Youth Leader Responsibilities

The Youth Leaders have a lot to do at camp! They plan campwide activities and serve a specific level or crafts.

As Youth Leader committees they plan:

• Evening Activities- 

              Tuesday- Introduce theme (skit, song, or activity)
              Wednesday-Campwide Games with Spiritual Element
              Thursday-Bishop's Visit
               Friday- Testimony Meeting

• Decorations in Mess Hall
• Signs and Decor around camp
• Photo booth or face cut out board
• Run water activities during free time

With their level leaders they plan-

• Certification Teaching
• Level Identity, cheer, decorations for cabin
• Level get to know you games
• Teaching camp songs 
• Hike/Nature Walk
• Extras- night treats, bandannas or headbands, etc. 

The young women who have graduated high school as of camp are my assistants. I call them my Minions. Their responsibilities are:

• Camp T-shirt
• Skit as a group
• Assemble schedule books and journals
• Help with weeklong spiritual activity (different every year)
• Put together slideshow and music for Friday night
• Help with check in and check out
• Conduct all campwide meetings, including music and prayers, etc. 
• Announcements at meals
• Run song game at meals and dismiss tables
• Help anywhere they are needed around camp

Youth Leader Training

One of the most amazing things to me about Young Women Camp is that we entrust the Youth Leaders with so much responsibility. In order for them to succeed they need training and a proper orientation towards their roles. I like each meeting with the youth leaders to focus on one or more of the following sections.  

Here are the main principles I want the Youth Leaders to understand and practice:

1. Be Spiritually Prepared

• Prepare all year long by regularly reading our scriptures, praying, and keeping a journal 
•  We need a close relationship with Heavenly Father to serve his children
• Go over principles of effective scripture study, likening the scriptures to ourselves/campers
• Being a Standard bearer and example- let the campers see you can be righteous and still be fun and give them examples of including others, being kind, etc. 

2. Plan with a Purpose -

• To Teach effectively, the learner must learn the skill, see it done, practice it, then review
• Plan activities by first asking "What do we want to happen?" This helps us plan activities that are meaningful, based on the needs of the group, reinforce principles and lessons. 
• Determine the goals of the activity- this helps you know if it was successful. 
• Make the plan with several ideas and pick one
• Carry out- list all tasks, delegate, give deadlines to stay on track, do it! 
• Evaluate- Have the campers think about the activity and think how they feel about it. Recognize the efforts of all who helped. 
• As youth leaders, evaluate-What can we do better next time? What worked? 

3.  Conducting a Meeting

• Proper order of a meeting/activity- order activities so energy is increasing or decreasing
• Find prayers and song ahead of time
• Encourage reverence with quiet music before, calm tones as you conduct
• Telling everyone "Be quiet!" isn't effective. Teach simple rhymes or calls to get a group's attention.

4. Build Caring Relationships 

• Develop a climate of trust- be kind, respectful, not critical
• Be observant- notice their individuality and gear your lessons towards their interests and their knowledge base and experience. 
• Spend time with them- ask questions, share personal stories, don't separate yourself
• Love them- pray for them, be supportive and encouraging 
• Don't judge them- Some campers will be brand new to church and others will have lots of gospel knowledge. Some come from homes with large problems, others have quiet home lives. Some may have anxiety or deep insecurities you can't see. Don't judge their actions on your limited knowledge of them. 
• Focus on your camper's experience- when you are thinking of how they feel and what they are experiencing and not how you look or sound, you can devote all your energy towards success. 

Choosing Daily Themes

The camp I direct is 5 days long- Tuesday morning to Saturday morning. I like to give each day a sub theme that relates to the overall theme. This provides more structure to activities and devotionals for the day.

First I like to make a list of what I want the campers to know or have learned by the end of camp. I try to be very specific and not just list attributes to study, but things I want them to understand. So if I had a scripture or devotional as the main inspiration for camp, I'd find key phrases or doctrine I want them to know. For 2014's camp I wanted to emphasize courage and the Armor of God scripture. As I studied and prayed I came up with my list of things I want them to know and understand by week's end is:

1. There is a war between Satan and God. Being on the Lord's side requires effort and courage.
2. Righteousness is the best way to defend myself against evil and it is strength not a weakness.
3. My weaknesses and quirks can be a strength to me. I have unique abilities to further the Lord's work.
4. Jesus Christ is my Savior, he empowers me with his atonement. When I choose to follow him I will share my joy in Christ with others and encourage and empower them.

