During the 1990s 2000s The Young Adults were given the Memorial Day Weekend to take over camp.  The participated in the No. 4 parade most years.  As the participants aged out the cap on the Age kept extending.  Finally the weekend did not gather enough new blood to keep moving forward and the Friends and Family weekend took over Memorial Day Weekend.   After several years the push for connecting the young adults to the camp, to show youth there was still a home for them after the High School camp sessions was formally brought up at the board level.  After a bit of brainstorming, discussion and planning a new life for the Young Adult Weekend was born in 2014.

Camp Unirondack <director@unirondack.org>Jul 23, 2014, 4:52 PM

to Tracy, Juris, me, Elizabeth

Hi Tracy,

I'm CC'ing Devin, Elizabeth, and Juris in on this in case they have input.

So the weekend idea got brought up over the weekend and I haven't yet had the chance to formulate my ideas and get them all down until now.

First of all, I think the idea is a great one and the prospect of reaching out to the 18-30 year-old group of UUs and connecting them with each other sounds fantastic. Our camper reunion wasn't able to garner enough interest and now that we gave it a trial run I think it's apparent we need to widen our net to draw more interest. I'd love for Unirondack to be a part of making this a reality. However, in order for this to happen I think we all have to get on the same page. While Devin is obviously one connection to Unirondack, his responsibility lies with the board and not with programming at Unirondack. I really need to be in the know regarding any and all communication surrounding Unirondack's involvement in the weekend. So many great ideas are being generated but I can only work with what I have communicated with me.

So enough about the process of this thing, let's get talking!

I think in order for this weekend to be a reality we need to first figure out what our platform is for the weekend regarding the planners, the Unitarian Universalist Church of Binghamton, and Unirondack. Here's what I think Unirondack can do:

Option A: Unirondack plans a young adult weekend and corresponds with the various people we know who would be helpful in planning a weekend. Obviously, you, Juris, and Doug would be big parts of that as well as the people who volunteered to have some stake in young adult activities such as those who were at the work weekend this spring. The event is advertised as a Unirondack weekend. Things like community rules are set by Unirondack. 

Option B: Unirondack co-sponsors a weekend with the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Binghamton. You and Juris become the main contact people for the weekend on behalf of UUCB. Unirondack would not be responsible for the programming the weekend. We would definitely still reach out to our contacts for help and I would be more than happy to be a part of various conference calls or other planning efforts. I can't speak for Elizabeth but I imagine she feels similarly. Things like community rules and the likes are settled upon by UUCB in accordance with Unirondack's rules. 

Personally, I am partial to Option B as I believe that you guys are more in touch with the needs of the UU young adult population and probably have a better foundation of contacts.

Also, it sounds like a silly distinction but I really think it makes a big difference in how the weekend is perceived. I think with option B we are more likely to interest non-Unirondack types. Option A would be less appealing to the non-Unirondacker whereas either option would appeal to a Unirondacker since they would likely be interested simply because it's held here.

Other factors:

Cost: I think the costs you have put out there would seem sufficient so long as Unirondack is not expected to offer staff. If the expectation is that this weekend is staffed by Unirondack then we may need to add a little bit to the cost since it would require $400 - $500 to staff the weekend.

Staff: The staff would be responsible for cooking, cleaning, and organizing supplies for the weekend. Depending on the staff we could also offer some kind of discussions or the likes. Again, a staff is not required and it would cut the cost to not have a staff but I think there are serious advantages at least insofar as the kitchen side of things. Volunteers cooking in the kitchen often entails Elizabeth doing a lot of work in the kitchen during the weekend and afterward. Lastly, I will caution that with the timing of this weekend it could be very difficult for me to get staff. It's the last weekend before my staff training so any staff member who is coming back for the summer would not likely be interested in coming up and then leaving for 4 days just to come back. I would of course offer them to just stay but that might not appeal to everyone. Staff not returning to camp will likely already have jobs starting by mid-June. Just something to be aware of.

Timing: I think the weekend of June 13th works best for us and you. Nice!

So those are my thoughts! Again, I really think this could be an excellent addition to Unirondack's offering and I think we have a lot to offer the young adult community with our Rolodex so to speak. Again, it's essential that we keep in good communication for this weekend to be successful. If we can all promise a commitment to this effort I think we can really make something awesome happen.

All the best,

        -Kris

Devin Hollands <devinhollands@gmail.com>Jul 23, 2014, 5:10 PM

to Renee

well the ball is rolling now..  I think Tracy will like this..  just wanted you to know... sounds great.

dh--

Tracy Hollands <tlhollands22@gmail.com>Jul 23, 2014, 5:37 PM

to Camp, Juris, Elizabeth, Devin

Being co-sponsors and working collaboratively with Kris and Elizabeth sounds great to me. So if that's your preferred method to move this forward, I will check in with my congregational leaders to confirm they are in agreement with being co-sponsors as well.

For staffing, I'm thinking if we had Elizabeth and a couple kitchen staff, we could make it work.

Thank you to everyone for considering offering this program and working to find a way to make it happen.

Tracy

 Camp Unirondack <director@unirondack.org>Jul 24, 2014, 9:01 AM

to Tracy, Juris, Elizabeth, Devin

That sounds great to me. I will definitely start putting my feelers out there for some staff for the kitchen. I think I could probably swing some kind of deal where staff just show up the weekend before since kitchen staff will be required to be there the following Thursday anyway. I hope I can find a few people.

Let me know what your congregation leaders think of it!

-Kris

Tracy Hollands <tlhollands22@gmail.com>Aug 13, 2014, 12:04 PM

to Camp, Juris, me, Elizabeth

Kris,

My congregation's Adult Religious Education Committee met last night. They reviewed my proposal and discussed the congregation being a co-sponsor. They are on-board and will be issuing a recommendation to the Board that the congregation supports this. The next Board meeting is Thurs Aug 21. So it will be officially voted on then but we don't foresee any issues.

The Committee does have a couple questions:

1)  What is the minimum number of registrants do you feel is necessary in order to hold the event? I'm thinking around 15; what do you think?

2)  Does the Binghamton Congregation have any financial obligations? I'm assuming that we would not be expected to put up any money for this other than perhaps special supplies needed for workshops being offered but we would be reimbursed from any proceeds from the weekend. Would you be expecting Binghamton to cover any of Unirondack's cost if the event ends up getting canceled? Any other thoughts about our required financial commitments?

This isn't a question from the committee but I was thinking about advertising. I am assuming that Unirondack would advertise this through their normal channels such as their newsletters, brochures and Facebook page. Is this a good assumption? Binghamton can advertise on other young adult Facebook groups, the SLD District Newsletter and SLD congregation newsletters.

Anything else you are expecting from us that the Board should know about?

Thanks,

 24, 2014, 6:44 PM

to Camp, Juris, me, Elizabeth

My congregation's Board has approved co-sponsoring the young adult event. So we are all official now for moving forward. In the next few days I will send out notes from our meeting we had this past week and I'll work on obtaining firm commitments from people to serve on the planning team.

Thanks for moving this idea forward!

Tracy Hollands