This is the 2003 Director's Orientation Page for Camp Invention® Camp

Directors working with Logan Perkins (Regional Coordinator)

For 2004 Orientation: www.priorities.org/camps-orientation-04.htm

For General Information on Camp Invention please click HERE

Audubon Montessori School - Take Apart

Rather than ask you to attend both a director's orientation and teacher's orientation, I'll ask new directors and teachers to attend one Teacher's/Director's orientation in Spring. In lieu of a director's orientation read your director's manual and the following detailed webpage. NOTE: Many of the ideas on this webpage are more detailed than the manual (e.g. dealing with peanut allergies) and based on experience in actual camps.

Your presence, and that of your teachers and asst. directors (and counselors, if you like) is highly recommended for the Teacher's Orientation described further down. Teachers who don't attend are less prepared and rarely do a remarkable job. See director's manual page 34. Please RSVP me in early May with number of attendees.

INDEX

Director's Manual

Camp Invention History

Curriculum

Director's Timeline

Hosting A Camp

Marketing Your Camp - Flyers

Benefits of Larger Enrollment

Logan Perkins Presentation

Advertisements

Besides the flyers and four-color brochures, I'll have a very limited budget for advertisements. Let me know where you think we should place an ad. If you know any relevant contacts in the media that could write a story, please contact them and give them my number &/or website details - www.priorities.org/campinvention.htm

Tennyson Knolls Elementary, 2001; Girls love Camp Invention!

Camp Pricing

$179 till March 15, $199 till May 31, $209 starting June 1. Volunteer children pay $125.

Scholarships

If I get any I'll let you know. You can solicit scholarships from many sources, such as nearby businesses or your school GT department. Unemployed parents could also work as a counselor or volunteer to receive the $100 child rate. Local money can often be solicited from VFWs, Lion's Clubs, the Rotary organization, girl or boy scouts, private families wishing to sponsor a child, local businesses. One director in 2001 held a bake & jewelry sale to raise scholarship money ($1000 raised in a poor district). Ask your principal if he/she has connections in the district that may know of scholarship money. Contact the district's gifted office to inquire about scholarship money. Often there's money just waiting for a worthwhile project. Check with your PTO/PTA about any money or assistance they can offer. They are a critical source to get the work out. Make sure all officers of the PTO/PTA are familiar with Camp Invention. Show them the video at their meeting. Grant Money

Sources for grant money: http://www.priorities.org/camps-grants.htm

Photos

2001 Photos for any publication can be obtained by cut and past from: http://www.priorities.org/campinvention-photos.htm

2002 Photos - Audubon Montessori - Virginia Court Elementary - Governor's Ranch

School Website

On your school's website you should try to get Camp Invention on your calendar. Any additional promotional mention can help answer parents' questions and increase enrollment. You can add photos on the website.

School Bulletin Board

Governor's Ranch Bulletin Board, 2001

By March 1, 2003 you will receive posters, a t-shirt, and color photos to place on your school's bulletin board. Take one of the Camp Invention t-shirts, fill it with paper, and put it in the school's glass display case if available with sign-up data. Please make sure you reserve some time to use a bulletin board. If yours is glass enclosed and locked, you can put some broken appliances and tools at the bottom of the display. If you don't have a display case available, simply use any available bulletin board, preferably near the entrance, and create a display such as the photo above depicts. With your posters there's a blank space where you can print out or write your school's camp date and hours.

Banners

Let me know if you want to use one of our large Camp Invention banners. Hang it above your school entrance or on a visible outside fence. Save at the end of camp.

Registration Figures

From the webpage I've created for you there's a link to registration figures. These are updated two or three times per week. Registration Figures

This is a critical issue for you to determine your staff count. If it's a week before camp and you have 75 campers, you have the difficult decision of weather to hire the 5^th teacher and another counselor if your numbers finally hit 80. Don't panic. Call me and we'll examine the prospects of getting 5 more campers within a week. Have an extra teacher and counselor on standby and simply explain the circumstances. Recognize that staff children and scholarships are often slower in being registered.

BENEFITS OF EARLY REGISTRATIONS - If it's April and you have 80 campers enrolled, you'll know you need all five teachers and you won't have to worry later about your teacher recruitment. The sooner you fill up your camp the more predictable everything else will be.

Expect a surge of registration around Feb. 28^th and May 31st.

Registration and refund procedures are on page 22 of your manual.

Teacher Selection

By late winter you should have at least two committed and other potential teachers, with a commitment from an appropriate number representative of the number of students enrolled. The rest should be considered "on call." Gain teacher commitments as enrollments increase.

