Camp Ten Trees Ad-hoc Committee: To Review Policies in the Summer Camp Volunteer Handbook Meeting: January 7, 2013 In attendance: Name (Camp Name, if applicable) Airen Lydick (Panhandle) Audra Chandler (Sphinx)
Becky Edmonds (Snazzy) Brennon Ham (Hashbrowns) Cori Jaeger (Monroe) Jenni Hurner (Spiral) Quita St. John Renata Maniaci (Isis) Rosa Goldberg (Stretch) Sadie Pile (Sonrisa) Shanna Woody (Porter) Tori Mueller (Riot)
Camp Ten Trees Connection
E-mail Address
Phone Number
Current E.D. (paid staff), former volunteer Former camper, current yearround volunteer, current Team Pegasus participant Summer camp volunteer Board member (Secretary), summer camp volunteer Current Camp Director (paid staff), former volunteer Board member, summer camp volunteer Board member Summer camp volunteer Summer camp volunteer Summer camp volunteer Board member (President), summer camp volunteer Summer camp volunteer
[email protected]
206-288-9568
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206-293-2012
[email protected] [email protected]
812-606-0827 443-472-0972
[email protected]
206-288-9568
[email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]
206-383-7903 215-870-5601 206-920-9789 206-795-5073
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206-819-3650
This Meeting’s Agenda: The focus of this second meeting was primarily (1) to discuss participation in this ad hoc committee. After that, if time remained, we would move on to (2) brainstorming ideas for the ad hoc committee’s methodology in approaching our review of policies from the Summer Camp Volunteer handbook. Reminder of the Overall Focus of the Work of the Ad-hoc Committee to Review Policies in the Summer Camp Volunteer Handbook: This ad-hoc committee of the board is made up of a mix of folks connected in various was to Camp Ten Trees. The goal is to include not only board members, summer camp volunteers, and paid staff but also other volunteers, campers/former campers, and parents of campers. This ad hoc committee will be reviewing and offering feedback/suggestions on the policies outlined in the Camp Ten Trees Summer Camp Volunteer Handbook. In doing so, the committee will be mindful of checking these policies out in the context of: the Camp Ten Trees Mission, Values, and Commitment to Social Justice Statement best practices of organized camping best practices of risk management ACA (American Camp Association) standards Ultimately, this ad-hoc committee will make recommendations to the board, regarding policies contained in the Summer Camp Volunteer Handbook.
(1) Participation in this Ad-hoc Committee: Shanna (Porter) and Airen (Panhandle) asked the group to have a discussion of how participation in the ad-hoc committee should work. Shanna began by sharing a bit of history of the interest in involvement that’s been expressed. Initially, in October of 2012, word was spread to the Camp Ten Trees organizational community that this ad-hoc committee of the board would be starting and that anyone interested should contact Shanna (the board member convening the ad-hoc committee) by November 26th, 2012. Shanna received a good number (12-15) of inquiries by that date. So, as co-facilitators of the ad-hoc committee, Shanna and Airen set the first meeting for the evening of Tuesday, December 18th, 2012 at the Camp Ten Trees office. Since the initial deadline (November 26th) to express interest in the ad-hoc committee –and since the first meeting on December 18th– Shanna has continued to receive new inquiries. Shanna and Airen would now like to check in with the folks already participating in the ad-hoc committee to find out whether we think there should be any “cut-off” time at which we will not longer be taking new members. Related to this, the ad-hoc committee brainstormed some benefits and drawbacks to continued openness to new members versus (at some point) maintaining a set group of members. BRAINSTORM: Continued openness to new members might be more flexible and welcoming. Having a consistent group of members might allow us to build more shared history, trust, and understanding over time. Some of us are concerned about retention of ad-hoc committee members. Could we have an open forum for concerns about policies and procedures (a blog or something, even) via which people should share even if they’re not participating in the meetings of the ad-hoc committee? Maybe people should have to commit to the ad-hoc committee but if they don’t want to do that they could share input by a certain date (via some other means) about what’s coming up next on any particular meeting agenda. Meetings need to be as open as possible, and people should be able to show up when possible. We need to have the flexibility to integrate people and to address people and what they’d like to discuss as they (their ideas) come along. Could we set a deadline date by which we won’t add more people? It would be great to have better representation on this ad-hoc committee. Right now, we have tons of summer camp volunteers but only one former camper. We have no current campers, and we have no parents of campers.
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A diverse group of ad-hoc committee members would help us to be more prepared to review policies from the Summer Camp Volunteer Handbook in the context of all those different things (Mission, Values, Commitment to Social Justice, best practices of organized camping, ACA standards, risk management, etc.). We need some way for people to contribute without having to be at meetings. Can we share our thinking with the community via survey monkey or some other means and then ask for input from the community? Would it be possible to have some meetings that are big and open to anyone (community forum style) for gathering input and then some meetings that are small and closed (ad-hoc committee members only) at which that input is synthesized and decisions are made about what we’d like to recommend?
At the end of this brainstorm, it was decided that we should at this point do one more strong recruitment push for ad-hoc committee participants, focusing particularly on the perspectives, demographics, and community roles MISSING FROM or NOT WELL REPRESENTED ON the ad-hoc committee currently. Airen will use the listserv, Facebook, the website, etc. to recruit. All others in our ad-hoc committee will personally reach out to folks to recruit. Currently missing/not well represented perspectives, demographics, and/or community roles include: parents of campers, current campers, men, people of color, and people who identify as being from LGBTQ or non-traditional families. Between now and our next meeting, please focus on ad-hoc committee recruitment. Be sure to let folks know of our upcoming meetings schedule. We’ll be meeting on the following Monday nights at 7 p.m. (PST) at the Camp Ten Trees office: January 14, January 21, February 11, and February 18. Between now and the next meeting, Sphinx will take the lead on coordinating all remote (i.e. video chat) participants to determine the best means of video chatting.
NEXT MEETING: Monday, January 14, 2013 7 p.m. (PST) Camp Ten Trees office
