2011 Staff

One of the important Meadowbrook Differences is that every single staff member, including long time returning staff, re-interview at Camp every year! This allows every staff member to give us ideas of ways we can improve Camp and it allows us to discuss their experience from the prior year and what changes can be made for an even better experience for both the staff member and our Campers!

With schools closed and many students home from college last week, we rehired many great staff members from all areas of Camp.

Just based on last week, we welcome Group Counselors Jimmy D., Abby S., Michael S., Dan B., Brian L., Taylor C., Julia J., Eric F., Erica S., Jackie H., Anna P., Georgia P., Tyler N., Catherine J., Joanne R., Caitlin G., Halina S., Nick W., and Heather Z.

Also returning from last week's interviews are Specialists Pam from Ropes; Lifeguards Rob, Phil, Heather and Stef; Crystal and Gerda; Megan from Dance; Megan and Laura from Gymnastics; and Assistant Waterfront Director Kim.

We have many other Staff that are already on board and more coming in each and every day!! Once again, we are looking forward to the best Staff in Camping!!

Face Lift

Our NCAA Basketball Court is getting a face lift!

At Meadowbrook, we are very focused on Campers playing on size appropriate athletic facilities for their age. Our NCAA Basketball Court is the mid-sized of our 3 courts. (The smallest is our Mini Basketball Court and the biggest is our NBA Court).

This week, the crew from Nickolaus Construction spent a day at Meadowbrook repairing any less than perfect areas of the surface. They then started the painting process. We still need a few more coats of our now signature blue and grey as well as all of our white lines. We expect to finish everything up next week and have yet another beautiful basketball court for our Campers this Summer! Stay tuned for more pictures!!

Product Development

We are always working to improve every aspect of Meadowbrook: Staff....Programming....Facility....

Today Roz and I spent the day at a few local playgrounds checking out their playground equipment. One of the ideas we are considering for the Summer of 2011 is a new playground for our older Campers. Today it was Taylor Park, Hartshorn School, Wyoming School, Memorial Park. All different playground manufacturers and elements as we work to create a great new playground for Meadowbrook!

"Brand New" Rec Barn

With school closed last week, we took the opportunity to finish our work on the Meadowbrook Rec Barn. During the Summer, the Rec Barn houses Gymnastics, the Nurses office, and our Stick Art/String Art Room. It is also a great location for fun rainy day activities like Karaoke.

Last Spring, we put in a brand new wood type floor throughout the building. We also re-did the bathroom walls and floors. After Camp ended, we started phase 2 and replaced all of the insulation and put in a brand new drop ceiling. We also painted the full inside of the building. This week, we finished the project with a brand new roof for the building.

With 230 days 'til Camp...the Rec Barn is ready to Rock!!

Back to Blogging

November has arrived...Summer is but a distant memory...another great fall Meadowfest is in the books...so it is time to restart the Meadowbrook Blog!

Even in the "off season", things are very busy at Camp. Here will we try and keep you up-to-date on some of the happenings at Camp.

Stay tuned...feel free to comment...suggest topics...and get ready for another amazing Summer at Meadowbrook!

Only 232 days 'til Camp!

Where Did the Blogger Go?

As we get closer to camp, it becomes more challenging to update the blog; HOWEVER, we are updating our facebook page frequently with interesting discussions, happenings at Camp, and links to articles. Stay in touch at facebook.com/meadowbrookrocks. See you at Camp!

75 Days 'Til Camp!

Roz and I have just returned to camp after a long (especially for this time of year) 11-day trip to visit Melanie in London. While we were gone, the weather changed to Spring and it is great to see…

All the Things that have Changed:
The Water is Turned On
The New Trees on the Fields have started to Bloom (at least Most of Them)
The Grass is Green
The Challenge Course has Passed Inspection
The New Fence at the Bottom of the Hill…

And All the Things that We Have Done:
The Tennis Courts are cleaned out and the Tennis Nets are up
The Grass Seed is down
The Sandbox has been re-built
The New Bullfrog Lake Sign is up
The Bumper Boat Barrels are in the Lake…

And All the Things that Have Arrived:
The Back Packs for our Campers
The Four-Way Ping Pong Table
All of the Bus Prizes
The New Golf Cart for the Nurses…

And All the Things That We are Working On This Week:
New Sand for the Sandbox
Starting to Paint, and Paint, and Paint
Weekly Special Event Banners
Picking up the Tents from the “Tent Washer”
39 Different Regular Day Schedules
Rainy Day Schedules (which we won’t need)
Bus Events
Mini Golf Course Designs
New Floors in the Rec Barn
A New “Nitro Swing” for the Challenge Course….

