Latest / I Don't Know You / How Three Generations at One Camp Shaped Rod Fletcher’s Definition of Home

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How Three Generations at One Camp Shaped Rod Fletcher’s Definition of Home · I Don't Know You

• 0:04
  SPEAKER_01: Hi, I'm Matt, and welcome to my recorded conversations for I Don't Know You.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_01: My search in learning from leaders about their stories and applying their lessons
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_01: to my own journey as I seek to better understand myself.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_01: If you enjoy what you hear or have a guest you'd like me to ask on, I'd love to hear from you.
• 0:19
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• 0:21
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• 0:23
  SPEAKER_01: share it with a friend, and follow me for more of this kind of content.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_01: Today's episode was recorded after a Barnabas gathering,
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_01: a quarterly meeting where faith-based nonprofits present to a room
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_01: of talented marketplace leaders and ask for their time and their expertise rather
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_01: than their wallets.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_01: One of the ministries that presented The nice thing about Catalina is you've got the kelp.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: For Hawaii, you just got, you have a lot of coral, but you don't have the forests.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: So I think it's kind of nice, I think it's fun.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_01: See all the, see all the, well, because there's like, not otters, right?
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_01: Like sea otters, it's like sea lions.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: Right now we have sea lions and seals.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and sea turtles have come back.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: What's the difference again?
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: One of them has, some do their ears.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_01: Flat, like holes versus little ears.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: But they're also way bigger and way smaller.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, okay.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_01: Sea lions have the front leg kind
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: of thing.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_01: They're better at walking.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: Like that.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_01: They're like an evolution of each other.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: Is this the associates team here?
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_01: Team associates?
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_01: It's not the entire team.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you guys for staying so late.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_01: I know we went a little bit over time.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_01: But I'm super grateful for you being willing to stay late.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_01: This is my wife Heather, by the way.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_01: But I basically wanted to,
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_01: I feel like we got a good overview of The ministry and what you guys are doing.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_01: But I'd love to like hear a little bit about how you mentioned it very briefly at
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_01: the end,
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_01: like how your involvement with that kind of like there's a long history there.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_01: And I'd love if you could just spend a couple of minutes talking
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_01: about like your involvement and the excitement that that kind of as you were raised
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_01: with with going to the camp and that kind of stuff.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, so I think I said a bunch of this, but it's kind of a long story, but this is crazy.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_02: My dad was born to a widow, which means his dad died when she was pregnant with him.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_02: So crazy, crazy.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_02: She never remarried and never had any more kids.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_02: And in 1953, she took a job, his mom, my grandmother, as the secretary of the camp.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_02: And so she basically spent every summer out there Kind of building the camp with
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_02: the guy who was an inter-varsity director for Southern California,
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_02: and they would go out there every summer.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_02: My dad's first year was when he was 10 years old and grew up out there.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_02: My dad was a lifeguard, and he was 18, and my mom was a UCSB camper out there, and they met.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_02: It's
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_02: like out of a movie.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: I always call him the original rule breaker because we're not allowed to fraternize
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: with campers.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: My dad broke the rule, but it worked out.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_01: Did he save her, at least, or something?
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: Saved her, yeah, the whole thing, I'm sure.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, very romantic.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, good.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_02: Anyway, so then they started bringing my sister and I in 1974 as family campers.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_02: And so my first year, I was five years old.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_02: I grew up going to family camp, and then I worked there in the summers.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_02: And then in 1988...
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_02: I went off to college,
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_02: went to Wheaton College in Illinois,
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_02: freaked my parents out because I came back to summer camp and worked on staff and
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_02: then stayed for the whole year.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_02: And they were like, oh my gosh, my son's never going back to college.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_02: I ended up going back to college,
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_02: met Heather,
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_02: and then we came out and worked there as a young married couple in 94 and ran
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_02: the high school ministry for a summer.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_01: Both of you guys.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_02: Yep, she talked her into coming out to the island.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_01: Talk about a bonding experience.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_02: It was bonding, for sure.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_02: No, we were married for two years.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_02: And then started having kids.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_02: And we've got three boys, 24, 26, 7, and 29.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_02: And they, they, yeah, you guys are probably in that age group.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_02: How old are you?
