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#1

To dive in:
I was extremely disappointed in the camp organization technique this year and the handling thereof.

Hosts were very un-knowledgeable. Every time I asked who our host was, I was met with “Uh, maybe me, I dunno” and every time I directed a question at staff, I was met with “Uh, that’s not my department, go find such-and-such, no I have no idea where you can find them.”

The vague area descriptions just lead to everyone camping on the far end. That on top of the fact that event announcement was veritably non-existent, I felt like I was living in a foreign country the entire time. Pretty disappointing.

#2

Being a host myself, I did my best to keep up with the schedule and random events going on, but some things were out of our control which kinda made it hard at times. Though speaking from a personal standpoint, I feel that each staff member should have a general idea of whats going on or at least be able to help campers find someone who does (via radio or just walking with them).

Sorry to hear ya felt distanced like that, I can say that wasn’t our intention.

#3

I think we should probably split the camp into 4 groups next year, blue was broken in two by the kitchen, so there was a weird disconnect. I nominate the area around my tent to be Purple Camp (because yes, I’m that gay :P)

I think we also should revisit how the host thing works, it seemed like most of the people in my camp were CFT veterans and therefore didn’t need much advice.

More staff/host meetings during camp would probably be a good idea!

#4

More hosts/staff would be a big help… looks around at fuzzies :wink:

The green host tent and red host tent were pretty close to each other.

I noticed that most people came to either the kitchen or con ops in order to find someone on staff or a host.

As for announcements, I think you’re right about that. The dinner vuvuzela was a pretty good implementation but, as far as times for happenings, those were dynamic and the chalkboards in front of host tents usually gave people a ballpark figure for when they’d be taking place. Happenings depend heavily on attendees and some of the things had to be rearranged due to logistics and unforeseen circumstances. The decision to not have rigid time schedule in the con book was a good one because it would have just been thrown out, altogether.

In my opinion, getting rid of the host tents would be a good thing. Just having hosts wander around their assigned camp would be enough… that way they have a chance to interact with people and be visible to campers in their area. It’s pretty easy to pick out someone with a yellow shirt as it’s not a popular color (next year it will be different i’m sure but, I’m sure it will still be highly visible.) As for people being knowledgeable; that just depends on who you talk to and the majority of staff/hosts were pretty helpful when it came to anyone needing to find a certain thing or someone so, sorry about your bad experience(s). I hope it was an isolated incident and didn’t consistently happen.

Keep things to three camps… blue (quiet) camp should just be the area past the kitchen so that it can truly be as far away from loud camp as possible. Green (loud) camp should be compressed or kept the same size, perhaps and the speakers for the dance area should be pointed away from blue camp. Red (in between volume) camp should encompass the con ops/reg tent and kitchen and it wouldn’t need a host manning it since there are staff members at con ops/reg or the kitchen at all times, pretty much. I liked the placement of the reg tent and kitchen but, I think the host stations were unnecessary. Anyone that needs someone should come to the kitchen area/con ops and a host or whoever is needed can be contacted via radio. Live and learn.

As for announcements, all the hosts need the expensive radios that the other staff had and each camp should have an assigned megaphone for announcements. A 30 minute, 15 minute, and 5 minute warning from someone with a megaphone in each camp would be sufficient for announcing happenings, meals, and any time changes. So, more radios and two more megaphones should be on the shopping list.

About the "The vague area descriptions just lead to everyone camping on the far end" comment: I think there was a pretty good spread of campers all over the entire camp. I personally would like to see people grouped closer together but, that’s just me and for simplicity’s sake (and it encourages more ‘togetherness’ in my opinion.)

#5

Hosts were very un-knowledgeable. Every time I asked who our host was, I was met with “Uh, maybe me, I dunno”

as for who your host was and such, we had a few more hosts than camps, so we had shifts this year instead of one host per camp. It was a little vague as to who was hosting when, some of the hosts worked all camps, and some didn’t have staff shirts, so there was a bit of confusion all around and we’ll discuss what worked and what didn’t over the upcoming months and hopefully have that resolved next year.

and every time I directed a question at staff, I was met with “Uh, that’s not my department, go find such-and-such, no I have no idea where you can find them.”

Sometimes we just don’t have access to the information that you need! you work customer support, I’m sure you understand :stuck_out_tongue: not every staff member knows everything about every other person’s department. as for where to find them, unless they respond on the radio, or unless somebody else knows their location, we just simply may not have the ability to locate them. Again, something we will look into for the next year.

The vague area descriptions just lead to everyone camping on the far end.

This I think actually worked out pretty well. we had a quiet camp, a loud camp, and an intermediate camp. people were spread out fairly decently among all three. Perhaps expound a bit on this so we can find a specific complaint?

That on top of the fact that event announcement was veritably non-existent, I felt like I was living in a foreign country the entire time.

Event announcement was supposed to be done by the FM radios, but due to various difficulties that plan didn’t hash out. perhaps next year. Events were mostly handled by two ways, chalkboards and word of mouth. The chalkboards denoted if an event would be post breakfast, lunch, or dinner, and word of mouth for final details. Again, not the perfect plan, and something we’ll refine next year, but I thought it worked out pretty well all things considered.

Pretty disappointing.

Harsh. :frowning: The criticisms are welcomed, but how about some good critiques as well so we know what we did good?