AND SO MUCH MORE!!!

Only 75 days ‘til Camp!!!

Welcome to 2010 Meadowbrook Staff!

As we have crossed the 100 days ‘til Camp mark, we wanted to once again welcome you to what will be the best Summer ever at Meadowbrook!

For those of you who are joining us for the first time, you are about to meet and work with an amazing group of people, all with the common goal of finding the greatness in every one of our Campers and bringing it out.

For those of you returning, we are thrilled to have you back! Once again, we have a tremendous number of staff members returning this Summer. Each year we raise the bar for those staff invited back. We recognize and appreciate the great job you did last year, and we look forward to building upon it in the Summer of 2010.

A few quick but important notes…

Everyone at Meadowbrook needs to work all 39 days of camp. This year, camp runs from Monday, June 28 - Friday, August 20. If you have had any change in your plans that effects your ability to work the entire Summer, please let Rich know right away.

Get your forms in…medical forms, tax forms, reference forms, working papers, etc. If you need any additional copies, they are under the staff section, forms library, on our website.

If you are on Facebook, become a fan of Meadowbrook Day Camp (facebook.com/meadowbrookrocks). We regularly post content related to camp. We have also set up a group “Meadowbrook 2010 Staff”. This is a private group that will allow our staff to interact with each other prior to camp. You can post and answer questions about what to expect this Summer. It gives everyone a chance to meet before camp even starts. You may find some friends working at Meadowbrook that you didn’t even know about!

Finally, we will be making some significant changes to our Staff Orientation. For the first time, we will be handling some aspects of training on-line prior to the start of Camp. This will allow us to spend more time during the actual orientations at Camp on more substantial, and we think exciting, elements of becoming an excellent staff member at Meadowbrook. If you would like to receive correspondence from Meadowbrook, including the pre-camp staff training information, at a different email address, please let us know so that we can update your record.

We are glad you will be part of the Meadowbrook family this Summer. If you have any questions prior to orientation, please don’t hesitate to contact us. We are looking forward to a great Summer together…only 93 days ‘til camp!

- Roz, Jed & Rich

ACA Tri-State Conference

At Meadowbrook, we talk a lot about our Leadership Team as an important difference in what we offer our camp families. It is a large, mature, experienced, committed group of professionals that help make the Meadowbrook experience extraordinary for our Campers!

This important difference was on display last week as 12 (yes 12) members of the Meadowbrook Leadership Team attended the American Camp Association Tri-State Conference in Atlantic City. With 12 attendees, we were probably the largest group from any camp in NJ, and among the largest at the conference overall.

Why do we make the commitment and investment to bring so many people? At Meadowbrook, we are dedicated to continuous improvement and lifelong learning for everyone....our Campers...our General Staff...and our Leadership Team! Sure, we can tell everyone what Jay Frankel said, but it is not that same as hearing it first hand and participating in a role play with his actors. We can explain the latest team building game from Jim Cain, but it's not the same as playing it. We can talk about what other camps are doing in the areas of staff hiring, training, facility improvement, program development, but it is not the same as actively participating in the discussion and learning from the best and brightest in the camp industry.

On the exhibit floor, we are always looking for the newest improvements, special event ideas, craft suppliers, etc. Sure, 6 eyes are good....12 are better...24 incredible. We purchased several new items for our Activity Tent, replaced a few more tents, and are adding a new over-surface to the hallway and bathrooms where our Tiny Toon Campers change.

