Ness Lake-Work Crew Boss Manual 2007

FOR THE ORIGONAL DOCUMENT PLEASE E-MAIL ME AT timbohorton@hotmail.com

Work Crew Boss Manual
Summer 2007


















Prepared by: Krista Warkentin
David Claus
2001

Table of Contents

Table of Contents i
Definitions i
1. Background 1
2. First Day of Crew 1
3. Typical Day 2
4. Jobs and Tasks 3
4.1 Setting up the dining hall 3
4.2 Dishes 4
4.3 Cleaning the Dining Hall Basement 5
4.4 Cleaning Bathrooms 5
4.5 Setting up for registration 7
4.6 Moving beds into cabins 7
4.7 Setting up Barbeque in the Rosebowl 7
4.8 Banquet Set-up 7
5. Special Things To Do 7
6. LTU Ideas 8
7. Boss Sanity 9
8. Recommendations 9
8.1 Three staff members 9
8.2 Recruitment 10
8.3 Screening 10
8.4 Miscellanea 10

Definitions

Bus tub - grey (or white) plastic washing basins
Christmas dishes – doing dishes (or anything else) at a pace that indicates you intend to finish in time for Christmas (barely)
Cutlery water - hot water and soap placed in a bus tub to pre-soak cutlery thereby rendering it easier to wash
Tromping – the action of walking on a freshly mopped floor with dirty (or clean for that matter) feet



1. Background
At the time of this writing, work crew has existed for almost one summer at NLBC. Work crew replaced Summer of Service (S.O.S.) that existed for one summer, and was replaced because the name did not fit the job. Work crew is about work! The name sets up clear expectations: this is a group dedicated to working. Discipleship, fun, and leadership training must all be part of the experience, but we shouldn’t pull any punches: we need a group of teenagers who come prepared to work. Work Crew should teach servanthood and help prepare young people to become leaders. This program is not for those who only want to be at camp because it is fun… Work Crew should be viewed as being a camp within a camp. Work Crew members are not full time staff. It is a stepping-stone towards becoming staff. As such, Work Crew do not enjoy all of the privileges a staff member does, although they do have more freedom than younger campers. Work Crew should be introduced to a variety of leadership skills and be challenged to a lifestyle of service and commitment.
2. First Day of Crew
The first day of work crew sets the tone for the whole session. Make sure that you are organized and prepared to welcome your crew when they arrive. Sort out living quarters before they come to camp. Prepare a duotang of morning devotionals, camp policies on relationships, music, dress, and laundry – all these can be taken from the staff manual. Devotionals can also be “borrowed” from the Web, but should follow a theme.
Give them all shirts and make sure you write their names in them first. Take them on a tour of the camp. Point out the maintenance director, and the various bathrooms, outdoor garbage cans and hazards. Do some work on the first day to set the tone. If there is a barbeque happening set up the tables in the Rosebowl and take down the registration tables and chairs. After dinner try to get some fun in, emphasizing getting to know one another. Explain fire drill procedures and show them their quarters. Give them a rundown of what work crew does, what they can expect to learn and where you are hoping to take them.
Before lights out, gather in the work crew lounge (hereafter referred to as “the lounge”) and come up with a set of rules to help build a positive community. Refer to the appendix for a set of non-negotiables. Here are the four categories for generating discussion:
• Unity
• Growth
• Respect for one another
• Service to others
Within a day of their arrival it is also beneficial to go through fears and expectations. This is best left until the evening of the second day after they have somewhat of an idea of what to expect. Get each member to list three fears and three expectations they have for their time on work crew. Let them know at the outset that afterwards they will share with the group two expectations and one fear. Then collect the sheets so that you can have an idea of where the crew is at. Refer to samples in the appendix.
3. Typical Day

6:00 a.m. Bosses get up: shower and pray for crew
7:00 Staff meeting/crew wake-up and shower
7:30 Begin setting tables
8:00 Breakfast
8:30 Devotions
8:50 Begin breakfast dishes – spot mop dining hall
Send bathroom crew
10:30 – 11:00 Finish dishes – clean lounge and staff bathrooms
Begin camper bathrooms
11:30 Set tables for lunch – pour water in glasses
12:00 Lunch
12:30 Free time
1:00 Commence lunch dishes – full mop of DH once a week
2:30 – 3:00 Finish lunch dishes
Free time or outdoor project time
3:30 LTU? Or break…
4:30 Set supper dishes – pour water in glasses
5:00 Supper
5:30 Free time/ check bathrooms
6:00 Begin supper dishes
7:30 – 8:30 Game or other fun activity
9:00 Bible study or story time
11:00 Lights out