Page 30 has the chart of your staff ratios. Page 31-33 defines staff roles. See Update #5 on Staffing for specific details on picking teachers.

See Camp Site Staffing Page - Teacher Responsibilities

Planet Zak decorations at Dartmouth Elem., 2001

Recognize that for Planet Zak and Dig It! teachers will need to set up their classrooms in advance for the desirable effects. Most director's hold a staff meeting just after they've picked up the materials from my storage unit. This is a great time for teacher's to review their materials and decorate/prepare their rooms. Get counselors involved in decorating. This will allow them to get a better feel for the different modules.

Feel encouraged to recruit teachers from other schools. Make sure you encourage them to put a mention in their school's newsletter.

Asst. Director Selection

Part-time Assistant Director: If you have from 50 - 69 campers you will have a half-time assistant director. I'd recommend you utilize that wonderful person with Monday registration, making mid-week copies and special trips to the store, Amazing Games at lunch, and Friday afternoon open house. With 70 campers you get a full-time asst. director. Wahoo!!

Assistant Director Responsibilities

Counselor Selection/Training

Counselors play a critical role, staying with a select group of students all day. Start contacting high school counselors, colleges, field studies students, honors society students, gifted and talented groups, churches, recommendations from associates, teacher's kids, etc.. [see page 32] The minimum age is 14, but we recommend 16 and older. You can also recruit retired people or other teachers for this position. At Virginia Court Elem. in 2002, all the counselors were adults and this made for a more professionally run camp. If you find counselors that won't accept pay, their salary can be redirected towards teachers as a bonus, or towards another counselor. Talk to me if this is a possibility for you. Counselors get $175 for the week.

It is very important that you hold a counselor training session before the camp to spell out your expectations and their roles. Give them a summary of the modules also. Both counselors and teachers have commented in their end-of-camp evaluations that clearly spelling out the weeks activities would have been enormously helpful. Hold your counselors to the highest standards and expectations and don't pick students you'll have to babysit!

Counselor helping his group at Southeast Elementary in 2001.

Jr. Counselors & Volunteers

Camp is for children entering grades 2-6. Some exceptions are possible. Older children can serve as Jr. Counselors (unpaid). Choose wisely on these so you're not simply babysitting!

Amazing Games

This is held during the lunch break. If you have a big camp, have half you kids take lunch, and the others do Amazing Games. If you have a smaller group you can all have lunch then do Amazing Games. If you have less than 50 campers you won't have an assistant director, and will therefore need to perform Amazing Games yourself or have counselors do it. At least one school divided the kids up into smaller groups with a counselor who did the Amazing Games. After every ten minutes or so the groups would switch to another game. Over twenty are listed. You can use any other games you know of, or, if you choose, allow the kids to simply hang out or use any existing playground equipment. If it's too hot out don't overextend the kids. On the other hand, a good dose of exercise can help the boys chill out for the rest of the days activities!

Amazing Games at Devinny Elem., 2001

Materials

Pages 35-36.

MATERIALS PICK-UP -

For camps outside of metro Denver I'll provide you individual details.

Denver metro camps will need to pick up your materials the week before camp (For June 2-6 & 9-11 camps you may be able to pick up materials after the May 17^th orientation]. You will be asked to pick these up from my storage unit. You'll need to coordinate that with me for particular pick-up dates/times.

Storage unit location: U-Stor Federal Self Storage - 6790 Federal Blvd. Entrance Code: 93#1288* - make sure you include the "#" and "*" after the numbers; storage unit is located in the far back corner. You will need to use the code to leave the storage unit lot. Each car will need to enter the numbers seperately.

You'll need the equivalent of a pick-up truck, minivan, or Suburban to hold the approximately 10 (22 gallon) Rubbermaid bins. LIST OF MATERIAL BINS If you have a smaller vehicle you may want to show up with a teacher, spouse, or asst. director with a second vehicle. If this is impossible please let me know so we can work out other arrangements. When you pick up the materials and bring them to your school, this is an excellent time for your staff to come to school to examine their materials and make sure they have everything and that they understand what the items they have. This is a good time for a counselor orientation.

MATERIALS INVENTORY AT THE END OF THE WEEK: Directors will be responsible for inventory of all distributed items at the end of camp. On your list of materials that comes with the bins, you'll notice some are listed as consumable. That would include clay, seashells, pencils, etc. Your teachers may keep the extras of these at the end of the week. I'll need all the permanent items (e.g. tools, goggles, scissors, markers, yard sticks, etc.) inventoried and returned. Please make sure goggles are clean and placed back in the plastic bags they came in. The inventory process can begin Thursday, but don't let it interfere with giving children a full day of activities Friday. The re-packing of materials in the same manner as they were found will be a critical determinant of the potential for a bonus and an invitation to work with Camp Invention in the future.

