Summer Camp Stuff

beardedlamb · Post by **beardedlamb** » July 25th, 2006, 6:37 pm

Here's a Summer Camp update for those not in the know.

- We had three kids show up and they're all awesome. Two boys and one girl. One sophomore high schooler and I believe 2 8th graders. They really dig improv and they're having a lot of fun.

- Just fyi (not attacking anyone, just pointing something out) we had 8 students registered but only three showed up. Shana made some phone calls and we learned that two of them made other plans at a different camp because no one got back to them about registration. There was another high school boy who showed up two weeks ago when he thought his class was starting because no one had communicated with him that it was moved. He didn't show up this time.

- Teaching a four hour class five times in one week with only three kids is difficult and a lot more work. I don't know who's job it was to distribute promotional materials (before school ended) and handle the registration but it might have been handled better. I hope this comes off as a mere telling of facts and a lesson for what we can do different if we decide to do this next year and not a personal attack of whomever. I don't even know who's job it was. maybe no one's.

- All in all, I'm saying no harm no foul, unless you consider that the venture will be losing money. But the kids are great and they're having a great time. They understand the rules of improv and I think they might be getting hooked. I certainly don't regret being involved. I'm loving teaching it. and there's a lot of potential here.

thoughts over,
beard

erikamay · Post by **erikamay** » July 25th, 2006, 6:42 pm

werd up.

i couldnt get involved in this this year, but would like to help out farther out from the date to get even better logistics/press in place.

erika

beardedlamb · Post by **beardedlamb** » July 25th, 2006, 6:54 pm

i think if we handle it early in the year, like january on through may, we could do a couple runs. one in june and one in august.

acrouch · Post by **acrouch** » July 25th, 2006, 10:11 pm

I take partial responsibility for not following through on this in an organized way. My feelings are that we didn't firmly define any rolls or assign responsibility in a definite way, and when attendance was looking weak in the final stages most of us checked out of the process.

I'm glad the kids participating are having fun and I'm sorry that you're having to push through with a small class.

We'll get it right next time.

kaci_beeler · Post by **kaci_beeler** » July 26th, 2006, 1:07 am

Yikes. This makes the AIC look bad by proxy. How hard is it to stay in touch with 8 kids? I'm glad some still showed, but damn. This just shocks me for some reason. I feel bad personally, like, I wish now that I had volunteered (though it seemed at the get-go that there were many volunteers).
When dealing with people, especially people I don't know and am somewhat responsible for, you can't just lay things aside, put the responsiblities on others, or assume everything will be taken care of.
I know everyone is busy (I know how it is, really) but when it comes to people, to kids even, why all the screw-ups?
It's kinda sad, shameful, and selfish.
Yes, maybe next year everything will be better. I might like to handle the PR with the parents and students, follow-up calls on dates, prices, locations, and answer any questions. At least I know I can rely on myself.
Those guys may be the future of improv!!!

I'm glad you got some great kids though. I was around their age when I started getting interested in improv myself. Thanks for the update.

deroosisonfire · Post by **deroosisonfire** » July 26th, 2006, 8:38 am

this can be added to the list of casualties of the collective mindset.

i will also take some responsibility for this catastrophe. this whole thing has made me extremely upset because i am not a fuck-up. i am super responsible and i get things done. the problem is that i didn't think this was my project to run, so i didn't. we had meetings and some responsibilities were assigned but nobody followed up to make sure they were being done because nobody thought that was their job.

it is important to acknowledge our mistake and learn from it. we cannot just form committees and assume things will happen - something we're extremely guilty of in the aic. hopefully those people so shocked at this year's camp will actually step up next year and make things happen. i, for one, am no longer interested.

Jastroch · Post by **Jastroch** » July 26th, 2006, 2:23 pm

Part of the problem was that the promo materials were way late. I believe we said March 1st and they ended up coming in May 15th.

Part of the reason that happened was because there was a lot of debate and very few decisions made. Things like "who should checks be made out to" took two weeks to decide rather than five minutes.

When it was clear that the fancy promo materials would be way late, there was no effort to promote it on the fly.

I think our collective enthusiasm petered out. I think no one, myself included, took the reigns to make this happen. I think projects like these need a clear leader. Someone to bust balls and make shit happen.

If no one wants to "own" the project and make sure it's done right, then it shouldn't be attempted.

kbadr · Post by **kbadr** » July 26th, 2006, 2:30 pm

(I originally said a bunch of stuff here that was redundant and has been covered in the two posts above...so I deleted it)

So, what broke? How can we make it not break again? How can we dicuss this without it flaring up into a 45 minute shouting match at a meeting?

Is this possibly a case of individuals being less-inclined to do what's necessary because a project is looked at as a "AIC venture", rather than something that someone is individually responsible for?