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_02: 26.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_02: My boys are all kind of in this.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_02: I've got one who's in private equity,
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_02: one who's in tech sales,
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_02: and one who's in, um,
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: uh, Roofing, he just bought a roofing company, my baby did.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: And so they're kind of all in this kind of group.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: Two live in Denver, one lives in Houston.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: Anyway, we started bringing them out,
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_02: then they all worked on staff.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_01: Family affair.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_02: And then in about six or seven years ago,
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_02: InterVarsity decided they want to get rid of all of their camps.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_02: It was an InterVarsity camp for 70 years.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_02: And you guys are familiar with InterVarsity, InterVarsity Christian Fellowship.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_02: And they decided they want to just be campers and not own camps.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_02: And so a bunch of us were family campers were like,
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_02: oh my gosh, we got to rescue camp because we don't want it just to become whatever.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_02: And so we formed a board, a non-profit, and...
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_02: InterVarsity basically gave us the camp.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_02: And we subleased for a year and then got a lease.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_02: And I was on that board.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_02: And eventually the Lord led us to be the directors.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_02: I was actually on the search committee for a new director
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_02: because our current director was retiring.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_02: And next thing we know, we're the...
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_01: Funny how that works.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I hired him and he hired me.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: So it was, I was joking.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: Wow, he had a very short tenure.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: Easiest money he ever made.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_02: So, and then we, I was the head of a school in Texas for 20 years.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_02: And then the Lord kind of awesomely wrapped that position up and we came out
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_02: to serve at camp three years ago.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_02: The miracle is not that I'm out there because I love the place and
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_02: then like was my happy place forever.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_02: I love to dive and fish and
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: all the cool stuff.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: The miracle is that she's out there.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: So the Lord put it on her heart to go to Camps by the Sea.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_01: So you didn't have to do any convincing.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: I would not convince.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: That's bad marriage advice right there.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: Try to convince your wife to move to a rustic, dirty island.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_01: Hopefully the home isn't rustic and dirty.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: Our home is awesome, but it's tiny, but it's literally on the beach.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: If you look at that picture over there, it was like our house is on the cliff.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, awesome.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: But it's an interesting lifestyle.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_01: Totally.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: We have no roads.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: We have no phones.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: People are doing praise and worship outside our front door every night,
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: which is awesome and really
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_01: weird.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_01: You have no separation, it sounds like.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_01: Your life is your work and your work is your life.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_01: In a very messy, beautiful way, I would imagine.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: Messy, beautiful is a great way to put it.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: It really is.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: Totally.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_01: Well, and yeah, the staff that you have that's like there, but then do they rotate and like?
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_02: So right now there's 39 of us that live there and we literally do everything together.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_02: We eat all our meals together.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: We have Fletcher Friday.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_02: That's where the Fletchers.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_02: So Fletcher Friday and Money Monday,
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_02: we talk about investing
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: and Wednesday Bible study and Saturday movie night.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: Amazing.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: We just kind of do this weird movie.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: Was it Insurgent?
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't watch it.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: Is that a good movie?
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: I don't even know.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: I don't even know.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: Divergence, Insurgent, something like that.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, maybe Divergence.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: Divergence?
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_01: All right.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: I don't even know what it was.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: I actually didn't go to movie night.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we live in this beautiful, messy relationship.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_02: Everyone's like discipleship.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_02: It's like massive discipleship, life on life.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_01: Figuring out if they want to date each other.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of that.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_01: All that stuff's going on.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_01: Lots of raging hormones.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_01: That's wild.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_02: So we are.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_02: So we've got about 12 of us that live there full time and then everybody else is hired seasonal.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_02: So we are our season is nine months.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_02: And so we hire three months, six months, nine months.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_02: And then we hire 30 college students that come out in the summer for nine weeks
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_02: and run our summer program, which is youth camp for June and family camp for July.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_02: But the rest of the time, it's
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_02: We call them limited term employees.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_02: They'll come over for some sort of contracted amount of time.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_03: So you were talking about the months outside of the summer that you're trying to build?
