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!

Meetings Meetings Meetings

Lot's of meetings this week, and it is only Wednesday. So far, we've met with Chris our painter to review what needs to be freshened up before summer. Frankie was in yesterday looking at all the property for stone, blacktop, grading, etc. We also met with our AV expert, also named Chris. Planning on a new sound system for the lunch pavilion and goat theater. He will also redo our morning assembly sound system and add to the rec barn system so rainy day karaoke will be even more fun! Finally, Char was here inspecting our ropes course and making some minor repairs. He checks everything....every rope, every buckle, every connection. Ongoing maintenance helps keep everything in tip-top shape.

Last night the full Leadership Team got together. Worked on orientation activities and training ideas. And always great food....working at Meadowbrook is never having to say you are hungry! Also met with Casey yesterday. She is one of our Special Events Directors. Time to get all of those bus events planned so we can finalize our '09 Special Events Calender. Today our 3 RN's come in to meet with Roz for their first group pre-summer meeting. And tours everyday for new families who want to join the Meadowbrook Fun.

Only 96 days 'till camp!

Back to Camp

Today we return to camp after almost a week out of the office. We visited another Day Camp in NJ (thanks Andrew) to share ideas and then spent several days at the Tri-State Camp Conference in Atlantic City buying, learning, and sharing.

What do we do now with 98 days to camp? Today is catching up on lots of phone calls, emails, and enrollments from last week. Also a few tours for prospective families. New stuff? Our challenge course gets its annual inspection this week. We already know we are replacing a few elements on our low course. So today we put in a new pole for an anchor. We also need to finalize some tri-state purchases: more foam for our bubble machine...some funky new "sand"...and getting to work on everything we need to buy for our new salad bar (more about that another day), just to name a few.

Please give us your feedback on the expansion our presence in social media. This entry will appear in a few different places. Let us know what works best for you as we try and "figure it all out!"

ACA Conference

We just returned from the American Camp Association (ACA) tri-state conference in Atlantic City. Meadowbrook had 8 members of our Leadership Team present, among the most of any camp!

What did we do? Attended sessions...visited with suppliers...shared ideas with other camps...shopped for new items to make Meadowbrook even better!! Now that we have our blog, we can share with you like never before...stay tuned!!