We visited with our suppliers for background checks, t-shirts, insurance, database management, food service and others...We confirmed plans with our entertainers for Reality TV Week, Carnival, X-treme Water Day, and our Giant Board Game...We checked in with camp vendors where we were their first or early clients in the camp industry such as our revolutionary Snap Court Surfaces, bubble machine, and iDance.

Overall, we learned, shared, bonded and grew to help make this Summer at Meadowbrook another Extraordinary Summer for all of our Camp Families!

Activity Tent

We are finishing up our annual trip to the American Camp Association Tri-State Camp Conference (more on the conference later). One of our goals for this year’s conference was to improve what we offer under the Activity Tent at Meadowbrook.

Mission Accomplished! First of all, we purchased a brand new product: Poly Pong. Poly Pong is a 4-sided Ping-Pong Table. It is a combination of Table Tennis (aka Ping Pong) and 4-square! There are 20 different ways to play and it should be Really Neat!

We are also buying new Baggo sets. We found Baggo at this conference a few years ago. It is a bit like horseshoes with bean bags. It is a very popular game and we will replace our Baggo sets with brand new ones!

We are also considering another new item: Lasso Golf. We really like the game and the concept. We just need to make sure that we area comfortable we can play it safely under the Activity Tent.

We will continue to offer 4-Square, Giant Connect-4, Giant Jenga and Knock Hockey. And naturally, we are always on the lookout for more ideas. Let me know if you have any!

- Jed

"I Need To Get A Real Job This Summer"

We are very lucky at Meadowbrook: we have great staff members and they have an amazing Summer working at Meadowbrook. Each year, over 65% of them return for another great Summer. For many of those who don't return, it is because they "Need to get a 'real' job this Summer..."

Today's article in The New York Times does an excellent job of illustrating that working at camp could possibly be the 'most real' job a young adult can have.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/09/nyregion/09bigcity.html?src=tptw

As I often like to point out, what is a 'real' job...working in an office, wearing a tie, and learning to use a photocopy machine? Or earning the respect and admiration of fifteen 7-year old boys as you capture their imagination while leading them on a secret mission from the bonfire to the hockey rink that nobody else can know about...

As Doug Herzog, the president of the MTV Networks Entertainment Group, says in the article, “College is great; everyone who has the opportunity should go to college, but I learned everything I needed to know at camp.”

How can you top that. Want a "real" job this Summer....work at a camp!!

Congratulations Roz

An important part of Meadowbrook is our T.I.G.E.R. program. TIGER represents the 5 key attributes that we think are important to creating a successful camp community:

T eamwork

I ntegrity

G enerosity

E nthusiasm

R espect

We learn about these at camp and work to put them into practice both during the Summer and throughout the entire year.

Under the G-Generosity heading, we congratulate Roz on her appointment to the Board of Directors of S.C.O.P.E. SCOPE is a non-profit organization. Their mission is to provide children in need the edge to succeed in life through the summer camp experience.

Under Roz's leadership, Meadowbrook has been a long time supporter of SCOPE. Roz has been an important part of several committees that organize SCOPE's annual fundraising dinner each March at the American Camp Association Tri-State conference. She also chairs the SCOPE fundraising auction each winter for the ACA-NJ Section Holiday Dinner.

Not only do we wish Roz the best as her role within SCOPE grows, we thank her for continuing to model Generosity for the entire Meadowbrook community!

Keeping in Touch

At Meadowbrook, we are always looking for ways to communicate effectively with our camp families. We believe that "Partnering with our Parents" and "Effective Communication" are 2 important attributes of the special relationship that we have with our camp families.

During the non-camp months (we don't call it "off-season"...there is no off-season at Meadowbrook), our plan is to update the blog and facebook fan page about twice each week. During the Summer, we are hoping to provide short updates every day. Naturally, this is in addition to our daily posting of pictures from Camp, our weekly e-mail newsletter, regular Meadow-Grams and Swim Reports, Ask Me About stickers, and phone calls from Division Heads and Directors. If that is not enough, please do not ever hesitate to pick up the phone and call the office with any questions or concerns.