I'm not trying to start pointing fingers or anything like that. I just want to figure out what happened, because it seems indicative of a larger problem.

HerrHerr · Post by **HerrHerr** » July 26th, 2006, 3:00 pm

AIC generates many great ideas with lots of enthusiasm...and then comes the work.

I haven't volunteered for a lot of duties or come to committee meetings because half of the time it is a waste of time.

Big ideas, little execution. Some areas of AIC rock, some don't. I think we get too excited in the idea stage. I think we often bite off more than we can chew. How to fix this? I don't know. Maybe focus on show branding so that we have super solid (and professionally run) quality shows first and foremost. Seven shows a week with three duds box office-wise, three doing fair and one doing pretty damn good usually. Can't we really step up and focus on making shows rock and getting people in?

I just think we're spreading ourselves too thinly. And we have a lot of talented and hard-working people. Maybe just a narrowing of focus would help.

deroosisonfire · Post by **deroosisonfire** » July 26th, 2006, 3:01 pm

I agree that this is indicative of a larger problem.

Here are some things I can say about this specific instance:

We ran into problems associated with a first-time venture for a young organization. We didn't know who to make checks out to because the AIC was moving its bank account. Plus, there was initially debate over whether this was a Hideout class or an AIC class, which confused things. We also lost a lot of momentum because after the committee decided details for the camp we presented them to the collective where everyone said it should be a full-day camp instead of half-day. We went back and had the same discussion we'd already had and came to the same conclusion that a full-day camp wasn't feasible for our first summer.

In general, projects need clear leaders. And I still feel unclear about what decisions a leader can make without stepping on the toes of the collective.

nadine · Post by **nadine** » July 26th, 2006, 6:46 pm

deroosisonfire wrote:In general, projects need clear leaders. And I still feel unclear about what decisions a leader can make without stepping on the toes of the collective.

1. Definitely need one person accountability for each project.

2. There's a committee meeting for each committee. It's open to people. As long as the committeees are upfront ahead of time for meeting times, and meeting agenda, and present results to the collective, then that one accountable person can make decisions. In the case of half-day/full-day camps, there was a strong input from the collective that it should be full-day. But because the input came after your committee meetings, it would have been the call of the summer camp owner.

3. I'm glad there's been requests for corrective feedback and action, but I'm pretty sure every one in the committee did their duties, and the problem was as some folks point out, fuzzy roles and responsibilities. Too many people maybe? It wasn't like the scheduling committee where we know Dave and Andrea are in charge, and they do an awesome job!

To summerize:

1. Problem identified: No clear leader
Corrective action: Have future committees have one or two leaders spelled out.

2. Problem identified: Fuzzy roles and responsibilities.
Corrective action: have a list of roles and responsibilities drawn up during first committee meeting, and published online so the collective can occasionally poke at it.

beardedlamb · Post by **beardedlamb** » July 26th, 2006, 9:27 pm

to update,
today's class was awesome as was yesterday's. they're picking up direction well and we're all having laughs throughout class each day.

they're performing a show on saturday at 5pm in the cabaret if anyone is interested in coming to see them. It will be a free show, probably just under an hour, but i guarantee laughs and as kaci said, these guys are the future of improv.

jeremy

smerlin · Post by **smerlin** » July 27th, 2006, 6:27 pm

I taught with Jeremy on Monday and Wednesday.

We covered scene starts, space work, and about a 1,000 hours of Bippety Bippety Bop. The kids are cool and the parents even cooler.

It definitely is a lot of energy to lead a 4 hour improv class w/ 3 students. Props to Jeremy. I'm worried about him (and me) getting paid, but I'm sure we'll figure something out.

Although this year was not a real success (I would have cancelled if I thought there was going to be 3 students), I think next year will be much easier. We just need to decide the dates and we already have a template for brochures, teachers selected, press releases, and a bit of curriculum. What we need to do is put it up on the website in a funcitonal way, where people could actually sign up for it online.

As far as the larger debate, I feel like there is never a shortage of good ideas at The Hideout or the AIC. It's about execution. It's hard to know how much energy to put into an organization when you're not sure how much follow through there will be in any single project. But I know there are a lot of amazing people in this organization and we have achieved many things I would not have expected four or five years ago.

Also, come check out the Summer Camp show, if you wanna see what it's all about.

Roy Janik · Post by **Roy Janik** » July 30th, 2006, 3:28 am

I thoroughly enjoyed the show. Congrats to the kids and everyone who taught them. They learned a lot.

beardedlamb · Post by **beardedlamb** » July 30th, 2006, 10:32 am

this show was a lot of fun. the parents seemed to like it very much and i know the kids had a good time the week through. this could definitely be a good thing to return to for next summer.