Tripping labour contribution discussion

Another potential area of conflict is under-communication about the all the work required on canoe trips. Here are some ideas of topics to discuss before embarking on a canoe trip. 

• Trip planning

• Driving

• Meal preparation

• Fire wood collection

• Fire minding (feeding the fire as well as sawing and/or chopping wood)

• Shared space set-up (tarps, shared tent, bug tent, firepit etc)

• Dishwashing

• Water filtration

• End of the night clean up and lock up

A frank discussion should be had about how each individual will contribute. Some people like camp-cooking and are happy to make more meals than others, but may not enjoy having to do the same amount of dishes as everyone else. 

Continually monitoring the water filtration and refilling the system takes work and focused attention. It's ideal if one individual is committed to this. 

Some individuals may have put a lot of labour earlier in the trip with food prep, or other forms of planning. There's often those who have the pleasure of just showing up and coming along on the ready-to-go trip. While that's completely fine since there isn't enough work to go around before the trip starts, that labour can be considered when working out camp responsibilities. Picking up the slack on washing dishes is the easiest way to balance out labour. 

Everyone needs to be attentive to the needs of the site and ensure the burden is shared and that they carry their own weight. Everyone also has the responsibility to not be a martyr and do more than their fair share of the labour. Even well-intentioned overwork can produce and atmosphere of bitterness. 

Campsite labour options: 

1. Talk about all the needs ahead of time but keep it ad hoc on the trip. (Risky, but can work in small groups).

2. Sort out general roles and responsibilities in a pre-meeting. 

3. Create a schedule of all tasks for each day.

   • Some groups have a rule that whoever cooks also does their own dishes. This requires each person or pair to prepare a meal. It's clever in that the choices of how many pots and dishes to dirty for their meal only impacts them. There is also more incentive to clean prep-dishes as you go. We haven't tried this at Split Rock, but it appears to be a legitimate strategy.