4. Jobs and Tasks
4.1 Setting up the dining hall
At the beginning of each camp the dining hall will need to be set up. This involves setting out all the tables, placing napkin dispensers on each table and matching salt and pepper shakers. It is important to confer with the kitchen and the program staff to determine the number of tables and chairs required for campers, staff, work crew and kitchen. Most of the time there are eight chairs per table, but sometimes it is necessary to squeeze nine around each table. There are twenty round tables, and at times three rectangular tables are required for support staff. This makes for a very full dining hall. After a summer of research, the following optimal table pattern was devised:


Figure 1: Optimal Dining Hall Layout
Start setting tables half an hour before the work crew is scheduled to eat. This time can be shortened later in the session as the crew becomes more efficient. Wash hands first, then ask the kitchen what they are serving and what dishes are recommended. The kitchen should write this on their white board on the wall. Set using proper technique:

(i.e. Knife and spoon on the right, fork on the left, glass upper right). Emphasize quality at first; speed will come later. Presentation is important as it reflects on the camp. Place a spatula to scrape plates on each table and pour water in the glasses for lunch and dinner. This is to keep the campers hydrated and to reduce the juice consumption. Cutlery presoak goes in the cutlery buckets, about a teaspoon or less a bucket.
For super full camps it is often necessary to reset the work crew table for the kitchen crew and/or campers. This puts a strain on the dishes supply and may require washing work crew dishes immediately after a hurried meal in order to seat the second shift.
4.2 Dishes
There are basically six jobs that are involved in the dishes process. They overlap somewhat, but it is good to assign specific tasks to maintain the focus and increase the efficiency of the work crew. Give each member of the crew an opportunity to learn and to become proficient at each job. It is better to assign jobs for the whole day, than to allow the crew to fight for jobs. Emphasize hand washing before commencing dishwashing. Also make it clear that clean dishes people do not touch dirty dishes, and dirty dishes people do not touch clean dishes.
The sanitizer water must be changed at the beginning of each day. First and most importantly: turn the heat off. Then clean out the grates at the bottom. Drain the tank from the valve below the machine on the left hand side, then close the valve and flip the switch to “Manual Fill/Rinse” until the tank is full again.
Washing – Due to the fact that NLBC owns only a sanitizer (hereafter referred to as Jackson), and not a real dishwasher, it is necessary to wash each dish by hand in warm soapy water. This is best done in a bus tub on top of the bus trolleys. Extra people (i.e. service week) can help in this area (it’s easy, and straight forward and extras speed up the process). Once dishes are washed, they must be loaded into dish racks and brought over to the sanitizing counter. Personally, I just focus on loosening burnt- or stuck-on food, and let the sanitizer rinse away the rest.
Sanitizer – The primary role of the Jackson operator is to keep Jackson running. Dishes brought over from the washers must be sprayed before they are put into the sanitizer. This person can also wash big things like pails, bus tubs, trays, jugs, gross serving bowls and basically anything that isn’t easy for the washers (or too much for the pot pit) to wash. The sanitizing machine must reach a temperature of 180º in order for dishes to be declared “Foodsafe.”
Putting away – All dishes must be dry before they are put away (with the exception of cups and cutlery and bus tubs). But, they cannot be towel dried, and therefore must sit on the drying counter until all water has evaporated. Take the crew on a tour of where the dishes go at the beginning of each session. Dishes cannot go in random unknown places, but must return to their original and permanent homes. If the crew does not know where something goes, they must ask!
Pots – (not to be confused with marijuana) This can be the hardest job, but depending on how many pots the kitchen uses, it can be quite easy. Food to watch out for includes: mashed potatoes, oatmeal, broccoli, cinnamon buns, bacon (gross) anything done on a large pan, pizza, etc. In fact there are many foods which you may come to loathe over the course of the summer. If the food is greasy like bacon, you or the kitchen staff must empty into the grease bucket first. On a more technical note, fill the first sink with water as hot as you can tolerate, give it a squirt of soap, and then fill the second sink with straight hot water and a single squirt of red Supermarket Sanitizer solution. Pots and other items washed here cannot be towel dried; everything must evaporate. Spatulas, knives, wooden spoons and polycarbonate plastic bowls must be washed on this side as the sanitizer is too intense for them. Use lots of soap and change water often to avoid that greasy grungy feeling.
