The Tweakage Rendezvous is an informal gathering of camps

in which ideas, questions, and thoughts can be shared and discussed. 

Its goal is to encourage camps to better their management skills,

operational efficiency, program excellence, and ministry effectiveness.

Here it is! This following rough draft schedule that will get tweaked, changed, added to, and subtracted from. We don’t know exactly how many folks are planning to come and we may add another track to the split tracks if it grows. Some of the important things: 

·         Registration: Register as soon as possible. Housing for couples is limited, but we’ll have plenty of room for all the guys and all the girls. The girls get to stay in the lodge rooms with your own bathroom . . . yada, yada, yada, . . . it will be nice. Camps may send up to five staff members free of charge to Tweakage 6. Additional staff and non-staff may attend for $50 per person. Please send the fee (if any) to Ironwood, 49191 Cherokee Road, Newberry Springs, CA  92365. Please e-mail or call Beth Hunter (bethhunter@ironwood.org, 760.257.3503 x122), a list of who will be attending from your camp and indicate whether they are staff or non-staff. If a couple is attending, please include both the husband and wife’s names.

·         Theme: Two kinda themes you will see throughout the schedule are “adventure camp” and “stuff for the small camp.”

·         Christmas for Camp: You need to bring at least one item of value (that you would like to be given) to be given randomly to another camp. If you bring three of something or even 10 of something, we will then pick several more camp names. If you are hoping to give one of something to everyone (you are either the rich uncle or the dollar store shopper), I will know the camp total about 10 days before the retreat. A rough guesstimate would be 30 to 40 camps. You will have a short moment to share what you are giving just in case the rest of us unlucky ones want to go out and buy it.

·         Weather: Pray for abnormally warm weather because the Wednesday mega session involves doing some of the things that Alpine does in their adventure camps. I would love to go whitewater rafting in February; we probably won’t be able to whitewater raft, but we will wait until the week of to decide what we can do—it’s gonna be fun!

·         Questions? Feel free to ask lots of questions. At this point, we need to start knowing the answers. J

·         Arrival: Tweakage 6 starts on Monday night at dinner (5:45 p.m.). Feel free to get in anytime in the afternoon. It is your responsibility to figure out how to get to the camp—train, plane, automobile, unicycle, stilts, parachute . . . .

The schedule does not have any catchy titles—it just tells you what we are hoping to do. Dave Holloway and the crew at Alpine have been looking forward to this for about four years now.  Every camp is different, and I think each of us will have the opportunity to learn and grow from this experience. My goal is to take as many of our staff as possible. Every year the fellowship and friendships are a bigger benefit than anything on the schedule. I am guessing we will have 15 to 20 people on the same plane heading to West Virginia (that ought to be an interesting ride J) looking forward to sharing, learning, and growing. We are colleagues not competitors! I look forward to seeing y’all!

Sam

Monday, February 20

 2:00    Registration Begins
            Tours—leave every 20 minutes from the Lodge lobby

 5:30    Dinner (SC Dining Room)

 6:45    General Session 1—Dr. Dan Anderson (Anderson Hall)
            Ministry Bound, Interns, High Ropes Helps, Database Options

 8:00    Break and Fellowship

 8:30    Split Track 1

1A—Running Your Camp with Volunteers—Ken Perry (Lodge Conference 1)
1B—Setting Up a Camper Scholarship Program—Randy Tanis (Lodge Conference 2)
1C—Philosophy of Adventure—Steve Kemper (Gilmore Dining Room)
1D—TBA—Dan Brooks (Gym Classroom)
1E—Star Lab: NASA Indoor Planetarium—Emily Dunkerton (Gilmore Gymnasium)
        Limited room, please sign up at the Lodge

 9:30    Fellowship and Refreshment (Gilmore Dining Room)

Tuesday, February 21

  8:00    Breakfast (SC Dining Room)

9:00    General Session 2—Christmas for Camp: Pickin’ Names (Each camp should bring at least one useful, novel, or helpful thing to give away.)—Sam Brock (Anderson Hall)

10:00    Break

10:15    Split Track 2

2A—Group Games Idea Share—Scott Olson (Lodge Conference 1)
2B—Taxes, Forms, Insurance, and the Law—Betty Brock (Lodge Conference 2)
2C—Current Trends & Issues of Camping—Ken Pritt (Gilmore Dining Room)
2D—Team Building Initiatives—John Skaggs (Gym Classroom)

11:15    Break

11:30    Split Track 3:  Split the Split Track

3A—Advantages & Effective Methods of Running a Seasonal Camp—Paul Dickman (Lodge Conference 2)

3B—Idea Share: Free-time Activity That Could Be Easy, Cheap, Big, or All of the Above—Rob Fipps & Kevin Moses (Lodge Conference 1)

3C—Six Elements of Program—John Skaggs (Gilmore Dining Room)

3D—Risk Management in Camping—Ken Pritt (Gym Classroom)

3E—Highlights of Outdoor Education: Nature Learning Games and Types of Classes—Emily Dunkerton (Gilmore Gymnasium)

 12:30    Lunch (SC Dining Room)

 Optional Sessions

Optional Activities:

·         Gilmore Game Room open

·         Climbing wall

·         Gym activities

·         High ropes course (weather permitting)—room for 30 participants; please sign up at the Lodge

·         New River Gorge tour—please sign up at the Lodge

 5:30    Dinner (SC Dining Room)

 7:30    A Bit of Frivolity (Anderson Hall)

 8:00    General Session 3—Walt Brock  (Anderson Hall)

 9:30    Free Time Activities—Gilmore gym and game room open  

Wednesday, February 22

 8:00    Breakfast (SC Dining Room)

 8:30    Mega Sessions—breaks at the whim of the leader

A—Hands-on Adventure Camping: Caving, High Ropes, White Water Rafting, Paintball—Steve Kemper & Vanessa Boyd  (starts at Gym Classroom)

B—Scout: Online Registration Now Available, Learn How to Implement & Leverage Your Database—Dennis Mollet (Lodge Conference 2)

C—Communication—Jon Moore (8:30–9:30), Sam Brock (9:45–10:45),
Rob Fipps (11:00–12:15) (Lodge Conference 1)

·         Within Your Organization
·         To Your Pastors and Churches
·         To Your Campers
·         Print, Internet, Video, and Audio
·         Timeliness
·         Rising Above the Clutter of Information
·         For the Small Camp with Limited Resources

12:30    Lunch (SC Dining Room)

  1:30    Depart

High ropes course open for those who would like to stay and participate.