From these simple sentences I could come up with daily themes to talk about. 
1. War in Heaven
2. Righteousness and Faith
3. Individual worth
4. Our Savior Jesus Christ and being a Savior to others

From these themes I had to decide what order to teach these concepts, and what to use to visually and conceptually teach the ideas.

There are a few ways to subdivide a theme and tell a story throughout camp.
A.. Break a scripture or devotional into key parts and let that dictate each day's theme.

For example
Armor of God- Shield, Breastplate, Sword, Boots, Helmet

B. Build the imagery with a natural progression

Days: Soil- Seed- Water/Sunshine- Growth
          Foundation- Bricks- Interior- Roof

C. Acronym the theme with each day's emphasis
Music themed camp- in TUNE- Testimony, Unity, Navigate, Enlighten

I chose to take the Superhero theme and think about the different ways someone would prepare for battle.
My themes this year will be
1. War in Heaven/ Know your enemy
2. Righteousness/Armor of God
3. Individual Worth/Kryptonite and Super Strengths
4. Jesus Christ/Saving Souls
5. Last day Pep Talk/Go into Battle!

From these themes I can plan:

• Devotionals for each day- campwide, just leaders, individual levels by level leaders
• Evening activities for the whole camp- games, skits, journal activities
• Display something visually growing/changing each day ( such as a huge paper flower growing, or a piece of armor added to a warrior, or a ray of sunshine added)

Next time on S'more Camp: Unique Spiritual Activities

Choosing A Camp Theme

Camp Planning can be overwhelming and seem full of so many small details. I've found that choosing an overall theme makes so the small details a lot easier. I hope the following helps you on your path to choosing a camp theme.

I know many who jump straight to Pinterest at this point, strolling for a cute camp theme. But to me any monkey can pick a theme off someone else's ideas. As a camp director or leader your job is to discern what's best for your campers in your area. Not just find a cute idea that printables abound on the interwebs. Staying away from the internet and starting with pondering helps me keep a focus on substance now and style later.

To plan camp with a purposeful camp theme, ask yourself some questions through study and prayer.

1. Are there any key issues or things we want to focus on at devotionals?  What kind of problems or issues are the campers encountering this year?
2. Are there any large events or social trends affecting them?
3.  Are there any recent talks or devotionals that are timely or relevant?
4. What were the recent themes (past 5 or so years), so that we don't overlap or repeat ourselves too much?
5. What is the Mutual theme for the coming year (usually announced in August or September for the next calendar year)?

I've seen camp themes come easily from these questions. Once you have an eye towards what you want to teach, look up key scriptures and church stories that relate to these topics. Or do some word association to ponder movies or imagery that relate to your teaching goal.

Divine Nature focus = Royalty and princess theme = Once Upon a Time
Personal revelation= Journeys and following Christ= Come Follow Me.
Strength and courage=Armor of God= Heroes or boot camp theme.

If there doesn't seem to be a huge need that needs to be addressed, I've found so many themes pop out of reading the scriptures:

• Flowers and plants
•  light
• sailing and journeys
• building and rocks 
• learning and schools
•  battles and heroes
• Trees and Fruit
• Treasure/money/gratitude

Once I have a few ideas, I like to look at how a camp theme could translate to camp details. 

If I can choose an overall Camp Theme with:

Hymn for the week

Scripture for the week

Doctrine I want to focus on (ie- Growth and Revelation)

Color Scheme and pattern or graphic imagery  (this is where pinterest comes in for me)

Then these things tend to come organically and in my opinion, by the youth leaders:

Devotionals 

Week long spiritual activity

Skits

Bishop's Visit

Camp Wide Physical activity

Decorations

T-shirts

Gifts and Thank you's

Crafts and Service Project

After I've mapped out some ideas for these details, I felt as though I've studied it out in my mind. And then I ask the Lord for help to see what I'm missing or if this is an acceptable direction for camp. Sometimes the answer comes to table an idea for another year, to focus on something different, or a new idea comes that develops that theme more fully.