MATERIALS PICK-UP AFTER CAMP - For some schools I or a helper will be there on Friday afternoon to see you close and to collect items. In other cases If you have a strong preference for my visiting you let me know in advance. IMPORTANT: If someone is not going to visit you on Friday afternoon I'll need you to collect all the materials and put them somewhere that I can pick them up the following week, possibly later in the summer. If this is a problem let me know. Another prospect for metro Denver camps: I can pay you to deliver them back to the storage unit.

Accounting

Close-out info. on page 45. Please have only authorized Camp Invention items on receipts.

Dartmouth Elem. child with tools - have first aid nearby!

Camp Safety - Discipline

Pages manual. See forms in back of manual, pages 74-75. Make extra copies of Incident and Behavior report forms.

Summer camps are fun. Camp Invention is loud, wild and involves using tools and sharp edged appliances. Minor boo boos are inevitable. In the back of your manual, in the forms section, is an Invention Behavior Report (p. 74). This should be filled out promptly for students misbehavior. Document bad behavior from the start. Nip it in the bud! In the back of your manual is the Camp Invention Incident Report (p. 75). This relates to first aid necessities. Please have extras of these and fill them out even for minor issues. If a child has a head ache, fill out a report. You wouldn't want to have the parent call your principal the next day saying their child has a major medical issue that the day before was a seemingly small item and you neglected to report it. Likewise, if a child is a small nuisance on day one, write him or her up so the parents will nip the problem in the bud. A trail of paperwork will save you from bigger problems later.

Insurance

See manual.

Student Rosters

A list of enrolled campers comes out starting about three weeks before camp. It will be divided by last name and by age/grade. You will get an update weekly until the first day of camp.

It will list parents names and phone numbers. It will specify if little Johnny wants to be in the same group as little Tommy. Please accommodate such requests happily - they are paying to have fun. Otherwise, divide by age/grade.

HAVE YOUR STAFF HELP CALL PARENTS A FEW DAYS BEFORE CAMP STARTS AND:

Make sure parents know which Elementary school location you are at (there's a small chance some people may be enrolled in the wrong school)
Make sure campers have collected the items listed on their welcome letter from Camp Invention. You have a copy of this in the way back of your manual. It mentions a broken appliance, cardboard boxes, etc. It specifies no appliances with glass (e.g. monitors, TVs) and nothing that has been plugged in within the last 72 hours or has a battery in it).
Mention that campers are allowed to bring in their own tools and work gloves but that they should be labeled with their name.
Emphasize having all forms filled out, including medical and press release. THIS IS CRITICAL - If forms have not been filled out properly the parent will have to come back to do this. Technically we are to remove children without such documents from camp.
Mention that an authorized person must walk the child to and from the school entrance each morning.
Request volunteers to come in around 8am Monday morning with folding card tables and chairs to help register students.
Mention the final Friday afternoon "open house" where friends and family are welcome.

- You are responsible for dividing up your campers by age groups. When you get your roster, divide up the names by group, make copies, and give a copy to each teacher and counselors. Teachers can call a selected group of campers to go over a few items, specifically:

- The size of each group will depend on the number of campers in relation to counselors. (See sample Camp Schedules in the back of your manual, pages 59-66)

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Monday Registration Procedures

See manual.

Have someone at the entrance to greet parents and direct them to the registration area. A retired volunteer is great for this.
Have someone else show parents where to drop off all recyclables along a hallway. The recyclable items don't need the camper's name for they will all be mixed and used by everyone. NOTE: Walk up registrants will not have any recyclables, appliances, or paperwork. Try to have extra appliances for such students. Make sure on Monday morning your registering volunteers/staff double check for properly signed forms before the parents leave. In your director's kit there are six clip boards to put these extra forms on for parents. HAVE EXTRAS OF CAMPER INFORMATION AND EMERGENCY MEDICAL AUTHORIZATION FORMS FOR THOSE WHO FORGOT THEM OR FOR WALK UP REGISTRANTS. (copy on pages 76-77)
Have a volunteer make sure the appliance is labeled (with duct or masking tape & marker) with the child's name and put the appliance in a separate location. Ideally, have that volunteer or another screen that appliance to make sure it contains no glass, hasn't been plugged in within the past 72 hours, and doesn't have any batteries. Removing the battery alone will no release the potentially powerful charge. Don't accept items with batteries still in them.
Parents will want an efficient and effective registration process - this sets the tone for them for the whole camp. If your teachers are all set up in their classrooms, they can come out and greet the group. Teachers are welcome to dress up to play the part (e.g. an alien from Planet Zak!). Watch the videos for examples of this..
Have three or four tables set up with teachers, asst. director, you, and/or volunteers each with a list of all students names. Have at least two people registering for each 40 campers.
As the parent walks up, find the camper's name. Check it off. Carefully review the two critical registration forms - the Camper Information form and the Emergency Medical Authorization form.
On the Camper Information form both the parent and child's signature are necessary on the line about rules. This line often has not been signed by both parent and child. The next line is for the parent to sign regarding photo releases. Encourage authorization for photos.
On the Emergency Medical Authorization form make sure the top is filled out with the parent's and camper's name and address. In Part 1 there are locations for phone numbers and doctor's to contact. Near the bottom is a place to list alternative people to contact if the child becomes ill. Make sure the parents signature follows that. At the bottom is a refusal to consent section. Parents should not sign that if they filled out the consent granted section.

