Camp Ten Trees Summer Camp Volunteer Coordinators and C.A.R.E./Med/MH Leads Sunday, June 15th, 2013 Meeting
Attending: Other Name Rebecca
Camp Name Raven
Sadie
Sonrisa
Role Coordinator of Cabin Life
PGP she/her
Phone Number 206‐599‐9398
Email Address
[email protected]
she/her
206‐920‐9789
[email protected]
they
425‐753‐5130
[email protected]
she/her
253‐335‐5509
[email protected]
she/her
360‐421‐2996
[email protected]
she/her/they
360‐202‐0499
[email protected]
he/him or Nebraska
206‐963‐9653
[email protected]
she/her
206‐679‐2219
[email protected]
Session One (LGBTQA Youth, 13‐17)
Coordinator of Cabin Life Session Two (children/youth, 8‐17, of LGBTQ families)
Emma
Lynx
Coordinator of Core Activities Sessions One and Two
Tiff
Pinkerbell
Coordinator of Community Activities Session One (LGBTQA Youth, 13‐17)
Breona
Breez
Mental Health Team Co‐Lead Session One (LGBTQA Youth, 13‐17)
Reid
Wedge
C.A.R.E. Team Lead Sessions One and Two
Airen
Panhandle
Support of Essentials, Logistics, etc. Sessions One and Two
Cori
Monroe
Camp Director Sessions One and Two
Absent: Other Name Calen
Camp Name Pan‐cake
Connor
Clutch
Role Coordinator of Community Activities
PGP male or ze or per
Phone Number 206‐272‐0699
Email Address
[email protected]
he/him
206‐351‐2300
[email protected]
574‐383‐8843
[email protected]
Session Two (children/youth, 8‐17, of LGBTQ families)
Coordinator of Essentials Sessions One and Two
Krissy
Bubbles
Mental Health Team Co‐Lead Session One (LGBTQA Youth, 13‐17) Mental Health Team Lead Session Two (children/youth, 8‐17, of LGBTQ families)
Check‐in and Introductions: For the sit‐down meeting, we began by taking turns introducing ourselves by sharing our names, preferred gender pronouns, summer camp volunteer roles, what we know about our roles, how we can best be supported by our teammates, and how to best contact us.
Pinkerbell (Tiff) – Pinkerbell has read through all emails and has looked through the training schedule darft – success! Since she works at a college and commencement just happened, she’s been bombarded with work, which has been a challenge. She needs to reach out to Chaos, Pan‐cake, and Random Fandom for input into Coordinator of Community Activities. She’s also been reading over notes left by Pop Star from when he did the role.
Breez (Breona) – Breez has been meeting with Bubbles to envision Sunshine (Mental Health Team) work for this year. Breez would like to hear from others what their past experiences with Sunshine Team during camp sessions have been. What’s worked and what hasn’t? How have Sunshine programs worked well with other things during camp sessions and how have they not?
Raven (Rebecca) – Raven and Sonrisa have been talking about their shared values and commitment, and Raven feels positive about the connection they’re building to bring consistency to the role of Coordinator of Cabin Life this year. Raven’s also been doing lots of work to get Seattle COLAGE off the ground right now. She needs to reach out to all the people who’ve been Coordinators of Cabin Life to pick their brains. Raven and Monroe are meeting Monday and will probably do some planning of cabin placement for the August 11‐17 session at that time.
Notes by Airen “Panhandle” Lydick
Camp Ten Trees Summer Camp Volunteer Coordinators and C.A.R.E./Med/MH Leads Sunday, June 15th, 2013 Meeting Sonrisa (Sadie) – Cori and Sonrisa met to talk about Cabin Life stuff and assess gaps and how to structure things to meet campers’ needs. That was successful. Challenges have been around reaching out to the Cabin Life team. Sonrisa’s been trying to recruit more volunteers in general. Also, Sonrisa will pretty much be out of town between now and the fourth week of July because she’ll be working lots, doing day camps, etc.
