Ali is a Work Crew boss this summer at YL camp. I’ve had the privilege of being a Work Crew boss a few times at summer camp and there are some moments when it really helps to have some great music.  One of the challenges is finding the right music. I suggest you check out Ali’s playlist and see if it will work for you:

YL Dining Hall Music

While you are there you should also checkout this playlist put together by Rick Wilson. Rick runs the national YL Music Newsletter and started this one:

Young Life Music Newsletter Playlist

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1. Leader panel

This is mostly a replacement for the club talk. For more details see this post, complete with cards you can print out.

2. Senior led club

For this club we simply hand the club over to the seniors and say “you got it!” We make sure there are some junior leaders working on most of it. We ask one or two seniors to give their testimony at the end of the club. They always love this, just be sure to give them enough time to work on it, especially with how busy they get near graduation.

3. Best-of club

For this club we make a poster and put it out a few weeks in advance. Kids then vote on their favorite games and skits from the year. Then you simply re-do the ones that are their most favorite. You can find more details here, including a poster you can use.

4. Parent meeting

This could be a good time to have a parent meeting for camp. We normally do a final parent meeting a week or two before camp, but this could also be a time to make the most of parent’s curiosity to figure out what their kid has been going to all year long. I’ve found it best to have a brief meeting in a separate room while club starts, then let the parents peek in for a few minutes. I’m sure many of you have done other things. I’d love to hear more ideas on this.

5. Invite 8th graders

If you have a Wyldlife club in your area, this could be a good chance to “bridge the gap”, it could also be a “rite of passage” night for some students. I’d suggest they come with their WL leader, as many 8th graders would feel shy to go on their own. How great would it be if you asked your junior leaders, or key campaigner kids to go out of their way to welcome them to YL and to their new high school?

6. Senior awards night

Similar to a sports team party, you could give out awards for “MVP”, “most outgoing”, or things that relate more to YL…”loudest singer”, “most frequent Facebook/Twitter person”, “loudest laugh”, “brought the most friends”. Then you could do more meaningful ones as well, each leader could give an award along the lines of, “growth in Christ”, “serving others”, you could even give an award for each of the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22-23). Also have a gift for every senior, even seniors who came for the first time, no matter how small.

What do you at the end of the year?

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Why it’s good to have a video for camp: Even when your camp Is fully booked!

While you are in the mood for great YL videos, please take a moment and see this spot-on take on contact work from the YL Leader Blog.

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Southwest Regional Director John Irwin responded today via email saying, quote, “This is a sad day for YL. Errr body loves him, Errr errr body loves him.” Elk Grove Area Director, and YL Brand Ambassador, Andi Yanok could be heard all over the Twitter-sphere in less than 140 characters, “You ain’t messing with my Denny #errbody”.

In other news, stock prices have been soaring, and many in the YL world can guess the number one performing company of the 2011-2012 school year (the school year is a new Wall Street metric). You guessed it, Kiwi shoe shine company. There have been accusations that many in the YL world have some sort of insider trading connections due to an unusually strong number of conference calls supporting the brand. Kiwi has responded with a nearly unprecedented gift to the camping department. It is no surprise that this summer YL’s newest camp will be the “Kiwi Shoe Shine for Car Windows Family Ranch, Sponsored by Kiwi Shoe Shine” (KSSFCWFRSBKSS for short). Camp Manager Josh Smiley sent out a secure email to friends saying, “I can’t wait to ride the liquid shoe shine super slide on a plastic tray!”

For more information please check out this link, this link, this link and this one also.

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I remember sitting in a small room in 1995 at Woodleaf as the staff edited the VHS camp videos they hoped to get to kids in time before they left. One entire night was left to render (basically get the computer to start a video process and then leave it alone) the intro to the camp video. They would have the computer run overnight just for the opening 20 second scene. The staff also had to finish the video about 36 hours early so someone could drive the master copy to Sacramento to make bulk copies of the VHS tapes in time for the kids before they left on buses (it was all worth it for the ropes course scene with the Enya soundtrack in the background) . I’m sure a couple old farts will say “you were LUCKY” about all this camp video stuff, but all that to say… camp videos have come a long way!

