Okay, it's corny and it's got too many apostrophes. But it's mine!! (Name courtesy of able and willing assistant).

Just got home and I gotta admit I'm feelin' pretty darn good. There were a zillion problems, but three zillion good things, so overall I can't complain. And neither can the campers. They were all very pleased, and said they learned a lot, and that they felt it was a great experience.

The high points:

Cute little pre-game kit which I designed and manufactured and gave with the packet.

Great speakers.

Really great evaluators. I was especially impressed with the way they adjusted their style and appproach to each camper. I didn't give a lot of instructions, but they seemed to know how to be helpful and encouraging, and still get the message across.

Very good championship game. Well the game wasn't that great, but one of the refs was a little shaky, but with a good pre-game, he did a great job. That felt great!

Four campers no-showed!! But the others chipped in and we got all the games covered with only calling in about three non-camp slots.


Things to do better next year:

Find more reliable video equipment, and someone to run it.

Schedule a little more tightly.

Screen applicants better.

About two more evaluators.

Different evaluation form.

Make sure Howard is there! (So that people can impress him with their improvement -- it's a real draw when the assignor for the next level up is at camp!)


Now, it's off to a very much needed and well-earned SLEEZZZZzzzzzzz.......

You're welcome. :)

uh.... oh, yeah... thanks.

It would have been my first choice to have you at camp, but at least I got to chat with you a little. By the way, Joe did a GREAT job, especially with the youngster, and Mr. A who was told directly that yelling at the shooter is not against the rules, and the subject was referred to me. It was interesting to see him argue with Joe, but back down to me. I didn't think I was that intimidating, but I guess I really do need to lose some more weight!!

You know "Mr. A" got that from "Mr. R". True.

I bet you're not surprised.


OK - Juulie and I will stop speaking in code now.

camera operators
 

Juulie,

Did you consider having campers who were not working on the floor being assigned to run the cameras? They would at the same time be able to hear the comments of the clinicians who are evaluating the crew working the game. This is just an additional opportunity to provide training while getting free labor.

Re: camera operators
 

Yes, and we tried to encourage that. It's a very good idea. But the campers were working so much, and driving from gym to gym, so it was impossible to get every game covered in that way. Furthermore, the equipment itself had a lot of problems, and took a lot of fiddling. We did the best we could, and everyone but one got at least one half taped. I'll meet up with that one and tape for her at some other game.

Driving from gym to gym? Wow a spread out camp. The rule at the camp I called at last year was that one member of the team that called the next game had to film the current game. If you have any choice on camp site try to find someplace where you have a lot of gyms in the same area. I called at a camp at Colorado State and we had 12 floors in easy walking distance. Where I went to camp last summer we only had two floors. Nice walks between the two. Not quit as convenient.

Unfortunately, one of the bad things that happened at the last minute was that the construction at the school we originally planned to be at froze us out at the last possible instant, and we had to just take whatever gyms we could get. We also had four no-show campers which meant that everyone had way more games than we had wanted. We got handed a lemon, and came as close to lemonade as we could get. Campers (all first-time!) thought it came out pretty sweet.

Juulie,

Would you be opposed to sharing the pregame kit with the board?

Not opposed, but technology challenged! I have no clue how to "share" a physical object. It's just a floor diagram, and a list of topics, laminated and fold-able, with a Vis-A-Vis pen velcro-ed on. I'd be glad to send one at cost to anyone that wants one, but I cant think of another way to share...

If you can scan the card and then put it on a web site, we can download it and do our own lamination.

If I had a website...

Maybe if you copied and pasted the list of topics . . .

I'd post it on mine if you'd like.

Sorry this is so late....I found this eval form Julie....hope it helps.

http://www.ohiovalleyofficials.com/r...evaluation.pdf

Larks