Scale Back on Business Travel with AccuConference

This post was written by Colleen Easley on May 21, 2008

The number of corporations scaling back air travel spending this year continues to grow. The investment firm, USB conducts a twice-annual survey that looks at corporate air travel spending. Results this month show that of 80 companies surveyed, 42% said their companies are reducing air expenses this year compared to last. That figure is up 26% from the October 2007 results.

The high cost of fuel has forced the airlines to take drastic actions to reduce costs. Just today American Airlines announced that it plans to reduce overall capacity and add a new fee for coach customers to check their first piece of luggage. Many airlines are already charging a fee for a second piece of luggage.

Higher ticket prices coupled with additional fees are pushing airline travel out of the reach of many small businesses. Yet these companies still have the need to communicate with clients and colleagues in different parts of the world.

The time to learn about Teleconferencing is NOW!

Today there is technology available to replace almost every aspect of the face-to-face meeting. It has been estimated that by utilizing a teleconference instead of taking a two day business trip and travel six hundred miles you will save two thousand dollars or more in total travel costs.

AccuConference technology coupled with the Internet or just your phone connection enables you to:

• Eliminate travel time and expenses
• Improve productivity
• Collaborate on business proposals in real time
• Easily and instantly exchange information with your associates around the world

With the AccuConference International Outdial feature, participants from around the world can be brought into your conferences at very reasonable rates. Add a PowerPoint presentation via the web or full face-to-face video conferencing and it’s almost like being in the same room with your associates at only a fraction of the cost of an actual meeting.

If you’re new to the idea of conferencing, but know it’s time to make it part of your business communication, AccuConference is ready to help. Our user friendly interface coupled with stellar customer service will get you on the right track for enhancing your communication without breaking your budget. Our system is reservationless, so when you want to start a conference call you just pick up the phone and dial. No extra equipment is required.

Learn more about AccuConference at http://www.aBetterConferenceCall.com or call 800.730.0626 for more information. Download the Whitepaper – Do’s and Don’ts for Participants at Your Next Conference Call

Even You Could be an Alaska Tour Guide

This post was written by Colleen Easley on February 9, 2008

Picture below: John Hall’s Alaska Tour group at Alaska/Yukon border. Dale and Colleen - front row, left.
I promised in my previous post that I’d tell you more about how I became a tour guide in Alaska. If you read that post, you know that Dale and I took a two week trip to Alaska in the summer of 1993. We were sitting in a pizza restaurant in Skagway, AK when it occurred to me to ask the waiter how young people got jobs like this in a seasonal town like Skagway. I was curious because our son, Kevin was going to be graduating from high school the following year and I was thinking a job like this might be a great experience for him. The young man replied that this restaurant was owned by the cruise line, Holland America, and he game me a phone number for a job hotline we could call to get information about seasonal job openings.

A couple months later I called the phone number. Not only did I learn about restaurant and hotel jobs all over Alaska, but also that Holland America owned the Gray Line of Alaska tour bus company. The recording spoke of the need for driver/guides for all their division in Alaska and listed where their training sessions would be held. Seattle was the primary location. That’s about a 1 1/2 driver from where we live in Olympia, but it caught my attention, because during our trip the previous summer, I had actually contemplated what a cool job it would be to drive a motorcoach up and down the Alaska highways.

I had never driven a large vehicle before, and frankly, I wasn’t sure if I was even remotely capable, but after contacting the human resources department, I was assured they could train just about anyone to drive a motorcoach. I went through the hiring process and by February 1994, I was enrolled in their 13 week training program. I completed my training with a class-B CDL and on June 6, 1994 flew to Anchorage for my first summer as a driver/guide with Gray Line of Alaska.

That first summer in Alaska was quite an experience. I spent a lot of time transferring people to and from the cruise ship port of Seward, AK. It’s a beautiful drive, but can get a little old when you sometimes have to drive the 127 miles a total of 4 times in one day! I also learned how to wash a bus as quickly as possible, get up a 2:00 am, dump the toilet holding tank, sleep in bunk beds with 4 other drivers to a room, and the list goes on. I can’t say it was any easy job, but I still managed to have a lot of fun. I was 44 years old and most of the other drivers were young college kids, so that alone kept me energized!

Holland America has an incentive program that awards a free cruise to seasonal employees who complete two summers in Alaska. I think when I first started I figured I’d do the two years and take my free cruise and that would be the end of it. That first year I shared a small room with a younger gal who was working her 5th summer in Alaska. I wondered how she could possible have done it that many years. When I came back for my second season in 1995, I really thought it would be my last, but Alaska had other ideas for me. I came back one more year to drive out of Anchorage, and on the fourth year, I switched divisions and began another three year stint working out of the Fairbanks division. This gave me the opportunity to drive different highways and to get into the Yukon Territory of Canada. I even got to drive the haul road up to Prudhoe Bay where the oil fields are. For my seventh year I went back to Anchorage to drive some longer charter tours that took me through the complete circuit - Anchorage all the way down to Skagway, up through Whitehorse and Dawson City, Yukon, and back up to Fairbanks, down through Denali Park and back to Anchorage. I also learned to fully narrate all the tour routes I drove; thus the title, Driver/Guide.