Lynx (Emma) – Lynx has finished school for the year and so is now able to really dig into prep for camp. They are looking for feedback on how Core Activities have gone in the past and hoping to understand more about how activities play out at Camp Ten Trees summer camp sessions. Lynx would like to connect with people..
Panhandle (Airen) – Airen is working on lots of logistical prep (menu planning, food ordering, bus scheduling, check‐in/check‐out, etc.). He’ll have the inventory list out to people tonight or tomorrow and is looking forward to the meeting this coming week when we’ll all meet to go over that together. Also, he’s up for putting together a BBQ or some social thing for our team and for the past years’ coordinators so that we can build community with them and pick their brains.
Monroe (Cori) – Monroe has lots of irons in the fire right now. What seems like a challenge or a success changes by the minute, based on which email she’s reading. She appreciates clear and consistent communication, and that helps her to get things done. If you know you need something from Monroe and haven’t heard back yet, please do email or call her to let her know what you need.
Wedge (Reid) – Reid has been out of the country and is just getting back. Reid will be connecting with people and appreciates input from past C.A.R.E. Team leaders. . Game: We broke up into small groups to play Two Truths and a Lie. Our Team and Cori’s Management: Cori is working on trying out ways to manage our team that allows for independence but also ensures that she is supporting each person in their role and that she knows our timelines for things. For example, Monroe and Lynx got to meet to go over the Coordinator of Core Activities role and to plan out when things might happen. She’s interested in having similar meetings with all of us to whatever degrees work for us. Additionally, Cori is going to try to keep emails to the summer camp volunteer community pretty brief with bulleted lists and such, and she’ll be counting on us to reinforce that messaging in more personal and engaging ways with the people we support/supervise. As an example, here is a list of upcoming trainings. These are supplemental to the mandatory training we’ll have August 2nd – 5th. While these supplemental trainings are not required, they will cover very important information, and you are definitely encouraged to attend them and to encourage your teams to do the same. Remember, our mandatory training is certainly not enough time to cover all the material volunteers need to know for camp sessions, let alone enough to introduce the sum total of all concepts, skills, and strategies yet unknown, undeveloped, or untried by individual volunteers. By discussing the supplemental trainings with your teams, you can help them identify which trainings it would be most beneficial for each of them to attend in order to be ready for their volunteering! Tuesday, June 28th, 6‐8 p.m., Camp Ten Trees office Working with Youth of LGBTQ Families
Tuesday, July 2nd, 7‐8 p.m., Cal Anderson Park (by fountain) Get to Know Some Group Games
Monday, July 8th, 6‐8 p.m., Camp Ten Trees office
Cabin Counselor 101
Monday, July 15th, 6‐8 p.m., Camp Ten Trees office
Gender 101
Date and Location TBA
Facilitation
Adultism
Date and Location TBA
Notes by Airen “Panhandle” Lydick
Camp Ten Trees Summer Camp Volunteer Coordinators and C.A.R.E./Med/MH Leads Sunday, June 15th, 2013 Meeting Discussing the Goals of Volunteer Training: Cori set us to the task of working backwards from our broad goals for training to identify what we to do to achieve these goals. So, we are posed with this question: “What, if we noticed it happening at training, would let us know that we’re achieving the five broad goals for training?”
