From: Christopher D Lemelin <clemelin@cisunix.unh.edu>
Date: Thu May 29, 2003 2:45:24 AM US/Eastern
Subject: Staff website, 2003 theme, and more!



Hi Staff!
Your intrepid program director here with more news from the strange land called
CAMP! I am very happy to announce the latest version of the Hidden Valley Staff website, put together by former staff member Tom Brand. You can visit it at: http://home.earthlink.net/~thomasbrand/index.html Tom has put many hours into this site and has done a terrific job with it. He has also agreed to help keep it updated, so be sure to keep checking it as new things will be added.


Work days... Remember that all staff are expected to attend one of the work weekends (really one day) unless specifically excused by Scott, Mark, or myself. Please let Scott know in advance which weekend you will be attending so we can plan in advance. For those of you who may have forgotten, the work weekends go from 9 AM to 4 PM on Sat. May 31st, and Sat. June 7th. These work weekends are an essential part of opening camp and extra nights off / sleep in days will be awarded for those in attendance. I hope to see you all there! Hidden Valley's 2003 theme... Some of you have been asking about the theme for this summer. We will be centering our theme around the Old Man of the Mountain and using Daniel Webster's quote about the Old Man: "...up in the Mountains of New Hampshire, God Almighty has hung out a sign to show that there He makes men." Be thinking about activities that your area can run that go along with this theme!


Staffing... We are still looking for a couple of staff age 18 or under. Camp Bell is still looking for a handful of staff age 18+. If you know of anyone who would be great at either camp, let us know! Contacting "us" (as in Mark, Scott or myself)... Getting a hold of us between now and camp may be a little complicated. As many of you know, Scott, myself, and a number of other people from the Valley will be leaving for camp school on Friday, June 6 and will be essentially out of touch for the entire week following. At the bottom of this e-mail is a brief list of how you can get in touch with us when.

Contacting each other... I would encourage all of you to be in contact with one another. 8 weeks of camp will fly by, so start thinking now about what your goals are for the summer and what you hope to accomplish. Camp can be an awesome time to grow and do things that you would never have gotten to do otherwise... be ready to take advantage of these opportunities. That's it! Sorry to preach... but thanks for listening. By my count we now have 31 days until campers arrive at camp. Feel free to be in touch with any questions or concerns. No subject is off limits! I look forward to seeing many of you at the work weekend this Saturday, and the rest of you at camp!


See you all soon!
Chris Lemelin
Program Director
Hidden Valley Scout Camp

From: "Scott Hamel" <scootrows@hotmail.com>
Date: Sun May 18, 2003 8:08:51 PM US/Eastern
Subject: Staff Work Days!Hello Staff!



I hope that you are all as excited about this summer as I am. My name is Scott Hamel and I will be functioning as the Program Commissioner (formerly called the Head Commissioner) this summer at HVSC. After a four year stay in the "real world", I have decided that I am not real, and thus I return to camp. Some of you, who are very old, remember me holding various positions 93-99, others I have met already in interviews and OA events, the rest I look forward to meeting. Mark, Chris, and I have been working very closely together over the past few months to complete the staff and plan a good program. One of the things that is crucial to making a great staff prepared for the summer is lots of quality training during staff week. However, we can't train anybody if we are all stuck on the hill putting up Canvas. And thus,like last year, we are having two staff work days! There will be canvas, there will be steel frames, there will be sweat, loud music (of the scout appropriate kind), and there will be large CASH PRIZES. Ok, so there will be no cash prizes, but you never know what you will find while unfolding canvas... Unfortunately, our fearless leader, Mr. Callahan, will be unable to join us for the first one, but he would want us to continue on without him. And Mr Lemelin and myself will be at Campschool for the second one. But there will be two large smiling, cardboard cutouts of us. Now here is the sticky legal part: these work days are required, you must attend at least one of them. Of course, given the short notice, if you have valid prior commitments for both dates, you may be excused. But please contact me immediately detailing your commitments. But I can't imagine that you would want to miss out on so much fun. Please reply to this email to let me know which work day you will be at (or both!) so that we know how many people to expect. Now here's the good news, for each work day that you attend, you will get an EXTRA NIGHT OFF or "sleep in" during the summer! Also, these workdays are not just for staff! If your troop or chapter would like to come up and help out, they are more than welcome. The details are below:


Workday #1
Saturday May 31st 9am-4pm
BYOL (Bring Your Own Lunch)
Workday #2
Saturday June 7th 9am-4pm
BYOL
Dinner will be provided
I would ask that you respond before Friday May 23rd, so that Vic hastime to set up the projects. Thanks, and we hope to see you there.


Scott Hamel
Program Commissioner
Hidden Valley Scout Camp, 2003

 

From: "Chris Lemelin" <clemelin@cisunix.unh.edu>
Date: Fri May 16, 2003 9:45:19 PM US/Eastern
Subject: 44 days and counting... Camp Update!!!



