This year, some smaller changes have taken place regarding Senior Service Trips. Honduras has been added and gives an opportunity for certain athletes to travel, the San Diego trip has been removed, and some of the particular numbers of travelers to each respective destination have been changed. However, none of these changes compare to the change that has been made regarding the sign-ups.

Previously, the sign-ups were conducted early in the morning. Mr. Legner, director of the service trips, decided that it would be first come first served. This resulted in students arriving to school at 4:30 AM in order to be guaranteed a spot to the destination that they wanted most. For obvious reasons, this can’t happen. It is dangerous (and illegal) for students to be out driving this early in the morning. When the students arrived on campus there was no supervision and people were wandering the campus for up to 3 hours waiting for Mr. Legner to arrive. Finally, when he would arrive, the students got in line in order that they arrived and proceeded to sign up. If one location had been taken, they would be told and forced to sign up for a different location. Understandably, this had to change.

This year, Mr. Legner is initiating a brand new way for the sing-ups to take place. At seven o’clock at night on Wednesday, October 10, 2012, an email is being sent out. This email is the key to the sign-ups. It contains the link with which students are able to access the website with all of the countries listed. The links lead to a screen in which a student will type his name and press enter, reserving his spot for the trip. A number next to the location will show the remaining spots that are open to sign up for that location, and once that number reaches zero nobody else will be able to sign up.

This new process seems to be the final solution for the problem with the Senior Service Sign-Ups, but is it? There have been doubts by many students that the site will crash due to the sudden influx of viewers. This could pose a major problem, but will it be worth it? Is there a better way to do this? Some people propose a credit system in which students receive credit for particular things such as participating in a sport or activity or achieving honors and the people with the most credits get to pick first. This sounds fine, but has the possibility of being too competitive. There are many other opinions floating around out there, but is there really a ‘best’ option? At least after this year we can eliminate (or possibly congratulate?) one process.