the weekly VC meeting

I've written here before about the weekly program meeting of the village chiefs. In precisely the same format, this remarkable confabulation--operating very much like a bazaar in which program staff are the vendors and VCs are the chaotic buyers of services, spaces and equipment--has been taking place weekly in the summers since 1976, Yes, the format is exactly the same as it was 34 years ago. This video was shot just after the round of long announcements ended, just as the VCs jumped up and began rushing to sign up program areas and program people. You'll see the manager of the theater space show us his already filled-up calendar. You'll hear the assistant program director remind everyone to make suggestions for Olympic coaches. Etc. If you've ever attended one of these meetings in the past, I think you'll be so struck by the similarity here to your own experience that the nostalgia will flow. Things are getting done. Through the chaos is a great deal of charm.

If you're not aware of the history of the way we manage our program schedule, please read this full description.

org chart, 1977

Here's a page (click on the image above for a larger view) from the staff manual handed out at the beginning of the summer of 1977. Many of its pages had been written years earlier and were reproduced each year and inserted into the large (200-page?) manual--handed out to everyone on the first day of staff training in large 3-ring loose-leaf binders. This page I know was typed in 1977 (I remember the change to the new typewriter that summer--our first electric IBM). It shows very roughly the summertime FV org chart. A few notable things. First, whereas now the Executive Director reports directly to the Board of Trustees, in those days there was a "Camp Committee," or "Wawayanda Committee," which was a subgroup of the Board (though it included a few non-Board members). It was this group that set dates and rates each summer. It was chaired for many years by Floyd Hird. This reporting line would only have been relevant during the summer. Note also that the Program Director reports to the Camp Director. In those days there was one camp director for each of the two camps (boys and girls) and usually a program director for each also. The Program Director was in effect the Assistant Camp Director and had camp-directorish responsibilities as well as running the program. (The summer this org chart was composed I was myself that Program Director. Whew!) Finally, note "CIT" and "FCC." This was a two-year training project: at 16 you were a CIT (a low-level program assistant and table setter) and at 17 you were an FCC (Future Camp Counselor). FCCs went on the rigorous 11-day hike out of camp. At 18 you were a JC, so I suppose you could say there were in those days three summers of training positions.