The particular mode of our programming - I mean, its current state - was established in 1976. To be specific: for sessions 3 and 4 of '76. Halbe Brown and Bill Hettler (both Camp Fitch guys from way back) pushed it on me as Program Director, insisting that we make a big shift in our program philosophy, and after a few days of their hard lobbying, I embraced and then began to plan the change. I took the Fitch model and did a good deal of tweaking and Frost Valley-izing it. I am referring to the whole structure of the village-centered weekly schedule: conceived by each VC but fitting into a basic 4-by-4 grid (to minimize conflicts). This big change required that we meet weekly to do our programs. Thus the now-famous "VC meeting," a name that is a misnomer. It's really the weekly program meeting. No matter. By now it's such an established tradition that folks don't much think that this was a conscious choice we made to decentralize and put (once again) the village at the center of the operation, and the VC at the center of the planning for his or her group. At such a large place, that's the way it ought to be. Anyway, the reason for these musings: on Monday evening I attended this summer's first such meeting. Years ago they were in the Castle living room. Now in a more functional space (and more centrally located) - the bottom floor of Quirk Lodge (Victoria Hall). A real conference room with chairs and tables, a kitchenette, some meetings spaces for the invariable side-meetings of brother/sister VCs and the two camps. The meeting is chaired by the Program Director, who always gets the last word. In '75, '76, '77, and '78 that was me, and (though it was huge hard work) I enjoyed every moment. (In '75, as you know from the above, we were in a different mode - the "master schedule" - but that was, if anything, harder on the Program Director.) Above is a photo I took of Monday's meeting. All the former VCs reading this blog post will get a shiver of recognition, I'll bet. Send your VC meeting memories to me at afilreis AT gmail DOT com. Do you remember the wonderfully collegial chaos?
Thursday, July 2, 2009
VC meetings: a history, the present
The particular mode of our programming - I mean, its current state - was established in 1976. To be specific: for sessions 3 and 4 of '76. Halbe Brown and Bill Hettler (both Camp Fitch guys from way back) pushed it on me as Program Director, insisting that we make a big shift in our program philosophy, and after a few days of their hard lobbying, I embraced and then began to plan the change. I took the Fitch model and did a good deal of tweaking and Frost Valley-izing it. I am referring to the whole structure of the village-centered weekly schedule: conceived by each VC but fitting into a basic 4-by-4 grid (to minimize conflicts). This big change required that we meet weekly to do our programs. Thus the now-famous "VC meeting," a name that is a misnomer. It's really the weekly program meeting. No matter. By now it's such an established tradition that folks don't much think that this was a conscious choice we made to decentralize and put (once again) the village at the center of the operation, and the VC at the center of the planning for his or her group. At such a large place, that's the way it ought to be. Anyway, the reason for these musings: on Monday evening I attended this summer's first such meeting. Years ago they were in the Castle living room. Now in a more functional space (and more centrally located) - the bottom floor of Quirk Lodge (Victoria Hall). A real conference room with chairs and tables, a kitchenette, some meetings spaces for the invariable side-meetings of brother/sister VCs and the two camps. The meeting is chaired by the Program Director, who always gets the last word. In '75, '76, '77, and '78 that was me, and (though it was huge hard work) I enjoyed every moment. (In '75, as you know from the above, we were in a different mode - the "master schedule" - but that was, if anything, harder on the Program Director.) Above is a photo I took of Monday's meeting. All the former VCs reading this blog post will get a shiver of recognition, I'll bet. Send your VC meeting memories to me at afilreis AT gmail DOT com. Do you remember the wonderfully collegial chaos?