Hi Staff,
I thought you might like another update on what is going on in preparation for camp this summer. By my count we have 44 days until campers arrive and only 37 days until staff week. Its coming..... and coming fast!!!! Many of you have been asking about the different area directors in camp this year... I'm pleased to be able to announce that we have assembled an all star team of directors again this year. Therefore, I am pleased to introduce the camp leadership for 2003...
Camp Director - Mark Callahan
Program Director - Chris Lemelin
Program Commissioner - Scott Hamel
Nurse - Jan Robak
Head Steward - Jen Halliday
Adult Training - Dick Burrows
First Year - Bill Dexter
C.O.P.E. - Barbara Sanchez
Scoutcraft - Nate Beach-Westmoreland
Handicraft / Communications - Mark Metevier
Waterfront - Kevin Mullen
Native American - Alec Bass
Shooting Sports - Joy Halliday
Ecology - Jess Durocher
Valley Voyagers - Scott Piddington


Handicraft / Communications
As you may have noticed above, the handicraft and communications areas have been combined into one big area. This means that the communications area will be moving out of the pavilion and will be located in and around where the handicraft tents have been in the past.


Work Weekends
Detailed information on the work weekends will be coming soon. Our illustrious Program Commissioner, Scott Hamel will be coordinating the logistics of these this year. Watch for an e-mail from him, coming soon. Arrival at Camp


All staff members 18 and older are expected to attend key staff week which begins Sunday, June 15. Although the exact arrival time is still TBD, it will probably be in the early afternoon. All other staff are expected to arrive Saturday, June 21. Please plan on arriving at 1 PM. Underage staff should bring a parent with them. A more detailed schedule on how this day will work will come soon. Anyone unable to arrive at the expected time must let me know!

Staff Openings We are still looking for a few good under 18 staff members as well as a Valley Voyager Asst. (must be 18+.) Camp Bell also has a number of openings for 18+ staff members. Please, keep your eyes and ears open for anyone who might be interested in any position on the reservation. Staff Website Tom Brand has agreed to take on the task of redesigning our staff website to make it accessible to all. The website will contain information about the summer and resources for staff members. Watch for its official unveiling soon....


Final hiring and contracts We are in the process of finalizing all salaries and positions for the summer. In some cases, we have been unable to reach people. If you haven't heard from us, please get in touch with either Mark or myself:
Mark's e-mail: mgcHVSC@aol.com
Chris (my) e-mail: clemelin@cisunix.unh.edu

I realize that many of you probably have questions and concerns about this summer. Please feel free any member of the key 3 with these and we will strive to get back to you as soon as possible. Also, as always, if anyone got left off the mailing list please let me know - I've transferred my addresses to a different program so some may have been lost in the process. Last but certainly not least, I would like to thank all of you. Change is never easy, and as Mark, Scott and myself have been getting used to our new positions over the winter, we haven't been able to follow up with many of you as quickly as we would have liked. All of you have shown a great deal of understanding in this regard, and please know that we appreciate it. I can promise you that the main goal of camp this summer has not changed at all - we will continue to provide the best program in the Northeast Region for the scouts we serve. And, as a staff member you should expect to work hard while having a ton of fun this summer!

 

Yours in Scouting,
Chris Lemelin
Program Director
Hidden Valley Scout Camp

From: "Chris Lemelin" <clemelin@cisunix.unh.edu>
Date: Fri May 16, 2003 3:31:41 AM US/Eastern


Hi Staff!
I know its been awhile since my last mass e-mailing for which I’m sorry. However, a great number of events have transpired over the past 3 months and I am eager to be able to fill you up to date on the biggest of them now. Please know that more announcements will be forthcoming… but if I tried to fit everything into one e-mail, it would be many, many pages long. First and foremost, it is my honor to introduce the other two members of Hidden Valley's Key Three for this summer. Our new camp director is Mark Callahan. Many of you have probably spoken to Mark on the phone or via instant messenger already this year. Even if you haven’t, you might remember him from past summers as the scoutmaster of troop 160 out of Massachusetts. I've had the opportunity to work with Mark for the last couple of summers, and can personally attest to how lucky we are to have him. You can contact Mark via e-mail at MgcHVSC@aol.com Another member of our Key Three is Scott Hamel. Scott has worked in almost every area of camp, and last served as Hidden Valley's Program Director in 1999. Scott has also worked for the winter trek program and has numerous camp school certifications. If it’s possible to become a celebrity from being on staff, Scott is the example. This coming summer Scott will be our Program Commissioner. Feel free to contact Scott by e-mailing him at scootrows@hotmail.com Finally, even though most of you know me, here is my quick introduction. My name is Chris Lemelin and I will be serving as Program Director for Hidden Valley this summer. I have worked at camp in a number of positions from program staff to commissioner, to most recently the “Director of Homeland Security” (thank you Chris Doyon!) Obviously you can e-mail me at CLemelin@cisunix.unh.edu


More announcements will be forthcoming on key positions for 2003. Also, know that we are in the final stages of hiring for next year. If you haven't been contacted yet, please feel free to send me an e-mail or give me a call. I'm sorry that it has taken this long for us to get up to speed on this, but please be assured that we are working diligently so please don’t be discouraged if you haven’t heard from us or if things haven’t been
finalized yet. We still have a few openings for staff of all ages at Hidden Valley and Camp Bell. Take a look around at your next scout meeting. Think about the people you know from school. If you know someone who would be great at camp and is interested be sure to let us know! Also, please feel free to contact myself or any of the other members of they key three if you have any questions or concerns. If you’ve heard a rumor about something, please ask to see if there is any truth behind it. As I’ve said, a lot of work has been done over the past three months an more e-mails will be on their way.


Finally, feel free to pass along this e-mail to anyone who wants it… and if I’ve left someone off the mailing list, please let me know. Also, if anyone isn’t returning next year and would rather not receive these e-mails, you can also let me know. I look forward to talking with all of you soon!


Chris Lemelin
Program Director
Hidden Valley Scout Camp

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