Camp Friendship’s Blog

It’s amazing how many people are involved in these social networking sites these days. I for one fought the entire idea tooth and nail over the last couple of years and it’s not until recently that I really got sucked into facebook. I’ve actually caught up with old friends that I haven’t spoken to in years.

All of us at Camp Friendship understand the allure of these social networking sites for our campers and even our summer staff. That is why we feel the need to address it with our Social Networking Policy. While this will be a new policy for our Camp Friendship families , this is a well discussed topic in the camping community.

I will not post the entire policy here but it will be made available to you with your new packets which will be in the mail to you very soon and available through our online secure sever soon. I would like to point out a few things to give you an idea why we are addressing this issue.

In general, Camp Friendship views social networking sites (i.e., Myspace.com), personal websites, and weblogs positively and respects the rights of campers to use them as a medium of self-expression. However, if a camper chooses to identify himself or herself as a camper at our camp on such internet venues, some readers of such websites or blogs may view the camper as a representative or spokesperson of Camp Friendship.

excerpt from our Social Networking Policy

As we keep working towards uniting our Camp Friendship community through a variety of mediums we do want to take advantage of technology when its seems appropriate. Therefore we’d like to encourage our campers to join our OFFICIAL CAMP FRIENDSHIP PAGE on facebook, with their parents permission of course. This page is a very simple place for our campers and families to go online and start discussions with campers and parents about camp and even talk to us directly. We created this page and I will be monitoring it personally.

Here are some points to keep in mind. . . .

1. Campers must be respectful in all communications and blogs related to or referencing Camp Friendship, its employees, and other campers.

2. Campers must not use obscenities, profanity, or vulgar language.

3. Campers must not use blogs or personal websites to disparage the camp, other campers, or employees of the camp.

4. Campers must not use blogs or personal websites to harass, bully, or intimidate other campers or employees of the camp. Behaviors that constitute harassment and bullying include, but are not limited to, comments that are derogatory with respect to race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, color, or disability; sexually suggestive, humiliating, or demeaning comments; and threats to stalk, haze, or physically injure another person.

Currently we only have two Camp Friendship pages on Facebook which are monitored by our staff, The Official Camp Friendship Staff Group (staff only) and our Official Camp Friendship Page . All other Camp Friendship titled pages or groups are not monitored or approved by Camp Friendship, therefore we can’t be responsible for what is discussed or presented in those groups.

To all our campers, staff, and camp families since your are talking about Camp Friendship anyway just join us online so we can all talk together. This is also a great opportunity for you to get involved with us as we grow our Alumni registration. We are planning some fun and exciting things for our Alumni in the near future but that’s for another time.

If you have any questions or suggestions about this topic please feel free to email, call, post a comment, or start a discussion on our online page and lets talk about it.

Cris