay expenses. Very few insurance policies have "Trip Inconvenience" options for lost days of enjoyment, such as weather that delays your arrival at the ski resort or bad weather at the resort that prevents you from skiing for a day or two. The Club is not financially responsible for any expenses you might incur due to transportation delays, closed ski areas, or inclement weather. Travel Insurance policies vary in what they cover, so read your policy's fine print carefully, and bring a printed copy of your policy with you on the trip. Please don't ask the Club to determine whether or not you should put in a claim, since every policy has different requirements.
  • Preparation for an On-Mountain Emergency: While nobody plans to be injured while skiing, the ramifications of an on-mountain medical evacuation can be daunting if you are not carrying the proper items. Please carry the following: cell phone, eyeglasses, credit card with at least $10K credit limit, and insurance card (in Europe, on-mountain rescue card and any travel medical insurance policy# and phone#). Note that most European hospitals do not take travel medical insurance. Instead, you must pay the hospital with your credit card and the travel medical insurance will reimburse you based on written receipts. The reason to have the travel medical insurance info is so that you can start your claim asap and have the insurance company help you with logistics, such as buying that $9,000 one way business class airline ticket back to the USA due to your broken leg.
     

Trip Logistics:

  1. Filling a Trip: During initial planning, a trip that is anticipated to have a high level of member interest will be assigned to the Club's 3-Phase registration process so that members and their guests can sign up for trips in an orderly way.  Key to the 3-Phase policy is using a sign-up prioritization point strategy based on the member’s level of prior participation. The Club maintains a data base that grants one frequent traveler point for each night a person has traveled with the Club over the past decade. For example, participants of a Sugarloaf bus trip accrued 3 frequent traveler points, the Vail trip folks earned 7 points, and the Zermatt trip folks earned 11 points. The Club confirms trip participants based on filling an available size room (i.e., single or double occupancy), so prioritization is based on summing the points of the people that will occupy a room. In the rare case of a tie, the points computation is changed to sum the last 9 years (then 8, then 7, etc) until the tie is broken. The points approach has been introduced to handle the case when more people sign up for a trip than the Club has space. The multi-phase sign-up approach described below has been introduced to avoid the frenzy of a “whose check arrived first” approach. The published single sign-up rate policy and cancellation policy continues to apply to all registration phases. Note that a member's frequent traveler priority is relevant only within a single registration phase. For example, a person who signs up during the Standard Member Registration phase can never bump a person who was confirmed during the pre-registration phase, regardless of their frequent traveler point value.

    For trips where the Club does not expect to have a high level of initial interest, such as our weekend bus trips, the signup process uses a separate Single-Phase Registration process that has the simple first-come, first-serve model that the Club has used for decades.

    The Club will deposit all checks, both billpay and personal, as soon as they are received. The reason is because the money associated with billpay checks are typically withdrawn from the sender's bank account the day they are mailed. In the event of a refund, it is easy for the Club to issue a return billpay check. To treat everyone equally, the Club uses the same deposit strategy for all payments, either billpay or personal check.

    Holmdel Ski Club 3-Phase Registration Process (most airline trips):