Picture below: John Hall’s Alaska tour bus at Matanuska River overlook with King Mountain in background.

By the year 2000 I felt I had gone about as far as I could expect to go with Gray Line. In August of 2000 I drove a couple charters for a small company out of Minnesota and that’s when I met John Hall for the first time. He ran one bus in Alaska and needed a second coach and driver to handle the large number of guests who were signed up for these two tours. An old Gray Line friend of mine was driving John’s single bus, and recommend that John request me to drive these two charters. By the end of the second tour, John had asked me to come to work with him the following year since he was adding a second motorcoach to his fleet. That was the beginning of what has now been a seven year run with John Hall’s Alaska Cruises and Tours. (John now has four motorcoaches in his fleet!)

Working for John has been a completely different experience than working for Gray Line. Instead of wondering day to what what I’d be doing the next day, I now know my schedule for the entire summer ahead of time. I have my own motorcoach (and the responsibility to keep it clean), I sleep in my own hotel room, and most of my meals are included as well. I also have a lot more independence when it comes to planning my tours. Of course I have to follow the published itinerary, but I have my choice of picture stops and any extra activities I can fit in along the way. My personal opinion is that John Hall tour members get a much better organized and comprehensive tour than with the larger companies like Holland or Princess.

In June of this year, I’ll be heading back to Alaska for my 15th season. Who would have guessed in 1994 that this seasonal career would have lasted this long? I’ve also spent just about every March in Alaska working a volunteer position for the Iditarod Sled Dog Race. (more on that in another article.) I guess you could say, “Alaska has a hold on me.”

As for our son Kevin; in 1994 he ended up working for Holland America’s Westmark Hotel in Skagway and continued to work several more summers in Skagway after that. He now lives in Anchorage, AK and manages a tire store.

So what’s the take away?

I guess the take away is that you’re never too old or too young to find new adventures in your life. Prior to my time in Alaska I had a pretty normal life; raising a couple kids and working some very ordinary jobs. But once the youngest child was out of high school, I seized the opportunity to do something extraordinary and it changed my life completely. I’ll be 58 years old this summer as I drive my motorcoach thousands of miles around the northland. I figure I have a couple more good years in me and maybe then I will retire. But I can guarantee you that I’ll never leave Alaska for good.

If you’re interested in Alaska motorcoach driving jobs, I recommend you start with a company like Holland America Tours or Princess Tours. They will train you to drive and you’ll have the opportunity to learn the tour material for the routes you drive. Both companies have non-driving seasonal job opportunities available as well. Visit their web sites for more details.

If you’d like to see more pictures from my Alaska tours, check out my web site: MooseAndBears.com

An Alaskan Adventure to Remember

This post was written by Colleen Easley on February 7, 2008

If you’ve read any of my earlier posts or checked out our About Us page, you might have noticed that I work as a tour guide in Alaska. Since I live in Washington state, I thought you might like to know how that came about.

My work in Alaska goes back to 1993 when Dale and I took a bare bones tour to Alaska. We rode the Alaska ferry (known as the Alaska Marine Highway) as foot passengers from Bellingham, WA through the inside passage of Canada and Alaska to Skagway, AK. We spent time in each of the port cities where the ferry stopped; sometimes just for a few hours and sometimes for an overnight stay. When we were on the ferry at night, we slept in our backbacking tent on the upper deck, and when we overnighted over in port cities, we stayed in youth hostels. Now you can see why I call it a bare bones tour, but experiencing Alaska this way was the best introduction we could have hoped for to the 49th state. We got to see a lot of the “touristy” things, but also had the opportunity to meet many very interesting people and learn more about Alaskan culture than most tourists.

Once we got to the end of the water route, we boarded a bus and traveled the Alaska Highway (Alcan) for 2 days to get to Fairbanks, AK. We overnighted in a rustic hotel in Beaver Creek, Yukon. It was on that bus trip that I began to think what a fun job it would be to drive the highways of Alaska and the Yukon for a living. Little did I know that the very next year I’d be back in Alaska, doing just that. I ended up working for the same company as our bus driver from the previous year, so to this day I kid him about it being all his faulth that I’m working in Alaska!

The rest of our adventure took us by train from Fairbanks to Denali National Park for two nights. We went into the park on a backpacker shuttle bus the next day, and then finally on to Anchorage, again by train. All the while, we carried everything we needed for the 2 week trip in our backpacks. In Anchorage we rented a car for a drive down to Seward, AK for a sightseeing boat trip of Kenai Fjords National Park. Then it was back up to Anchorage, turn in the rental car, and head to the airport for our flight home.