The very best video guy I’ve met is Ashley Maddox. His wife Tanita is on YL staff in Santa Barbara. He has a great guest post on making camp videos and other things from YL video guru Dan Dyer. At Ashley’s website you can also get some inspiration from other videos he has put together. Be sure to check out his post:

Making Camp Videos with Dan Dyer

Here are two of my favorite videos Ashley has made. The first is the best video I know of to explain camp to parents (and donors). The second one is a promo for Lost Canyon.

Lost Canyon: The Eric Scofield Tour from W. Ashley Maddox on Vimeo.

Young Life Lost Canyon (2008-09) from W. Ashley Maddox on Vimeo.

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My friend at Chipotle just told me about a program that could be fun for a YL club kid to do. It is the Chipotle on Campus Student Brand Manager. I’ve seen this type of thing on college campuses, but not for high schools. If selected, the student will get $100 at Chipotle, some swag, and a Chipotle party for 20 of their friends (read as: you and your club kids).

Now I should be up front and say that I don’t know anyone who has ever done this, in fact I think it is pretty new program. So I really can’t say it is good, bad, or neither, but if based on how great Chipotle has been as a company, I bet it could be fantastic. I could see a key club kid or junior leader contacting the local marketing rep and then having a Chipotle club to help spread the word. I think it could end up helping with fundraisers and attract kids to club who like Chipotle (I went to my first YL thing because of the food).

See the website for more details:

http://chipotleoncampus.com/#!what-is-a-student-brand-manager

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The Western Division of Young Life asked me and a few other staff people who have adopted FYL to put together a simple and brief video to highlight on their blog. Check out the link below, and while you are there you might enjoy looking at the other resources for the RWOK initiative. Many of the resources are focused on things YL staff can do, but there are some good ideas in there for volunteers as well.

You can read more about the program here, and shoot me a note s mcgever (at) pv dot younglife dot org if you are looking for more details.

http://rwokleaders.com/2012/03/01/first-year-leading/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=first-year-leading

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One of our key leaders, Alex Devine, recently graduated and was hired by an incredible company out-of-state. I asked him to write up some of his thoughts about his process. Here is what he had to say…

–

You just graduated from college, and the inner desires of your heart (or your parents, and area director) are passionate about you finding a job/career/internship that uses the talents and gifts that God’s so uniquely gifted you with. Your wisdom and instinct tells you that a resume is necessary. As you start listing out your degree, your previous job experience and your volunteer work, Young Life comes to mind. You’ve been a volunteer leader or a team leader in Young Life for any amount of years while you were in college, and now you’re trying to turn those years of leading high school, middle school, teen moms, or special needs kids into some notes on your resume. Here’s where you are, and here’s where I hope I’m able to chime in and give some advice.

I recently found myself in this exact position. In 2007 I moved from Texas to attend school at Arizona State University. I was a volunteer leader in Cave Creek, Arizona at Cactus Shadows High School for 1-½ years, and the volunteer team leader for 3-½ years.

As a volunteer leader…

- Don’t ever forget that you’re on a Young Life “team.” Companies & organizations appreciate when someone can be self-motivated and able to work independently, but they hold the ability to work on a team for the greater good at a much higher level.

- Are you the “organizer” on your team? Young Life gives leaders numerous opportunities to organize varying types of events. Think about where you have stepped up to lead whether it is at club or, campaigners, at banquet events, on summer staff or an internship, or maybe you’ve had the opportunity to be on a weekend or summer long assignment team. You have to an organizational or event planner mindset to move and lead 50-500 people and these moments translate into skills on your resume that others might not have.

