Nash Progress

The top photo was taken in October 2007, the bottom photo in January 2008. These pictures were taken from roughly the same angle. The progress has been amazing. Check out more pictures of our progress at www.manito-wish.org.

Staff Benefits

Ever wondered what incentives and benefits are available to seasonal staff?  Here is a list, compiled for your convenience.  Check it out.

Certification & Training Opportunities:

Our Outdoor Leaders School (OLS) is designed to help staff get the training and certifications they need for their jobs. Courses are offered at free and reduced prices for our staff. Many other Camps send their staff to us for the courses we offer.

Wilderness Medical Associates (WMA) - We host a number of WMA courses here year-round. These courses include Wilderness First Aid (WFA) and Wilderness First Responder (WFR) to name a few.

Wilderness Water Safety - This is a three year lifeguard certification recognized by the American Camping Association and can be used in a trail and camp setting.

Staff Instructor Course - This is a 28 day course that combines leadership/skill development and goal setting for work done during the summer. Enrollment for the 2008 course closed on January 15th. Click here for more details.

Pre-Training Trips - OLS Trips are offered in late-May to early-June for staff to come hone their trail skills. Contact Jay for more information.

Other Certifications - If you are employed in a specialty area, for which you need specialty training, like an Archery Instructor Certification or Swift Water Rescue Course, we assist in making that happen as well.

Staff Grants

$5000 in grants were awarded to returning staff in the spring of 2007. Grants are offered to help pay for rent, Camp related trainings, or other needs that may assist staff with their return to Camp. How do you apply? See your Letter of Agreement Packet for instructions. Or, mail a letter to the Staff Grant Committee (addressed to Camp) about your current needs and how you would use a grant. (Grants are awarded to recipients upon completion of their Letter of Agreement responsibilities.)

Staff Travel Grants: We are working on getting additional funding from an outside grant donor ($3000 in 2007) to help pay for flights and gas money to help get staff to Camp.

Staff Recruiting Incentives

Get a viable applicant to complete a staff application, three reference forms, and an interview and you will get the following:

1 lead = $20 to Trading Post
2 leads = Mt. Hardware Vest with Manito-wish logo
3 leads = Mt. Hardware Jacket with Manito-wish logo
4 leads = Mt. Hardware Sleeping Bag
5+ leads = Mt. Hardware Viperline 2 or 3 person tent or equivalent
(Incentives apply to recent seasonal staff only.)

Pro-Deals

We have professional deals established with numerous outdoor gear companies allowing our staff to purchase gear they can use for their trips at wholesale rates.

Bending Branches – Open to all staff
Mountain Hardware – Open to 4th year staff and beyond
Kokatat – Open to 4th year staff and beyond
Sierra Designs – Open to 4th year staff and beyond

We hope to continue to grow this list as summer nears. Ask Jay about how you can take part in pro-deals.

Pay Scale Incentives

Staff received a pay raise each year the return to their pervious year's position. Staff begin at $189 per week, and go up from there. On average, a pay raise is 3% - 10% annually dependant on job and qualifications.

The Little Things:

Staff Banquet: A night in the summer is set aside to recognize our seasonal staff with prizes, special recognition, great food, and live music.

Staff Plaques: On five year intervals, staff are awarded a plaque in recognition of their service to Camp.

Staff Pins: Staff commemorative pins are given each year to staff honoring their services.

U-Rock Award: At the end of each Summer Camp Session the U-Rock award is presented to staff members that goes above and beyond the call of duty.

Angel Sightings

Campers had the chance to take a sleigh ride and see different parts of Camp.

Camp Angel (from the Angel On My Shoulder Foundation) was here this past weekend. This an on-going camp for young people that have family members affected by cancer. They utilize Camp’s facilities throughout the year and have been coming up for a winter camp for at least the past four years. They provide their own staff and activities; Camp augments where needed with staffing support and programming.

It is fun to have younger folks running around. They bring a level of energy and vitality back to Camp that is here in spades during the summer, but can wane in the colder months. They arrived amidst our weekend cold snap, but came prepared with winter gear and clothing. It was entertaining watching some of them waddle outdoors bundled up like a fragile, glass vase packaged for shipment in bubble wrap.

There was a ton of activity throughout the weekend, the campers were never at a loss for enjoyable things to do. There were horse drawn sleigh rides, ice-fishing, rock climbing, snowmobiling, face-panting and of course, Don’s cooking. They also brought in a juggler and animals from the Peck’s Wildlife Center for evening entertainment. These kids certainly experienced the good life.

Along with sleigh rides, Angel campers were able to take snowmobile rides and catch fish on Boulder.  Plus, it would not be winter if there was not sledding.

Groups, Groups, Groups

Above the entire UW-Madison crew and playing a "silly" game.

There is never a slow down. This past week was no exception. Kris Henker and I just finished facilitating a group comprised of student leaders from organizations attached to the Union at UW-Madison. There were students from the Distinguish Lecture Series, Publications Committee, Alternative Breaks and Hoofers among others. This was a new program meant to give leadership skills to leaders working within campus organizations.

