"Being on a Croo, it's a very rewarding thing. The hope is that you go into it very humbly," said Rembert Browne '09, this year's H-Croo chief. "It's an amazing experience... I just constantly remind them that this is a very cool opportunity -- don't take it for granted. It's a very unique thing." Browne is a member of The Dartmouth Staff.
"Croos are the support network responsible for logistics," said the 2008 Trips Director Pete Gadomski '08. "They pretty much make sure that the program is as safe as possible."
If Grant, Vox, Climbing, Lodj and H-Croos are the backbone of Trips, Trip leaders are the meat of the entire operation. Gadomski explained, "The entire [Croo] job is to make sure that Trip leaders can do their job."
Croo members and trip leaders also walk away with a different set of rewards from the experience. Jon Scherr '08, who has been both a trip leader and a 'safety dork' on H-Croo, said, "Although it's certainly rewarding to feel like you've helped welcome an entire class [as a member of a Croo], I felt that as a trip leader I was able to get to know seven or eight people much better."
"The program doesn't exist without Trip leaders," added Browne, "and they have to do a lot of work to be a trip leader."
He cited the large time commitment from all Trip leaders to attend the training sessions now underway and also the hard work put in by the Trip leader trainers, those given the responsibility of preparing over 300 students to lead other students into the woods of New Hampshire.
"The Trip leader trainers have such a responsibility, even more immediate than any of the Croo chiefs," said Browne. "They get thrown into it pretty quickly and have to know a lot."
So what are the responsibilities of the Croo members, besides creating catchy Dartmouth-themed songs and dance routines?
Gadomski emphasized the hard work that all the Croo members do, from buying groceries at the Co-op at 4:30 in the morning to keeping track of every Trip's location at all times.
All this hard work could not be done without years of experience, which is where the DOC's trusted Trip manuals are put to good use. The complicated choreography of Trips has been recorded and reviewed for years, and members of the Trips directorate use this accumulated wisdom to guide their own process.
For many, the behind-the-scenes work can come as a surprise. Browne said that when he was on H-Croo in 2006, " I didn't really question why everything was flowing and working. Now I know that there was lots and lots of work put into planning it." This year, as head of H-Croo, he says that he's realized that "being on a Croo and being a chief are very different worlds."
This year, the Croo chiefs are working to make sure that the groups don't become separate entities but rather different parts of one larger team.
"I've been thinking about myself less as H-Croo chief and more as one of the members of the directorate," said Browne. "We're all in this together."
Emphasizing the "one big process rather than micromanagement," Browne spoke about the smooth dynamics of the trips when the Croos work in sync with one another. Every year, improvements are made to the organization of the Trips. "It's gonna do wonders for the program," predicted Browne for this year.
Students rank their Croo preferences on their applications, which can be a difficult debate for many. Normally, students tend to choose the Croo that they liked the most on their trips, whether that was the climbing team or the surprising and funny Vox Croo raiders. Browne says that H-Croo "had the biggest effect on me as a trippee."
"And if you ask the other chiefs," Browne continued, "they'll probably say that their Croos had the biggest effect on them, and that's why they wanted to do it."
The Croo application consists of the expected questions about campus involvement and team-building skills. It's distinctive Croo quality lies in the last question, which challenges applicants to "express yourself" in any medium.
"We have noticed every year that the creative part has been getting more and more inventive," said Browne. "There has been more of a trend in the last few years to put a lot of emphasis on the creative aspect of the application."
Nick Devonshire '11 went all out while applying for Croos this year: He created a shoebox diorama with miniature Croo characters inside and, said Devonshire, "to capture the truly explosive energy and love embodied by these Croos, I filled the diorama with fireworks. Basically I kindof felt like I was making a bomb -- a passionate, Dartmouth-obsessed, '12-crazed bomb."
Ben Schiffman '07 presented a more interactive project: he mapped out the most efficient routes to complete the infamous "blue light challenge," partially inspired by his blue hair.
"Having already thought about the problem of how to best maximize possible success, and because my life revolved around blue, I figured I might as well do that," Schiffman said.
Other students attested to creating videos showing off their song and dance skills, poems showing their witty rhyming abilities and more general arts-and-crafts projects.
Browne clarified, "The way it's set up is that it's just a bonus. It doesn't carry any more weight than any other part of the application."
While those with outrageous applications may be more distinctive applicants, Gadomski emphasized the diversity needed for the trips, which includes diversity of approaches and outgoing attitudes.
"Each Croo needs a balance of people: different walks of life, different perspectives at Dartmouth," he said.
Scherr added, "Regardless of what strong parts of your application are there, I think they do a really good job of getting a group that works really well together."
Grodomski added, "So much focus is put on Croos because they're the ones with the crazy hair," but in the end, it's all a team effort.
Jocelyn is a writer for The Mirror. Her Croo application included an interpretive dance of Green Eggs and Ham.