    1. [Optional] Pre-Registration Phase (April/May-ish): The Club sends members an email that includes an approximate description of a proposed trip with best estimates for dates and possible destinations. Anytime during the following 2 or 3 weeks, existing members and their guests (see Guest policy) may sign up and mail their escrow deposit payment. (Technically, the money sent to the Club is considered an escrow payment rather than a trip deposit since the Club does not yet have an official trip with an official price.) At the end of the signup period, the prioritization is calculated and the people who signed up are informed of their status: confirmed or wait-listed. If the final published trip itinerary is significantly different than the pre-registration approximate description, then participants are eligible to cancel their deposit and receive a 100% refund. Otherwise, standard cancellation policies apply, which includes a $25 cancel fee. If a member requests a single occupancy room but single-occupancy pricing is not yet available, the member's escrow payment will be held. When the Club has a firm price from our vendor the escrow payment can be applied or fully refunded. Members must _not_ take out trip insurance during the pre-registration phase since the trip price and dates are fluid, and it is even possible that the eventual trip is a different destination. Participants will be notified of the official deposit date so that an accurate "date of deposit" value, trip date, airline, and travel agent, can be entered into their insurance contract. Any non-member, non-guest sign-ups received during this phase will be deferred to the Open Call phase (see below).
      Special Case: If a member is waitlisted at the conclusion of this phase, and the member wants to transfer to another trip that also has concluded its pre-registration phase, then that member will be given priority ahead of signups that happen during the Standard Member Registration phase. (The purpose of this intermediary priority phase is to avoid members from gaming the system by pre-registering for two trips when their intent is to cancel from one if they got accepted to both. We want members to pre-register for their preferred trip, then have the opportunity to move their deposit to the other trip with a higher priority than a member who is sitting back and waiting until the Club announces all the details and pricing in the Standard Member Registration phase.)
    2. Standard Member Registration Phase (June/July-ish): The Club sends members and prospective members an email with links to the Club's trip web page that includes a detailed trip itinerary (dates, destination, hotel) along with the date when sign-up begins. Anytime during the following 2-4 weeks, existing members and their guests may sign up and mail their payment. At the end of those 2-4 weeks, the prioritization is calculated and the people who signed up are informed of their status: confirmed or wait-listed. Any non-member, non-guest sign-ups received during this phase will be deferred to the Open Call phase (see below). (Note: This late in the trip planning process it is much more difficult for the Club to add/remove seats based on sign-up demand.)
    3. Standard Open Call Registration Phase: After the 2-4 week Standard Member Registration phase ends, trip sign-ups from members and non-members are prioritized on a daily first-come first-serve basis. A person is confirmed on a trip when the deposit is received and the trip-specific sign-up form is received by the trip leader. Non-member sign-ups (i.e., non-members who are not guests of a member) are permitted only within the Open Call phase and are at the discretion of the Club's Executive Committee.

    Holmdel Ski Club Single-Phase Registration Process (bus trips): The Club sends members and prospective members an email with links to the Club's trip web page that includes a detailed trip itinerary (dates, destination, hotel) along with the date when sign-up begins. Anytime during the following 2 weeks, existing members and their guests may sign up and mail their deposit payment. A person is confirmed on a trip when the deposit is received  and the trip-specific sign-up form is received by the trip leader. Confirmation occurs on a daily first-come, first-serve basis. After the 2 week period has concluded, the trip will begin to accept non-member sign-ups (i.e., non-members who are not guests of a member), who will also be confirmed on a first-come, first-serve basis. Any non-member that completes their signup during the initial 2-week member-only period will have their signup held until the initial member-only 2-week period has concluded.

     

