Greetings earth babies,
Though you may be grieving as our summer-like weather sputters to a close and the dark days of winter settle upon us, I have some exciting news to share! This spring break we will again be going out to Moab, UT, for a week of unadulterated, dastardly, desert, dirtbag fun with mind-blowing views. More details on the trip (including the actual “adventure” on the website) will be posted by early next year over winter break. This is just to serve as an early notification of how our lottery for trip attendance will work for the Moab trip this year.
Lottery?? Why is that necessary? Unfortunately, the logistics of the trip limit us to 35-40 attendees. And since more than 35 or 40 of y’all will probably want to come, we want to establish a system that makes how often you check your email not a factor in your chances of coming; thus, a lottery.
Everyone who signs up for the adventure on the website will receive 2 automatic entries into the lottery. Beyond that, two factors can change how many entries you receive:
1) Trips led this school year. Every trip you have led since the first day of school this year will give you ONE additional entry into the lottery.
– If you don’t lead trips, fret not! Each trip led does not much change any one person’s chances. We just added this weighting to the lottery so as to incentivize y’all to lead trips!
2) 4th year students (or grad students in their last year, foreign exchange students, etc.) will receive a 2x multiplier on the sum of their entries from above. This is just to give folks without another chance to attend Moab a bit of an edge!
Ex. 1: a 4th year who has led one trip this school year would have [2 (base entries) + 1 (trip led)] x2 (4th year multiplier) = 6 entries
Ex. 2: a 1st year who has led 2 trips this school year would have 2 (base entries) + 1 x (2 trips led) = 4 entries
Ex. 3: a 3rd year who has led no trips this school year would have 2 (base entries) + 0 trips led = 2 entries
This lottery system will apply to everyone, officers included; though discretion is maintained for logistical concerns (notably needing drivers for the trip to work).
The soonest the lottery could be held is around the time school will start in January, though depending on how long it takes to lock down drivers, it could be after that. We want to figure it out earlier this year so that the uncertainty of whether you’ll be pulled from the lottery is resolved earlier rather than later!
If you have any questions about the lottery system, the Moab trip (stay tuned for more details), or life, feel free to reach out to me (ejs4zb@virginia.edu) or the officer listserv (outdoors-officers@virginia.edu) and we’ll do our best to answer.
Peace, Love, and Trail Spice,
Eliza