Dining hall – The dining hall is normally handled by two people; one wipes the tables while the other sweeps and mops. First wipe the tables with a cloth and bucket of warm soapy water, then spray them with FS Process cleaner and give them a second wipe. The napkin dispensers should be filled (napkin folds on top, otherwise the napkins come out upside down – you wouldn’t believe how complicated an issue this seems to be) or at least checked after most meals. The garbage cans need to be emptied as they get heavy (which may be sooner than they get full) and replaced with double bags. Tie the bags around the top of the cans to keep them from falling in. Sweep the floor (and especially under the tables) after each meal. Pick up the piles of sand often as the more you push it around the more you will leave behind. The key to an easy and effective mopping is a thorough sweeping. Spot mop the juice spills and other stains after breakfast and dinner, and mop the entire floor after lunch, when you will have more time. It is important to mop the dining hall in order to keep the dust down in addition to maintaining a clean appearance. Sweep and mop the stairs to the basement.
4.3 Cleaning the Dining Hall Basement
The cleaning of the dining hall basement is something that can fit in whenever the schedule permits. It involves sweeping and mopping the hallway; vacuuming the wiping mats, the red carpet by the doors, the lounge, and the offices; emptying the garbage from the offices and the hallway; and picking up the stuff lying around in the lounge, usually left by irresponsible LITs and Leaders.
4.4 Cleaning Bathrooms
Cleaning bathrooms can be one of the highlights of the entire work crew experience. It’s a great chance to work together, chat, have a little fun and enjoy a change of pace. There will be some nasty surprises in the stalls some days, but the crew develops community through dealing with such challenges together. It’s a bit of a weird phenomenon, but hey, just run with it.
It’s best to take the entire crew in to a bathroom on the first day and give a complete demonstration on proper technique for each task and which chemicals to use where. You could even facilitate a full-camp scavenger hunt looking for cleaning supplies and bathroom gadgets.
The cleaning supplies used in the bathrooms are:
• Acid Bathroom Cleaner – ZEP chemical #4 used on sinks, walls, showers, toilets (both outside and inside the bowl)
• Glass Cleaner – ZEP #5 used on mirrors (duh!) with paper towel to avoid leaving lint
• Paper towel—use sparingly if you can to avoid excess trash, such as using one piece to do most of the sinks, etc.
• Toilet Brush – used to provide some mechanical cleansing action in those toilet bowls (scrubba scrubba!) .
• Toilet Paper
• Small White Garbage Bags – for sanitary garbages in girls bathroom, WFL, and Founder’s.
• Black Garbage Bags – big “glutton” garbage bags for staff bathrooms in the basement of the dining hall
• Broom – sometimes hard to find. Store them bristles up to prevent the ‘used toothbrush effect’—where all the bristles spread apart and look gross.
• Dustpan
• Mop – fill mop buckets with garden taps in the bathrooms, using the appropritate chemicals: a little number 10 does the job. Wring the mop out well to minimize drying time. When finished the mop must be wrung out, twisted and wrung out a second time, then rinsed and wrung a final time. Store the mop over the edge of the bucket so that the strings can dry out.
• Rubber Gloves – names can be put on these to avoid loss and confusion
A quick run-down of things to clean:
1. Spray sinks and counters with # 4 and wipe with paper towel.
2. Scrub toilet bowls with #4 and toilet brush.
3. Spray entire outside of toilet, lid, and seat with #4 and wipe with paper towel.
4. Spot clean walls, doors, and shelves with #4 and paper towel.
5. Clean mirror with Glass Cleaner & paper towel.
6. Empty garbages and replace with new bags.
7. Check TP, paper towel, and soap. Replace if needed. Try not to encourage the kids pounding on the paper towel dispenser to open it: use the tool.
8. Wipe down shower walls, shelves, and floor with #4, or #9.
9. Remove cobwebs with broom.
10. Sweep & mop floor.
4.5 Setting up for registration
Registration takes place at the Birchwood on sunny days, and if it is raining, in the dining hall. Ask the people that are doing registration how many tables they would like (typically 5), and haul them up to the Birchwood. You do not need a truck for this task. Put two plastic folding chairs (found in the Gym) by each table. The registrar may ask work crew to put up signs indicating which line people should go to. Registration commences at 3:30 on the first day of camp, and should be set up well before this time.
4.6 Moving beds into cabins
On the last day of each camp, ask the secretary how many beds are needed in each cabin for the following week. Move extra cots (found in various locations,) into cabins as needed, putting a mattress on each one. These mattresses may be found under the Birchwood, in the Honeymooners, in cabins, or in the mezzanine of the New Shop. If extra beds are not needed, store the cots in the Back 40, or an empty cabin.
4.7 Setting up Barbeque in the Rosebowl
Ask the kitchen what is being served and how many tables they would like to serve it off of. Build a fire in the fire pit even if the meal does not require it in order to keep the bugs away. If the meal is hamburgers, move the barbeques down to the Rosebowl from beside the gym. Lift them up and carry them . . . don’t drag them! If the meal is hotdogs, take the roasting sticks out of the maintenance room and put them in the Rosebowl. Move rectangular tables and set them up. Take two garbage cans from the dining hall down to the Rosebowl as well.
4.8 Banquet Set-up
Banquets that require set-up take place during teen camps. The theme should be planned by program and shared at the morning meeting. The project crew might have to help with this if the WC is small. Setting up can involve hanging lights, covering the coffee bar, papering tables, tying balloons etc.
4.9 Chopping Wood

