Planning to be On Our Own

This year our church girls camp is a ward-only camp. We've been cycled out of the church-owned camp, so our stake (a group of several congregations) will not meet all together for girls camp. I'm the camp director for our ward (congregation). Ward camps are a lot of fun because we have so much autonomy and get to choose our location, so we can do some things that we wouldn't otherwise be able to do.

We will be going to a privately owned camp location, with cabins and a kitchen, but no showers, and aromatic pit toilets. I think everyone will have a good time at this camp, although it's expensive and if the decision had been mine, we'd have gone somewhere less expensive and stayed in tents. Nevertheless, I'm not crying about the luxury of cabins and bunk beds with mattresses, so long as I get a lower bunk.

Girls Camp is one of the primary leadership training opportunities for teen young women in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I decided this year that we would supplement our planning skills with some of the leadership principles taught in the book, The Anatomy of Peace. The Youth Camp Leaders (YCLs) have really resonated with the things I've taught them so far, I just hope it sticks and they can apply it, especially at home, but also at camp.

I'm having the YCLs do almost all of the planning and preparation for camp this year, and they seem enthusiastic about what they are doing so far. I'm growing a little concerned that they've done more planning so far than actual preparation and making the plans materialize, but on Sunday our meeting went well, though it was super-short. I think it helped the girls realize they need to get going with actions now, as opposed to just talking about plans.

What I did for the meeting was ask them to tell me all the areas they are responsible for at camp and give me a status update about what's happening with those things. It helped them to recognize for themselves exactly where we are in the preparation stages and where they need to get doing things. It was perfect because I didn't have to say anything. No nagging, no begging, no cajoling. All I did was listen to their status reports and they made their own assessments about where they were. Boom. Meeting done.

Our camp will be held near the beginning of July, so we have some time for everyone to get on track and follow through. Mostly, everyone's been super-consumed with school and end of year stuff. I hope to see them step it up after school is finished. I'll be following up with meetings just like the one we had on Sunday, every week, to help them stay aware.

TTFN!