They rolled up in a bus that put our Turtle Tops to shame – it was thirty-five feet long, purple in color with a large lighting bolt streaking across the side, and put most tour buses for rock groups to shame. It was not a coach bus, but had most of the amenities that its larger motor cousins possess: a bathroom, DVD player and three screens, nine rows of seats and a huge storage compartment in the back. They were rolling in style.

If there bus was not enough of an indication, this was a fun group with which to work. They arrived without many preconceptions about what do expect. Though a few did state, “I have done things like this before and a lot of the games are pretty silly.” Which, if we think about it activities like slow-mo tag, dink and sparkle, screaming toes, and ‘whoa!’ can appear to be goofy from the outside (though I think we all can agree that any form of tag is always enjoyable). These viewpoints quickly faded, however and they dove into the experience.

On top of the normal facilitation activities, the group spent time using bow drills to make tea in the blowing snow and cold. Also, they had a chance to snowshoe and use the climbing wall. With the snowshoes, Kris and I each lead our groups on a sherpa walk – a new, but entertaining experience for us both. We ended with an eventful egg drop. It can be challenging cleaning up egg yolk off of froze black top and ice.

Our programming never ends. There will be a number of Leadership groups coming to Camp throughout the winter. On the horizon are Webster Middle School, Tomahawk Middle School, and countless family groups renting our facilities.

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For those that are curious, none of us froze during the weekend cold snap; we made it through with fires and hot chocolate. Though Brandt’s, Mary’s, Mark’s and Don’s cars froze-up and would not start at various points. The morning temperature readings from my kitchen thermometer (excluding wind chills) from Friday through Monday were –11, -20, -22, and a balmy –9.

On the ice in snowshoes, after the sherpa walk.

Working on communication in the MLC library.

Using the bow drill and resources to make a cup of tea.

Jay, Mary & Brandt - Representin'

Above: Jay & Mary play carpetball at Camp Tecumseh YMCA. We need to build one of these!

This week Jay, Mary and myself are at Camp Tecumseh YMCA in Indiana for the Mid America Camp Conference (MACC). This is where YMCA Camp folks gather annually from all across the Mid-West to share secrets, steal ideas, and talk shop. And let me tell you, there are lots of great ideas out there. This is my third year coming to MACC and every year I seem to learn something new. 

This year they have a great line-up of keynote presenters. Thus far we've seen: Jim Cain - an amazing facilitator (raccoon circles); Michael Brandwein - a camp consultant that has a great mind for all things camp and I would love to pick his brain; and Gary Forester - the sole full-time camping specialist for the national Y (when Gary gives you a recommendation, you listen). More folks to speak tomorrow!

We've also had a chance to tour their horse barn, nature center, archery & riflery ranges, and check out their 40 foot wooden indian - a statue of Tacumseh. There are things here I wish we had.  I've exclaimed, "What a great idea!" a number of times these past few days. Camp folks have a ton of great ideas.  While we are here learning from our peers, they are also approaching us and look up to us in regards to our tripping program and alumni network. It's fun being able to brag about all the stuff that you (our staff) are out doing as well.

That's it for tonight. More pictures from the conference tomorrow.

Seasonal Staff Retreat

On January 4-6, 34 folks partook in the 3rd annual seasonal staff retreat at Camp.

This, first off, was a blast, but more importantly, a brain trust of individuals who had a lot to offer to Camp in terms of ideas and projects to help make Camp better. After brainstorming many different topics and ideas, we narrowed it down to a select few.

First, the year-round staff had questions to ask the seasonal staff in these four topics:

- Recruiting - How to make our recruiting plan better.

- Job Skills / Networking - How to market one's self in the skills they acquired at Camp.

- Trail Curriculum & Progressions - What should be learned on each level of trial?

- Leadership Program Curriculum and Development - Taking the next step with the Leadership Program.

Second, the seasonal staff topics were narrowed down the top four things they would like to see happen:

- Wilderness Awareness: How do we build a connection between campers and the places in which we travel? Flora, fauna, geology, history, etc.

- Diversifying Camp Community - (1) How do we broaden our range of campers and staff of different backgrounds into Camp? (2) How do we train our staff to teach our kids about the diversity amongst our current campers?

- Going Green - How do we become a green organization? What steps can we begin taking today?

- Staff Friendly Scheduling - How can we make schedule transitions easier on seasonal staff?

We spent much of our time on these topics in small and large groups and left the weekend with notes and plans on how to work towards each of these areas. The next step is to put the next step forward. Year-round and seasonal staff alike will be working together towards these areas over the coming months. If you'd like an in-detail copy of our notes from the weekend please feel free to contact me at any time.

A big thank-you to all who participated this weekend! It was great to see you all. The energy you brought up to Camp for the weekend was a taste of summer for all of us up here.