Simply Circus, Inc.
86 Los Angeles Street
Newton, MA 02458
P:617-527-0667
F:617-934-1870
info@simplycircus.com

2011 American Camp Association New England Confrence

Workshop

Description

Handouts / Powerpoint

Assessing Risk

"But it's perfectly safe, I do it all the time!"... "No, you can't do that here, you might get hurt." How many times did you hear words to that effect last summer? As camp directors, we get it from both sides of this fight. Obviously we can't ignore a safetly concern, but at the same time if we let unfounded fears become too restrictive on campers, we lose kids, or we lose the respect of our campers. How do you tell the difference? And how do you find a balance that fits your program? In this workshop we will introduce you to Risk Assessment tools that will help you to put actual numbers to risks, allowing you to base your safety decisions on solid facts and hard numbers.

Spreadsheet

Handout

Powerpoint

Inspecting the fun stuff:

Basics on inspecting climbing ropes, gymnastics equipment, circus equipment, and other things we hang kids from.

As a camp director, you can’t be an expert on everything, but you also have to know when things may not be safe. In this workshop we will cover the basic principles of inspecting all of those things we hang our kids from, including climbing ropes, cargo nets, climbing ropes, cargo nets, gymnastics equipment, circus equipment, high ropes and rock climbing equipment. This workshop focuses on the principles of aerial inspection, and on teaching you what questions you should be asking of those operating this equipment.

NOTE: We didn't have a single new camp director here. What we actually ran was a workshop on rigging trees.

Powerpoint for the workshop that SHOULD have run

Notes on inspecting trees

Fighting Obesity Through FUN:

Adding a larger fitness component to the Gym/Field/Group games you already know.

Obesity is a growing problem with kids across the country. As a camp, the best thing we can do to help fight this is to keep our kids as active as possible. So why is it that in many (most?) gym/field games, kids spend a lot of time “out” and inactive? And why is it that the kids who are “out” the most are usually the ones that need to be moving the most? In this workshop we will teach you how to modify your games to make those outs productive and fun for your campers, and keep every kid active. Note: Hands-on, active workshop.

Handout

Powerpoint