  2. Guest Policy: A member or member-pair (two members traveling together) may invite up to two guests to travel with them on the trip. Members must explicitly inform the Club that a person is their guest. From a sign-up priority viewpoint, guests have no Club frequent traveler points and will be confirmed on the trip only after all other member sign-up requests have been processed within the given sign-up phase time frame (pre-reg:2-weeks, member-only:3-4-weeks, open-call:daily). For example, if a member signs up two guests during the Pre-registration phase, those guests will be confirmed on the trip (assuming there is space remaining) after all other pre-registration member signups have been processed, which will be at the end of the 2-week pre-registration phase. Additionally, if a trip will reach capacity by adding multiple guests, the frequent traveler points of the guest's member host will be used to determine priority.
  3. Required participant documentation:  Each trip requires the trip-specific liability form (must be hand signed and witnessed) be sent to the trip leader.   Each person must submit their own liability form.  If you are unwilling to sign your name to the statements on the liability form, then please do not register for the trip.   The trip leader will require that all participants have a properly filled out liability form before the trip begins.
  4. Why ask if only one queen/king bed is okay?  For some lodging properties the rooms may contain either one large bed or two smaller beds.   It would be helpful to the rest of the Club members if the couples willing to share a bed would identify themselves as requiring just 1 bed.   The trip leader shall maintain each person's bedding information in strict privacy. 
  5. Post-registration Process:   When you send your check to the Club's treasurer, please also send an email to the trip leader with your participant registration info so that the trip leader can be aware of your interest in the trip.   The Club has had situations in the past where a member's check got lost in the mail and the trip leader didn't even know that they had signed up for the trip.
  6. Use of Your Email Address: The email address that you provide on the sign-up form will be seen by other trip participants via emails from the trip leaders.   If you do not wish to have your email address visible to the other trip participants, please contact the trip leader so that your email address will be in a blind copy-to list.
  7. Children: Children under the age of 21 must be accompanied by and room with a parent or an adult club member who accepts responsibility for the minor and obtains a consent form (if child is younger than 18) signed by the child's legal guardian.
  8. Reservation Ownership/Transfer : Trip spaces are the property of the Holmdel Ski Club and reservations are assigned to the names identified in the trip sign-up forms.  The Club retains the sole authority to reassign cancelled spots to other members in order to maintain a fair and equitable wait list selection process.  Trip participants may not sell, assign, or transfer their trip reservation. The only exception to this policy is the transfer of a child's parent or adult sponsor slot, since the Club requires all children to be accompanied by and room with a sponsoring adult.

Cancellation: 

  1. Cancellation Policy:  A trip participant who cancels after their reservation has been confirmed will be liable for up to whatever they have already paid for the trip.  The Club will provide a refund based on what the Club can recover, on your behalf, from the various carriers, agents, resorts, etc. with whom the Club has arranged the trip, less a Club cancellation penalty of $25.  If a person cancels and the Club is left with a single person in a double occupancy room, then the person who cancels will be responsible for the single person surcharge if the club is unable to find a replacement.   Please recognize that such carriers, agents, resorts, etc. generally assess penalties commensurate with the likelihood of them being able to fill cancelled seats and beds. When the Executive Committee deems a trip to be completely filled, then anyone who is due a refund because of a prior cancellation will be issued a refund within 2 weeks, less any applicable vendor penalties and/or fees (e.g., airline name change fee, $25 HSC cancellation penalty).  If a trip does not fill, then all refunds will be disbursed after the trip has completed and its final accounting is completed.
  2. Finding a Replacement: If a member cancels their trip reservation, the trip leader will use all reasonable efforts to find a replacement.  Getting a replacement does not necessarily lessen the penalties or fees charged to the cancelling member or change the date at which any refund is made.
  3. Refund Transfers: If a member cancels their trip reservation, when the dollar amount of their refund is known, the member may request that the refund amount be used as a deposit for another trip.  Also, a member may transfer a waitlist deposit check to any trip with openings.
  4. Airline Seat Cancellation Policy: A trip participant who initially requests the Club to purchase an airline seat on their behalf, and then subsequently requests to cancel that airline seat, will be financially responsible for any potential penalty that the airline might assess onto the Club. The Club doesn't typically know if the airline will actually charge a penalty until the Club tickets the seats, which is a few weeks before the trip. If it turns out that the airline doesn't charge a penalty for the cancelled seat, the Club will refund the participant's penalty amount after the trip has completed and its final accounting is completed.

 

Code of Conduct:

  1. Trip participants are required to act in a respectful way towards other trip participants and other people that are encountered on the trip.   The behavior of each trip participant reflects upon the Club as a whole.   The Club has a long reputation within the ski and tour operator industry as a well-mannered club.  Drunk, disorderly, abusive, or even unfriendly conduct that adversely affects the other participant's ability to enjoy the trip, will not be tolerated on Club trips.
  2. If a trip participant fails to abide by the above policy then they risk being banned from future Club trips.

[page last updated: 06/19/2023 ]

 

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