Our trip was jam packed with activities, but even so, I felt like we had barely touched the tip of the iceberg when it came to seeing all there is to see in Alaska. I had fallen in love with the land, and I knew I’d be back. To this day, Dale and I both admit, this was the best vacation we’ve ever taken.

Tomorrow I’ll tell you more about my tour guide job - stay tuned!

So What’s the Take Away?

If you’re adventurous, you can plan an independent trip to Alaska, but you’ll need to spend some serious time making all the arrangements. We depended very heavily on the Lonely Planet Guidebook for Alaska. You’ll also need copies of the Alaska Marine Highway ferry schedule, the Alaska Railroad schedule, and a bus company schedule like Gray Line of Alaska. If you are not interested in booking all your accommodations, transportation, and attractions, you might be better off booking a tour with an experienced tour company like the one I work for - John Hall’s Alaska.

More on Housesitting

This post was written by Colleen Easley on January 30, 2008

If you’re interested in housesitting, you might want to surf over to The Savvy Boomer blog as there is an article there that recommends another housesitting web site, MindMyHouse. In fact, if you’re over 50 you will certainly find something of interest at the Savvy Boomer because it’s all about being a boomer!

Housesitting - It Brings Peace of Mind

This post was written by Colleen Easley on January 29, 2008

Last summer both Dale and I left our home in Washington to work in Alaska. For the past 14 years I had been spending my summers in Alaska working as a tour guide, but this year Dale was asked to come up as well to work as our motorcoach operations manager. For months prior we agonized over whether this would be a good move for him. We do, after all, have a house, a yard, and two cats to take care of. It would be impossible to just pick up and leave without someone to take care of things at home.

How could we find a housesitter?

I got on-line and did some research on housesitters and found a great resource in HouseCarers.com. This web site shares the profiles of thousands of people all over the world who are looking to either house sit or hire a housesitter. After filling out our profile and stating exactly what we were looking for in the way of a house sitter, the offers started to roll in.

We read the profiles of the people who were expressing an interest, and if they looked like a possibility, we would private message them back. Once you’ve communicated with a person on the web for awhile, you get to the point where you can decide if you’d like to exchange more private information like phone numbers and email addresses.

Like I said, we had lots of offers, but one stood out from the rest. It was a couple who had both recently retired from major companies in this area and moved to Arizona for retirement. They were not, however, too interested in spending the hot summer in Arizona and wanted to come back up here to be near their grown children.

They were coming up to Washington in April for their son’s wedding, so we had plenty of time to set up a meeting. We first met them for dinner at a local restaurant, and after that we felt comfortable asking them over to the house. Soon we came to a mutual decision that this would be a good working arrangement for both of us. I can only say that you have to listen to your gut feelings once you get to this point. For us these folks just “seemed right.”

Since we were both familiar with the guidelines of HouseCarers.com we all knew basically what to expect in the way of contracts and responsibilities. I was able to download a sample house sitting agreement from the web site and with a few modifications, made it work for us.

The HouseCarers site will answer many of your questions about housesitting. If you’re even remotely interested in getting a house sitter, or being a house sitter, we suggest you surf over there to do some reading. Here are some topics you’ll find interesting.

• What is House Sitting?
• What are the advantages of using a house sitter?
• What are the standard guidelines of a house sitting agreement?
• Why do people register to housesit?
• Who pays the bills during housesitting?
• Will house sitting affect my homeowners insurance?
• Should I require a bond or security deposit from my house sitter?
• How do homeowners and house sitters register and communicate?
• Making your decision - Steps to selecting your housesitter.
• Finalizing the arrangement - preparing a house sitting contract

What does it cost?

As a homeowner looking for a housesitter, you can register for free. If you’re the person looking to be a housesitter, there is a $45 annual membership fee. There is, however, a limited non-paid membership that allows you to try out the service, but does not allow you to actually apply for housesits.

So how did it work out for us?

It worked great! I have to admit, we were a little nervous about the whole thing to start with, but finding someone who had been well respected in our community prior to moving away was a big plus. They took care of our house like it was their own, and managed to keep the yard work in check. They also took good care of our cats.

One thing to caution you about if you have animals - be sure your housesitter knows how to reach your vet and that you have a payment option set up with the vet before you leave home. One of our cats, shown here, required a $250 surgery while we were gone, so I was grateful that HouseCarers.com had reminded me to make sure to include veterinary information in the agreement. We also had an issue with a broken water pipe while we were gone, and again, because we had included information on what plumber to call, our housesitters were able to get it resolved quickly.

And to top off our experience, our housesitters have recently contacted us again to see if we’re going to Alaska this summer because they want to stay in our house again. We haven’t decided yet on Alaska, but at least this year the decision will come easier.

So What’s the Take Away?

If you’re planning a trip and want your house to have that lived in look while you’re gone, or if you’re looking for a place to stay for short or longer term, take a look into housesitting. It’s another way to experience new places without spending a lot of money.