|
 Wow!
We have just experienced an energizing
set of meetings. The National Board has
had a powerful meeting with our new public
members (thanks to those pioneers). The
Summit for Education and Professional Development
Chairs, which was held October 16-19,was
an exciting event where great energy and
vision were developed for wider educational
efforts. The International Camping Congress
was in Quebec in early October, and there
was large ACA participation and representation.
In addition, there have been countless
incredibly productive meetings in the past
two months where new perspectives have
been developed and action plans designed.
Human development does not stop when camp
ends and neither does the creative work
of ACA to support that development. In
the last year, ACA has formed more strategic
partnerships so that we can engage, educate,
and learn from the breadth of the human
development field. Some of our partners
are the National Parks and Recreation Association
(NRPA), the Center for Summer Learning,
the Center for Youth Program Quality, the
Children and Nature Network, and others.
We are finding creative ways to translate
our knowledge and research into training
and resources, which these groups are interested
in using for training and purchasing. How
does your organization contribute beyond
camp to the development of campers and
staff? How can you use ACA resources to
support this continuing effort?
All of
this is exciting, but unless we turn excitement
into action, we are just spinning in circles.
This excitement is generated because we
have a compelling vision before us. How
do we achieve the goal, which includes
no fewer than 20 million children going
to camp annually with the ACA camp community
directly impacting the lives of those 20
million children by the year 2020? Each
section education/professional development
chair will be coming home with great ideas
and will need support implementing them.
Will you add your energy to their efforts?
How are you contributing to your section?
Achieving our 20/20 Vision will require
extra effort with new perspectives and
your contributions of time and ideas.
The
excitement is building. It was inspiring
to be with eight hundred international
camp folks at the International Camping
Congress, and then after two days, have
two thousand folks join us as the World
Leisure Congress began their meeting. They
noticed that we increased their diversity
in terms of countries represented, and
the cross attendance at workshops contributed
to richer conversations. In mid-October
over ten thousand persons gathered for
the NRPA Conference in Baltimore. A
number of ACA key leaders were speakers,
and our presence was obvious. Where else
can we build partnerships and synergy?
Congratulations to Karla Henderson! At
the World Leisure Congress opening session
she presented one of six keynote presentations
and represented North America with great
style, content, and presence. She blended
an academic setting with camp experience
in a wonderful way.
Now is the time to
plan for the great human development experiences
that will occur in your settings in the
coming year. Check out the ACA e-Institute,
the ACA Bookstore, and www.ACAcamps.org for great resources. Try out an e-Institute
course and share it with your camp program.
In the increased stress of these times,
our contributions will be more crucial.
What are you doing in these non-summer
days to strengthen our human development
efforts?
Onward Ever
Peter Surgenor |
