Staff Training – Week 2

The second and final week of staff training has come and gone. Today our staff are on a much deserved day off so let me tell you a little bit about the very exciting week we all had. Once the rest of the staff arrived on Sunday it was time for everyone to get to know each other with some great “Get To Know You” activities we love to here at Camp Friendship. This was of course after our year-round and supervisor summer staff had an opportunity to introduce themselves to the group.

As the week progressed we had the opportunity to have our first real camp fire with the staff. It was a good time to break out the “Council Fire” and make sure everything was working properly. It was a great time and none of us can wait until our first official Camp Friendship campfire on opening Sunday. I’m even more amazed now of our counselors many talents after this camp fire. I had the pleasure of capturing a few photos for your viewing pleasure.

We had a great Cultural Diversity session were all of our staff members were able to share a little about where they are from. It was great to see so many proud citizens from a variety of countries such as Russia, Ireland, Great Britain, South Africa, Turkey, New Zealand, South Korea, and a few more. It was as always a great opportunity for all of our staff to appreciate each others cultures and to remember that our new friends our here to experience our American culture.

The week was full of important training sessions covering topics from camp safety to camper behavior and much more. Kat Shreve from the American Camp Association was kind enough to share some of her expertise with our staff during a variety of sessions on Wednesday. A few more of our counselors were Lifeguard certified this week as well as partaking in program training in archery, riflery, canoeing, and kayaking. Many of our program staff members were also hard at work preparing all of their program areas for our campers arrival.

One of the highlights of the week was our “Parent Panel”. I did mention this in a previous post but it was worth mentioning again. Our five parent visitors did a superb job sharing their thoughts on camp from a parents point of view. Speaking for a few of the staff members who shared their thoughts with me, they all feel much more prepared for the summer at hand after hearing what these parents had to say.

A fun-filled talent show took place on Thursday night. This was a great opportunity for our talented staff to show off some of their more unique abilities. I can safely say that our 2008 staff is quite creative. I have some great photos to prove my point.

To finish up the week the staff put on a end of training banquet on Friday night. Several 5 and 10 year pins were given out as well as the viewing of our yearly slideshow. It was all in good fun and our staff got to see a little bit of their hard-work presented on screen. I hope everyone enjoyed the slideshow I put together for them. I heard dinner was also quite good.

Well that takes care of staff training and rightly so, it’s time for our campers to arrive. I can say we are ready and very excited for opening Sunday to arrive. The summer will officially start when our first camper comes through our gates on Sunday.

We’ll see you next week.

Cris

So Where Do You Come From?

Camp Friendship is well known for its culturally diverse camp population. We welcome campers and staff from all over the United States and abroad. So here’s a poll so you can share a little about where you are coming from to share your summer with all of us at Camp Friendship. Please feel free to be more specific in the comments area. (If you do comment keep it to state and country only.)

Poll: So where are you from?

• North
• South
• East
• West
• International

Status:

Also want to create a poll? Click here

Everyone’s On Facebook! – Social Networking Policy

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