Naturally, if you have ideas for blog topics or other ways to improve communication...just let us know!! Thanks - Jed

Video Yearbook

Friday was another fun day of watching rough cuts from our Video Yearbook and working with our fabulous Video Editing Team. Every year, we produce a Video Yearbook that we mail to all of our Meadowbrook Families that captures the excitement of the prior Summer. It is always fun reliving all those special moments!

Once again, we are pouring over about 50 hours of footage shot over 14 days during the Summer of 2009. The final product is an exciting combination of thousands (yes thousands!) of different video shots, transitions, effects and titles, all set to fun music. This year’s video will include great music from Miley Cyrus, Demi Lovato, Rascal Flats, The Jonas Brothers and many more! Think you know what songs we picked? Plus, we have the perfect opening song…can you guess what it is? This year we are also featuring special segments on Swimming, our Challenge Course, and our T.I.G.E.R. Program! Stay tuned for more updates. We hope to have it in the mail next month!!

Special Events

These are the times that campers and counselors remember forever. Creating positive "indelible memories" is an extremely important part of what we do at camp. Our Leadership Team begins the process in October with a meeting to brainstorm our 8 weekly themes for the summer. This is always a fun meeting with lots of energy and creative juices flowing. One of the unique features of our program at Meadowbrook is that each summer our themes and special events are fresh and different!

Our team meets throughout the year to develop our themes and the many exciting events that our campers will experience all summer long. Jed and I carry a pad and pen with us everywhere we go, because you never know when an amazing idea might come to mind! If you have a great idea for a special event, please let us know.

Our calendar is shaping up beautifully for this summer, so we hope our campers are getting ready for another incredible summer of special events at Meadowbrook!

-Roz

American Camp Association

As camp professionals, in addition to running Meadowbrook Day Camp, we are active participants and leaders within the camp industry. For example, today I attended the Board of Directors meeting of the NJ Section of the American Camp Association (ACA) where I am an active Board Member.

What does the ACA do and how does Meadowbrook fit in?

First and foremost, Meadowbrook is an ACA Accredited camp. That means that we follow over 300 nationally recognized standards to help make Meadowbrook a safe, well run camp. ACA Accreditation is a large commitment that camps make and it is estimated that only 1 in 10 camps in the state of NJ achieve this high standard. We are proud that we have consistently been an ACA Accredited Camp. I also serve on the NJ Section's Standards Committee and volunteer as a Standards Visitor to camps seeking to establish or renew their ACA accreditation.

Our involvement with ACA also means that we are frequently attending seminars and workshops to help us improve everything we do at Meadowbrook. We share our expertise with others and have the benefit of learning from other camp professsionals as well as experts in other areas. This helps us to make every Summer at Meadowbrook and amazing experience for our Campers.

Finally, ACA works to provide the camp experience to as wide an audience of children as possible. Again, we are very involved in this goal through our ACA work as well as by providing significant support to an outgrowth organization from ACA called S.C.O.P.E. Just today, I joined a new ACA task force exploring ways to make the wonderful benefits of a day camp experience available to as many children in NJ as possible.

- Jed

Meadowbrook Division Heads

One of the most important aspects of Meadowbrook is our amazing Staff. Not only are they great, but there are LOTS OF THEM!

Our Group Counselors are led be an amazing group of Division Heads....13 of them! Once again, we have a great return rate, with 11 of last year's DH's returning to Meadowbrook. They are Sue, Suzanne, Allison T., Mindy, Scott, Alison S., Charlie, Tami, Pat, Andy, and Russ. This year, they will be joined by 2 staff members from last Summer that we welcome to the Leadership Team as new Division Heads: Vickie joins us from the pool and Steve B. joins us from our Ropes staff.

Together, this group meets year-round to help plan an amazing Summer for our Campers! By design, each Division Head supervises a small number of groups so that they can spend lots of time with their Staff and get to know each one of the Campers in their Division....an important Meadowbrook Difference!

Blog - Take 2

We are attempting to re-start the Meadowbrook Blog. Because of how we run Meadowbrook, an incredible amount of work goes into creating each Summer. As a result, the blog has been inactive. BUT....starting today, we will try it again. Stay tuned!