Kids

Summer Staff Retreat

Every summer we get away from the normal routine of the office and spend time looking farther ahead, dreaming for the future, planning, and having fun together. When we are in the office, it is easy for us to be caught up in the “Sunday’s coming” mentality. We know that we need to step back, get a different perspective, and work ON it and not IN it.

Waumba Land Staff (preschool), UpStreet Staff (elementary), and KidStuf Staff will get away and meet with their departments. All of the campuses come together for this retreat. We save money by camping out at one of our staff’s home or borrowing a local lake house.

A few old retreat pics!

Here are some of the things on our agenda for our summer retreat:

2010-2011 Master Calendar: We confirm some pre-planning we’ve already done for the fall and complete all of our planning for the coming spring. At this point we talk details and different members of the team take ownership for different aspects of the plan. This includes events for kids and volunteers.

Fall Kick-Off: We develop a plan for how we will make sure our volunteers have a great start to their year. This includes details like creating a t-shirt, planning an open house, distributing materials, and connecting volunteers to their new team. We know that new volunteers stick when they feel prepared and are part of a team they like!

Fun: Teams that play together stay together! We set aside some specific time during this retreat to have fun together. It takes some planning and it can sometimes be tough to come up with something that will be considered fun by all. But it’s worth it. These fun times create memories that connect us. We will be doing things like pool time, lake time, themed dinners, celebrative lunches, and scavenger hunts. Everyone is attracted to fun!

Quiet Time: During most retreats we set aside time for reflection. This year one of our teams will be reading some of the passages of scripture where Jesus made an impression that had everyone watching left saying, “WOW.” What was it about what Jesus did that left such an impression of his Father? What can we learn from that? What should we be doing to leave that kind of a “WOW” impression?

Content for the Fall: We will be giving an overview of what we are teaching and where we are going for the fall. For some this means a presentation of the fall scope and sequence. For others this means marathon creative meetings to develop the scripts and creative elements needed.

Upcoming Changes: There will be a few changes to our KidStuf website coming soon and we are adding a Friday night KidStuf. We are also launching a new website for our partnerships. A few sessions will be devoted to things like this.

Retreats are one of the major times where we really connect as a staff. We all have memories from retreats that have drawn us closer as a team. Many new ideas have been born from this time. Many closer relationships have been built.

What are you doing this summer with your team?

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