Once the paperwork is deemed correct, direct the child to the correct counselor who will be in charge of that child throughout the week. The counselors should be in identifiable locations with a big poster naming their group. Pick a fun name (e.g. the Kevlar group or Edison group, zipper or robot group) This group of kids and their counselor will be together all week. If the counselors have paper and markers, some balloons or yo-yos or some other fun item it will help the keep the group cohesive and dynamic from the start (page 50).
Please offer parents a Diversity Survey to anonymously fill out (pg. 73). If you forget to give it to them Monday, attach this to the end of week evaluations.
Once the paperwork is complete and the child has joined his/her group the parents are free to leave. Make sure they are aware that they may leave...often they hang around not knowing if they can leave or not.
Counselors will need to keep their group in control and hopefully entertained until it's time to head to their first module/classroom. Either the counselor or the student will make their individual name tags (usually the counselor does for the younger kids). (See page 41 in the manual about Base Camp and the counselor's responsibilities and options for entertainment).

After the kids are herded off to their first class, the director and asst. director should alphabetize the paperwork, triple checking that it was filled out correctly. If any critical signatures are missing, contact the parent and make sure they return to sign ASAP (at the end of the day at the latest).

Additionally, with the paperwork please identify:

Which students have allergies and medical issues - relay this to the child's counselor. Students with strong peanut allergies may not be able to sit near such products. Be aware of this when distributing snacks...some snacks have nut oils that you may not suspect.
Make a list of those students that were not given permission to have their picture taken. Alert the counselors of these children and have the counselor take responsible to alert any media that may arrive to NOT take their picture. When I (Logan Perkins) visit camps I'm usually going to take photos. Another option is to put a red star or other sticker on the child's name tag indicating no photos.
Let counselors know which students are allowed to walk/bike home alone. The bottom of the Camper Information form has a place for parent authorization for this option. The counselor will also need to know who is allowed to pick up the child (bottom of Camper Info. form)
Identify all students whose parents said they paid but are not on your roster. Call Camp Invention headquarters registration 1-800-968-4332 and confirm that they are registered. If they're not listed with headquarters, call the parent back and inquire as to how they paid since Camp Invention has no record. Make sure their payment status is accounted for by Tuesday. This is a great task for your asst. director.
Have all your staff contracts filled out and ready to fax me on Monday (pages 51-58).

It is worthwhile to make copies of all the Camper Information and Emergency Authorization forms - expect 10 - 20% of parents to have forgotten or not brought their paperwork.

Monday - Friday Details

MATERIALS TO BUY - You will have a small list of items to purchase for camps that it did not make sense for Ohio headquarters to send to us. These will be specified on a list (e.g. 50 pounds of sand, big bag of popcorn, aerosol cans). You will have a budget for them.
T-SHIRTS - Some directors give them out during registration. Others wait till midweek for photo shoots and a midweek suprise. It's up to you.
PHOTOS - CAMERA: Shoot a roll of film (two for camps over 70) of your camp. Ideally, invite in a high school photo geek to snap some photos for credit. You can use a disposable camera but they generally take poor photos. To get reimbursed for your photos you must make two copies, and give me one copy with the negatives and receipts.
REGISTRATION - The Monday morning registration period will be the most chaotic. Imagine 80 +/- parents and kids coming in all within 15 - 30 minutes. This is where you want to be ready in advance with additional volunteers. Volunteers can include other teachers, retired people, your kids or neighbors, etc. Additionally, to recruit volunteers you and your selected teachers/ assistant director should call all households the week before camp with a list of reminders as listed below. Simply divide up the roster. Remember, as a director, you can delegate some of all your work to your assistant director (camps with 50 registrants), counselors, and teachers. Don't overwhelm yourself.
PARENT CONFIRMATION LETTER - Parents should receive a confirmation postcard within two weeks after registering. Parents should additionally receive a letter from Camp Invention around two weeks before camp - see last three pages of your director's manual for sample. This letter details what to bring to camp and includes a camper information and emergency medical release form, both critical for a child to attend camp.
On Wednesday or Thursday distribute staff and child evaluations (pages 69-72).