- Take a moment and think about the kind of kids you mentor. I think a lot of leaders don’t realize that God has specifically given us unique gifts to reach those kids. Do you reach the kids that are creative and artsy? Maybe you reach the kids that come from broken homes, or maybe you’ve reached out to kids that are addicted to drugs. The type of kids you reach says a lot about who God’s put in your life, but also about the kind of qualities God’s given you specifically. If you’re reaching the kids with rough families, drug issues, and identity issues, you often have to be a patient leader, one with strong wisdom and guidance, someone that can communicate well in tough, and urgent situations. If you’re reaching the creative types, the drama kids, the musicians, the art kids, that might mean you yourself are gifted or at least passionate about some of those very things as well. Not just anyone can listen to a song written by a high school kid’s band, enjoy it or kindly critique it (haha, sometimes honesty is a good thing). Likewise, kids more and more are passionate about photography or graphic design, and being gifted and passionate about those areas of art translate into marketing skills, and non-verbal communication skills.

As a team leader…

- Where have you used your wisdom? Early on in being a team leader I started taking notes after clubs, camps and campaigners that went particularly great or particularly bad. In the long run those notes turned into tangible knowledge and would guide my decisions as a team leader to try and make the wisest decisions I could for my team and my Young Life kids. Things like, how many spots to reserve for camp, how to get more kids at club hearing about Christ, how to train volunteer leaders, and how to create a strong unity on your team are all guided by the decisions team leaders make. Team Leaders make decisions with wisdom and prayer in both urgent and patient situations, this kind of skill sets don’t come naturally, as it’s something we grow into and comes with experience, that means you are viable to the job world that needs a person with experienced leadership.

- Cast some vision and take some chances. As a team leader it’s in the inner desires of our heart to see a stronger Young Life team, a clubroom that has kids packed into every corner, a campaigners that has kids ready and willing to learn more about the God that loves them and gives them life, taking the most kids in your area to camp, and having more and more opportunities to share our relationship with God with the kids God’s put on our heart. All of those things require some vision casting. Casting vision is probably the wisest thing you can do as a team leader, and it easily translates into some great job skills. Start-up companies are incredibly popular right now. Companies both in their early stages and old companies in their reinvention stages need someone that can cast the vision for success and chase that vision. When companies are attempting to be unique, competitive and successful they need someone that can be passionate about those the things and cast the vision that puts them in that direction.

Both…

- Communication is key. Companies and organizations these days can’t waste time because of poor communication skills. You the Young Life leader live and breathe communication. We are a part of an organization that teaches us about the “right to be heard.” As we reach out and try to meet kids and be apart of their lives we have to gauge when we really have the right to speak into their life and have some great conversation. I’ve seen this skill translate into the strong friendships I’ve built over the years, in my family, and in my work environment as well. Being able to wisely determine when communication is key and being able to clearly convey what is needed in a situation at work on a project or even just with co-workers is a valuable talent that comes from years leading Young Life.

- We are great relationally. Young Life is a relational ministry, we are gifted with the ability to be apart of people’s lives, care for them, and speak into their lives. The culture that companies create in the work place is becoming more and more an important feature to companies.

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I want to put a plug in for the Social Media seminar where my friend Chad Swanzy and others will be sharing great ideas about social media and such. I will be in the crowd taking copious notes from the best!

If interested, I wanted to invite anyone who wants to chit-chat and meet in person to simply meet up near the front after this seminar, ummm lets say to the right of the stage (though I have no idea how the room will be laid out). It would be great to say hi and meet a few of you who have been gracious enough to send me your great ideas and add helpful comments to the posts.

If you are looking for me, my twitter is @seanmcgever and I look like this (with my youngest daughter and future ASU cheerleader!):

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We already have our Pinnacle HS YL planning meeting for the Spring all set for later this week. But in the meantime, I thought I’d share the top ten posts of the last semester (based on views). Enjoy!

10. Limit the Choices for Talks

9. Christmas Club Again

8. Entire Set of Clubs

7. Fall 2011 Club Overview

6. Gospel of John Club Talks

5. YLPlaybook!

4. Club Songs in Spotify

3. Christmas Club

2. Club Talk Video: Blood Diamonds

1. Seven Talk Ideas for the Semester

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