Like most clubs they have a time each week when they introduce any new kids. In each club they will award one point to either the guys or the girls based on who has more new kids that week. At the end of the semester the gender that has more points will get $5 each in the camp store or snack bar.

I thought it was a great idea to promote new kids and camp at the same time. It also helps add some spice to the new kids part that, in my club, often lacks much excitement. It might cost you a little bit of money, but I think it is worth it!

What do you do with the “new kid introduction”? What are your thoughts to promote club each week?

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For a long time I have observed that YL leaders often don’t have to “read up” much on youth culture or scour the web or magazines to see what is “hot”. The good YL leader already knows because of our front-line involvement. In fact we could probably be reporters for all those websites and magazines if we needed some extra money. I will add that we can learn much from other people’s helpful analysis.

So back to the story… One of the ideas that our leaders brainstormed was to do “Jersey Shore Club”. If you work with kids, you know what that show is all about. At first glance it could be fun and honestly I bet it would be a huge hit. The games would be a crack-up and the skits would be easy. I thought the guys would have fun grease-ing up their hair and wearing tight shirts. Then I started to think about how the girls would dress and what kind of attitude they would adopt for the club. That instantly killed the idea in my mind.

In my application of the YL club as a tool, it occasionally straddles the line of “should we really do that”? In my 15+ years of YL I have made numerous mistakes with things I’ve tried and I feel like I have struck a good balance of “edgy” and “above-reproach”. Maybe there is a way to use this idea in a way that makes sense, like in a skit or program that mocks the whole thing. But in our club a lot of kids dress up and play up the whole idea of whatever it is we are doing. So it is a no-brainer. Just like the old SNL skits says… not gonna do it.

How do you decide where the line is? What lessons have you learned?

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https://twitter.com/younglifeideas

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We require every leader to go through leadership training to be a leader and then we do separate trainings for leading at weekend camps and weeklong summer camp trips. I recently refined our weekend camp leader training packet. I thought I’d share it with you all. Enjoy!

PS… If you have any reflections from the Fall semester, things you learned, things you would never do again, etc. Pass them along! Leave a comment or email me smcgever (at) pv.younglife.org.

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Even as a speaker, I feel the most critical part of the gospel proclamation and formation is in the cabin time discussion. I’m sure you have seen miracles happen in front of your eyes in the midst of cabin time, I know I have.

I have posted cabin time questions before here, and below are the ones I recently used. If you are interested in more cabin time type questions you can also look here.

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The first idea is a little creepy.

The second ideas starts with a standard pizza Olympics, but the other ideas with text messaging are pretty good! I like idea about having kids text their favorite fast food place  and then you have their cell number, name and you can take them out to that place later. 

The idea of doing a talk under the stars would be a fun one to do to mix it up.

The Tarzan one probably wouldn’t work in my club, but maybe in a WL club.

His next idea is a standard indoor scavenger hunt that we used to do a ton back in the day at camps. Enjoy!

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Here is an example of some of her work. Great job Amber! Enjoy!

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“We are lucky enough to have a very talented guitar player at our club every week. However, if you aren’t that fortunate, I struck Karaoke gold. No worries. There are no "backup singers" and cheesy synthesizers. Instead, it’s just straight acoustic of songs high school kids love. Miley Cyrus, Taylor Swift, Jonas Brothers, Colbie Caillat, Coldplay, Katy Perry, Beyonce. The guy’s name is Kris Farrow and I would use him in a heartbeat at club.”

Well I looked into it and it looks really helpful. You can get individual songs from him on iTunes and they happen to be many of the songs I use in my own club. Check it out! Thanks Megan!

http://www.itunes.com/krisfarrow

http://krisfarrow.com/?page_id=2

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