Virginia Court Elem. - 2002

MONDAY SUMMARY OF CRITICAL ROLES:

Make sure you have signed copies of the Camper Information form and Emergency Medical forms for each child
Alphabetize these forms, together, by last name
Determine which kids were on your list but didn't show up

Identify special allergy/medical issue kids & determine extend of allergy, etc. - let counselors know this info.
Identify kids that can walk home and let counselors know
Identify No Photo kids
Identify kids that showed up and said they paid but were not on your list - call Camp Invention 1-800-968-4332 to check their status later Monday. Let the children attend until you get an answer from headquarters registration office. Make sure their finances are accounted for by Tuesday.
For walk in parents/kids, make sure they fill out a registration form and pay the walk-in rate ($199 in 2003) Mail to Camp Invention.
Keep receipts in seperate place - only camp items on receipts please! Total receipts for Logan's visit.
Determine total number of kids at camp
Email me your staff contracts on Monday.

See manual.

Nice Display of Creations at Dartmouth Elem. in 2001.

Family and Friends Program

See manual.

This is a critical time to give parents a positive image of your camp. Think carefully about what type of presentation you wish to offer. This can take anywhere from 15 minutes to 45 minutes, generally less than � hour. Keep in mind many parents can't make it until camp is over at 3:30pm anyway. Many will be walking in the middle of a presentation and your kids will be in high energy mode. You have choices here, including:

Have the counselors and kids bring all their take home items into the gym or cafeteria and set them up for parents to see. You can have each child have their personal creations all with the child in one location, or you can have all similar creations (e.g. atls, drawings, inventions) grouped together for parents to see and compare. You can set up tables or use the floor and wall space. The value of this approach is that after all items are removed from the classrooms the counselors can begin their clean-up and have it all complete fairly early. Try to get access to vacuums and inquire with the custodian how much cleaning needs to be done. You may be duplicating work that he/she was going to do anyway.
With the above you can add a PowerPoint or video presentation of the weeks events - Vassar Elem. did a wonderful job of this for the past two summers.
If you've taken and developed photos, put them on a poster board in an area where parents can look.
An alternative to the big room presentation is to have parents meander through the different classrooms chatting with teachers and seeing the classroom as it was set up. This is good if you have extra time for clean-up later, want the teachers and parents to have more time together, or can't use the gym or cafeteria because another school group is using those facilities.

Group Robot from 2001 at Vassar Elem. - Make sure groups creating projects decide who will take home the project at the end of the week. They may agree to rotate their creation or separate it into parts.

- The building needs to be in good condition when you leave, similar to the condition you found it in.

Camp Close-out

See forms in manual.

Payroll

Compensation is listed in manual. Director must fill out payroll form for their camp and turn it in to me by email on the first day of camp. If changes are to be made (e.g. a counselor quits mid-week) alert me by cell phone: Logan cell 720-217-6896.

From this webpage: http://www.invent.org/campforms/CampOperationForms.htm

you can pull up various forms. Specifically, pull up the Camp Payroll form to use to insert the staff contract information. Please fill this out and email it to me: logan@priorities.org. If you do this on Monday your staff will be assured of being paid two weeks after camp is over. If a change needs to be made in the payroll during the week (e.g. a counselor quits), you can simply let me know when you get this info. and I'll make the adjustments.

I will also mail you a sample of this payroll form, the sign-in/out form, and other forms.

Bonus

New Director	$1 per kid up to 50	$2 per kid 51-80	$4 per kid 81-110
Returning Director	$2 per kid up to 50	$4 per kid 51-80	$6 per kid 81-110

Details in manual. Expect your bonus one month after camp is over assuming you've supplied me with all the appropriate paperwork.

######### Updated 1-14-04

Return to Director's Page

THAT'S ALL FOLKS! IF YOU HAVE ADDITIONAL COMMENTS, QUESTIONS, OR CONCERNS, PLEASE CONTACT ME ASAP:

Logan Perkins, Camp Invention Regional Coordinator
1565 California St. #607
Denver, CO 80202

Toll-free: 1-866-777-0233
Phone/Fax: 303 777-5511
Cell: 720 217-6896

logan@priorities.org