In this day and age many of the expeditions that are referred to the Club Expedition Secretary are well planned with most of the initial organisational work in progress or complete. This reflects the experience available to be tapped by potential leaders from within the Club and the strength and determination of those leaders grasping the opportunities available to them within the Service.
However what follows is an aide memoire, which will hopefully further help young and aspiring Lord Hunts. The Expedition Secretary can offer advice to any Club member planning or considering planning an expedition
Expeditions, like all military operations, fall into a number of clear but separate areas.
The concept:
We are all inspired by others’ exploits to some degree or other and unless you intend to walk to Mars, it is highly likely that others will have already preceded you to some extent or other. There will therefore be information available out there that will help you build a plan and enable you to work out the duration of your trip. Obvious places to look include the web, DNPTS’s Post Expedition Report Archive, the Royal Geographical Society and good bookshops. However for most of us you will probably start with a certain amount of time abroad available and build a plan around that. This plan is the foundation of your expedition, with all other aspects derived from it.
Logistics:
How do you intend making the plan work? Travel, food, equipment, support, escape and support, all need to be established. If you are climbing in the Himalaya, Karakorum or in many of the other classical expedition areas, you may choose to use a local and/or a UK based Agent to provide you with these services. This often a more reliable and secure way of arranging expedition logistics. This method often seems expensive at first but can turn out to be very reasonable and less stressful as costs are normally fixed.
The Team:
It is very unlikely that you will know exactly who is going on the expedition at this stage, which will probably be several months to leaving the UK. However you must have a core of interested and/or committed individuals to make the whole thing possible. You will have to decide the numbers going and perhaps conduct a selection and/or training process along the way to reduce/fill the expedition to the predetermined size. Approval of the expedition (see later) will depend on the mix of experience within the team. Novices or less experienced members are encouraged as long as there is the correct experience alongside them. The final requirement for all military expeditions is for appropriately qualified leaders and instructors in the correct ratios as determined by BR4024.
Costs:
This one of the areas that is not always well developed. From the plan and the logistics involved, you will be able to establish costs. If you decide to go down the “logistic package” route, formulating the overall cost will be relatively simple. The DIY logistic route may be cheaper, but probably will involve more risk. Hence always include a contingency, say of around 10% minimum.
Funding:
All military expeditions follow the “rule of thirds”. Personal contributions, non-public funding and public funding should be approximately equal providers towards the total fund. There may be exceptions, especially in the case of major expeditions, where the overall costs are large. The main Public Funds are AT grants and CILOR (Cash In Lieu Of Rations). Non Public Funds include Sports Lottery, Welfare Funds, Sailors Fund, Nuffield Trust, and RNRMMC. Applying for a Club Grant is covered later. A word of warning: many try to reduce their Personal Contribution by applying to Non-Public Funds. This should not be allowed. When all of the above sources of funding are established a financial plan is completed.
Applying for a Club Grant:
If you have completed most or all of the above actions then the Grant Application Form, available on-line, is the fairly simple (and only) way to apply. All you need to do is fill it in online and it will be emailed to the Expedition Secretary.
Approval:
If the expedition is on duty then it has to approved by the Staff Officer (AT) to DNPTS at HMS TEMERAIRE, Portsmouth. There is a strict methodolgy to this process. This is the JSATFA approval system. This series of forms have all the relative boxes to fill in with the above information you have collected above. There are sections for your overall plan, logistics, finance, funding and the fine detail. You are also required to submit a risk assessment specific to your plan, activity and location. This will include search and rescue and local support available. The final section requests Diplomatic Clearance for all countries travelled through to and from the expedition. The form must be submitted to DNPTS a minimum of 3 months in advance of the expedition, but you should aim to do so as early as possible, leaving boxes “tbc” where appropriate. Many expeds submitted in less than that time scale have been rejected in the past.
Post Approval:
You should not have committed any money before approval. Only now is your expedition able to make firm arrangements and spend money. What follows next is up to you and your team. Pack your bags and most of all enjoy your exped. Climb safely.
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