GOAL 1. Volunteers build a strong community for learning and working together. We know we’re achieving this goal if we notice the following at training: a. There’s not a lot of drama. b. Volunteers aren’t setting up cliques or hierarchies. c. People are looking to each other to develop skills. d. Volunteers are building connections to grow their skills in the four core competencies. e. We don’t all have to be good friends; we have to have good working relationships. f. People are smiling, playing, and laughing. g. People are planning with each other in order to prepare things for campers. GOAL 2. Volunteers envision their role(s) at camp and the preparation needed to fulfill those roles. We know we’re achieving this goal if we notice the following at training: a. People are talking explicitly about the pieces that make up camp and defining the terms we use so that people aren’t left out of the conversation. b. People are giving and receiving feedback. They’re asking for it. They’re thanking people for it. c. People are following the expectations for their specific roles. They’re sharing their knowledge and participating in things. GOAL 3. Volunteers know the culture and expectations of Camp Ten Trees. We know we’re achieving this goal if we notice the following at training: a. Every time someone references something “everybody knows” about camp sessions, we actually take a moment to identify and explain it. b. We are modeling that none of us is highly skilled in all four core competency areas. We are open about that and talk as a group about how we support each other. c. Volunteers know about the four core competency areas of (1) understanding of the Camp Ten Trees Mission, Values, and Commitment to Social Justice; (2) skills in organized camping, (3) skills in youth engagement, youth development, and working with youth, and (4) understanding of experiences of children/youth of LGBTQ and non‐traditional families as well as experiences of LGBTQA youth GOAL 4. Volunteers feel inspired and committed to creating a loving and engaging environment for youth. We know we’re achieving this goal if we notice the following at training a. When they engage with adults it’s in the service of engagement of youth. b. Volunteers connect with training information in a way that relates directly to them creating a loving and engaging camp environment for youth. GOAL 5. Volunteers see themselves as stewards of the Camp Ten Trees summer camp program. We know we’re achieving this goal if we notice the following at training a. People are grabbing opportunities to share Camp Ten Trees traditions, practices, and procedures. b. The community of volunteers is seeing itself as collectively responsible for the care of programming, the site, logistics, etc. Individual volunteers communicate with other individual volunteers to assess who’s taking on which specific responsibilities. Notes by Airen “Panhandle” Lydick
Camp Ten Trees Summer Camp Volunteer Coordinators and C.A.R.E./Med/MH Leads Sunday, June 15th, 2013 Meeting Next, Cori led us in a brainstorm to figure out how we can set about helping those things to happen at training. Here are the questions used to frame the brainstorm: Given our broad goals for training and the outcomes we desire, What styles/approaches would best accomplish these goals? What tools could we use throughout training to accomplish these goals? What workshops/content would best support these goals? Brainstormed responses: speaker/listener/observer– triad style role plays fish bowl style examples, with only two fish in the middle and others observing/learning from the example fish bowl style examples, with lots of fish in the middle and others observing/learning from the example skits role plays in which the participants sit back‐to‐back non‐role‐play role‐plays in which we engage in an real activity as ourselves, rather than playing roles games TED talk style training modules – each facilitator is give a brief talk outlined in three points and completed in ten minutes; trainees rotate through large group lectures/discussions small group discussions in which each of us is facilitating a small group and every group is covering the same information learning about things you can do with your cabin during cabin time through fast paced five minute activities (sing a song, play pop‐up Pookaloos, do a Caper) facilitate things with a brief debrief of the facilitation at the end of the training module, so that people can see how it’s done literacy moments for vocab relative to Camp Ten Trees…or social justice…or organized camping…or whatever else engagement tools – knowing how to talk to campers and what questions to ask to get things started having a frame with which we begin every training segment, such as “How would this information benefit the camp community if all of us knew it really well and how can I be part of making that happen?” using tools from our at‐camp cabin group strategies with campers to make our at‐training cabin groups more helpful Upcoming Meetings: Meetings are listed below. Please put these in your calendar. If you can’t make a meeting, tell Cori. Cori will continue to gather this sort of feedback to help us plan future meeting dates.
Tuesday, June 18th
Meet in the Camp Ten Trees office 6 p.m. – 8 pm. We’ll be going over current inventory.
Sunday, July 7th
Tuesday, July 9th
Hang out at Reid’s house. Meet in the Camp Ten Trees office. 6 p.m. – 9 p.m. 6 p.m. – 8 p.m. We’ll be hosting a BBQ to which former Coordinators are invited, so that we can share some food with them, have some fun hanging out, and pick their brains!
Tuesday, July 30th (tentative, might be 7/29 or 7/31) Meet in the Camp Ten Trees office. 7 p.m. – 9 p.m.
Notes by Airen “Panhandle” Lydick