5. Special Things To Do
• Tarp Sauna – Build a frame and cover it with tarps. Seal the joints so that no steam can escape. Dig a hole in the canter and fill it with hot rocks from a fire. Carry the rocks over from the fire in a metal fire pail, but use the shovel to cover the pail like a shield as the heat radiating from the rocks will burn your hands. Once everyone is inside throw water onto the rocks to generate steam. Finish off with a jump in the lake.
• Tubing – work out a time with program that the boat is available and there are drivers that can be spared.
• Play Mission Impossible – sometimes work crew played, but ran interference on the spotters to make the game easier for the campers.
• Work Crew Olympics – Generate crazy “events” that are somewhat based on the work the crew does. Some examples include: shopping cart races on the road to the Back 40, barrel racing with a mop bucket around the tables in the dining hall, setting up tarps, and anything else you can dream up.
• Midnight Jungle Swing – get permission from the director, and do it on a clear starry night.
• Low Ropes Course
• Hiking
• Evening Swim
• Go to Chapel—especially encourage this during teen camp, as the crew can relate to the bible studies of that age cohort.
• Banquet
• Campout—close to the WFL so WC doesn’t have to get up super early to get back to camp to start dishes, etc.
• Climbing—talk to Program Specialists for a time that they have free.
• Canoeing/ Fire at Rabbit Island
6. LTU Ideas
Leadership Training Units (LTU’s) are designed to equip the crew with some of the skills required to be a camp counselor. This way they get a head start on being an LIT. The units are intended to be taught by people other than the work crew bosses in order to give them a break.

• Facilitating Camp Skills
• First Aid
• Waterfront Safety
• Foodsafe
• Conflict Resolution
• Leading Cabin Devotions
• Working with Children
• First Aid Overview
• WHMIS
• Bible Study (with camp speaker if possible)
• Life at Camp (with Director – LIT emphasis)
7. Boss Sanity
It’s very important for WC bosses to take time off, plan their day, pray for their crew and spend time interacting with their peers. Depending on the maturity level of the crew, it can become very important to relate to other older staff; otherwise the bosses are continually giving and have no time to hang out. Because work crew operates on a separate schedule to the rest of camp the times when the rest of the leaders hang out aren’t sufficient for WC bosses. The bosses will find themselves taking time when they should otherwise be with the crew or sleeping, so schedule it in.
Be aware that planning bible studies, activities and gathering the materials for the work will take much of your time. Schedule for this too otherwise it won’t happen like it should.
The Head Workcrew Coordinator should make sure that each Boss sets boundaries for themselves, as well as the HWCB giving time to the WCBs.
8. Recommendations
The work crew boss position was a lot of work, but had plenty of rewards. Seeing the crew members grow in the Lord, learn to serve, pursue excellence in their work and their relationships, and enjoy themselves was very encouraging. They don’t really leave on a “God high” because their time at camp is filled with work and real life types of interactions. They learn to live a spiritual life in the midst of hardship and everyday tiredness. This is a trait that will carry them far in their relationship with God, and set them well on their way towards lifelong Christian service. Seek to cultivate the crew as Brother Lawrence lived: practicing the presence of God through all his work. Lie a life of prayer! However, it was a hard summer due to the long hours and high-maintenance crews. The following recommendations are aimed at correcting this:
8.1 Three staff members
Particularly with younger crews, the bosses spend a lot of energy as counselors. In addition to having to do the work, and planning program, they have to put kids to bed, get them up, make them shower, deal with sick kids etc. This is extremely tiring; you don’t sleep well, you are up later and earlier than the kids debriefing and planning.
When the work takes longer than anticipated, or things come up, you are torn between trying to alter plans (and set up for whatever the new plan may be) and pushing to get the work done faster.
8.2 Recruitment
Recruitment for WC should focus on the leadership and servanthood aspects of the program. The crew size is listed at fifteen members; this is a good size as poor performers don’t stand out so much. When there are only five or six on a crew the dynamic really changes. The crew has to work a bit harder, but more importantly there is very little variation in the work, and people who don’t work too hard start setting the tone. Emphasizing the program as a prerequisite to being an LIT is a good thing. It looks very good on a resume, builds confidence, and can provide future work references from the work crew bosses.
8.3 Screening
WC is screened by the same committee that hires volunteers for the summer program, which weeds out the kids who don’t actually want to work but have three weeks at camp, or because their parents want them too.
8.4 Miscellanea
The dining hall needs to be closed between meals. This will cut down on traffic while the crew is trying to clean, as well as distractions, additional mess creation and juice consumption. Staff can access the water fountain outside the dining hall.
Put together follow-up letters for each crew member as the summer progresses. A sample of this year’s letter should be available somewhere.