If you click on a charter or overnight trip, you will see that the “SPACES LEFT” field will show declining numbers in the days before registration has even opened. Members wonder how can this happen? Are people able to jump the queue? The reason is that some members were issued a FOTL pass. FOTL gets a jump on the rest of the membership to register before trips go on sale.
In a normal year, very few FOTL passes are given out. Generally these are restricted to the Board of Directors and the Long Trips volunteers who planned those trips. But FOTL passes can only be used for one trip. To go on other trips, these dedicated volunteers must still compete for a seat on Trip Sign Up Night like the rest of us.
This season additional FOTL passes were issued to members whose trips were cancelled in March 2020 when the pandemic first hit us. Coronavirus cancelled France 2020 (34 members) and Taos 2020 (50 members). Many of these members received hotel and airline credits instead of an insurance refund payment. The FOTL pass ensures that they are able to get onto a 2022 trip and use their credits. It’s a small bit of good news for these members who lost out on their 2020 charter trip.
Bill Bates, Director