60 Days Until Camp & There’s So Much Cooking Here at the Ramah Office!
With the start of camp only two months away, it's a really busy and exciting time here at the Ramah office!! There is a ton of really cool stuff that we're working on — exciting plans for kayitz 2010 that we can't wait to share with you all!
It's a little too early for us to spill the beans on all of our top-secret special programming that we're working on for this summer at camp, but here's just a taste of what we were working on here in the Ramah office just today — Thursday, April 22!
* We're finalizing our arrangements for our 2010 KISHRONIYAH programs. (Kishroniyah is the special week of programming that we run for our Tzad Bet campers once a summer, in which we offer 12 incredible multi-day programs run by visiting high-level professionals in different fields: sports coaches, artists, musicians, etc.) We have several exciting new programs that we've never before offered! Today I spent a while chatting on the phone with several of our new group leaders — these programs are going to blow your socks off.
* We'll be bringing a variety of special guests this summer to work with our NIVONIM campers. I spoke on the phone this morning with one of our guests — we are very excited to release the full details of what we have planned! (More on this in the coming weeks, I promise!)
* We're in the middle of a series of summits and phone conferences with all of our different specialty staff teams (drama, shira, rikud, omanut, agam, etc.) We've put together a terrific specialty staff this year, with a number of familiar returning faces as well as some tremendously talented new staff members. It's really energizing to talk to our teams and work with them on their exciting new plans for their departments at camp this summer.
* Speaking of phone conferences, we made the arrangements today for our next Hanhallah phone conference. (The hanhallah at camp is the senior leadership team.) These phone conferences are incredibly valuable for us, as we work to turn all of the big ideas that we generated during the winter into reality for this summer.
* We got closer to sealing the deal with a fun special guest to join us at camp during Staff Week.
* A big part of my job is to make sure that camp stays up-to-date with all of the latest regulations from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the ACA (American Camp Association). Last week I attended a day-long CORI training session that dealt with our screening procedures for staff. Today I spent a great deal of time incorporating several new regulations into the procedures that we have in place for kayitz 2010. (Not very glamorous work, but critically important to ensure that Camp Ramah remains the safest possible environment for all of our kids and staff members.)
* I eyed what is, to my understanding, the last bottle of Adirondack Blueberry Soda on planet Earth. The bottle currently sits atop my bookshelf. I look forward to sharing this final bottle with the 2010 members of the It's a Good Life Chug!