So, every July since the 1970s, our company sponsors students to a leadership camp in beautiful Steamboat Springs, Colorado. Since 1998, I bring the students from Oklahoma and Kansas. Once there, we meet up with students from Wyoming and Colorado. All in all, we have about 100 high schoolers for the week.
For most of my students, they earn the trip at the local level (it's 100% paid). Most have never traveled before, or seen mountains, or gone rafting, or been anywhere without their folks. It's a lot of firsts. So we work very hard to make sure we are organized and present an incredible trip for these youth. Many have told us that this camp was life-changing for them.
This year, my counterpart in Colorado has retired and the group that is planning the camp is making me question their abilities. I find myself wanting to beat my head on the desk as they are unable to complete simple tasks by deadlines that have been communicated months ago. For example, the list of all WY and CO counselors and students was due on Monday. With that list, they needed to include the participant's names, sponsors, cell phones, and photos. I was expecting to receive a spreadsheet and folder as I have in the past so we could design the program. What I got was multiple links to multiple drop boxes filled with all of their documents, emails, and texts. Incomplete spreadsheets. Photos of students not on the spreadsheet. Lists of students but no photos. Inconsistent lists of adults. I'm pulling out my hair.
This is telling me that I am going to have to be on top of things during camp week to make sure that the ball doesn't get dropped. The success of camp is at the mercy of the Colorado camp director. We have had a run of awesome years, but I remember nightmare years where the camp director "forgot" to order food for the kids, or another year when all the Colorado adults disappeared (I found them making cookies in the camp director's cabin and watching the movie Twilight while the other state's chaperones were left to monitor the students).
Oy vey... if you're so inclined, pray for the success of our camp this July! We're going to need it!
Thank you for letting me vent and not go strangle someone.