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_03: What are the events?
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_03: Because if you camp in the family camp for summer, what are
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_02: the ones that happen?
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_02: So that's where Point Loma came out.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_02: So it's all retreat groups.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_02: So we program totally 100% do everything from the teaching to the speaking to the games.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_02: For June and July.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_02: The rest of the time, basically we clean, cook and lifeguard.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_02: So we create space and then Point Loma, Calvary Chapel, whoever comes over and InterVarsity.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_02: Comes over.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_02: And we also have a marine science program that we partner with
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_02: a marine science company,
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_02: basically, that does Christian integration, faith and learning marine science.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_02: Last year,
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_02: we had 56 local Christian schools come over with their middle school
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_02: to do marine science.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_02: That's all spring and all fall.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_02: And then we shut down completely in the winter.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_00: We live there.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_03: In the winter?
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: Winter is, no, it's just really, really, really quiet.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, we go to church in town.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_00: So we do stuff together with the 10 of us that are there.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_02: We still eat two meals a day together.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_02: And then we go to the town of Avalon for church.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_02: It's very, very quiet.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_02: I spend a lot of time underwater.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_03: So do you have like a year pass with like Catalina Flyer?
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_00: Actually, the Flyer doesn't do that.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: But the, I don't know if they do it.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: They Express does.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: They have a, they call it a, a, Like a subsidy card for locals.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, really?
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: They give us like you buy 10 at a time and it's a big discount.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: The flyer is really good to us because we use them a lot and so they're helpful.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_01: Awesome.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_01: Well, yeah, if you guys have any questions, this is great.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_01: We can keep it rolling.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_01: And if not, then I have more questions too.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_03: What's spiritual life in Avalon like for the locals?
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so that's a great question.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_02: So this is so God, right?
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_02: So there was a church in Avalon that's been there for like 150 years,
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_02: and they went through some really hard stuff and decided to shut their church down
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_02: about two years ago.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_02: And just like God does, the next thing we knew, a church sprang up at the ranch.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_02: There's a little horse riding thing that the guy who was leading that said,
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_02: let's do cowboy fellowship.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_02: And then...
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_02: Another church in town said, let's do Sunday morning fellowship.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_02: Then that same church said, let's do Thursday night fellowship.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_02: So there's all these things going on right now and none of them are a church.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_02: None of them are like really a church at the building.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_02: So it's all, and right now YWAM is coming to, so they're starting to build this YWAM thing.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_02: It's very ground floor right now,
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_02: but I got a,
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_02: literally while I was sitting here,
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_02: I got a text that said it's about to happen and there's a church
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_02: over here that's planting a church.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_02: It's so like, Satan was like, we're going to, they did some, Satan did some crazy stuff.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_02: It was just bad stuff at this church.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_02: And it was like, oh my gosh, the church is going to shut down.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_02: There's going to be nothing in town.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_02: Totally blew up spiritually.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_02: So the town's doing great spiritually.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_02: And there's a lot of Christians involved in leadership in the town.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, and then we have Bible study.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_02: So we'll have some of the Christians from town will actually come to our camp for Bible studies.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_02: So there's actually a lot of stuff going on for them,
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_02: more than there was three years ago when there was a church in town.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_03: Do you walk to town or is it boat?
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_02: So we can hike, but do you remember that we're in a canyon?
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so we're in a canyon with very steep ridges,
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_02: and you can hike up,
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_02: but it's two miles straight up and then five miles down to the town of Avalon.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_02: So you can, but we have a boat.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_02: So we boat all the time.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_02: We have like five or six boats moored right now in the front based on the size of
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_02: the group that needs to go in.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_02: So all the staff can check boats out.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_01: Is it on the back side of the island?
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_02: We're on the front side.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_02: It's right next to Avalon.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_02: It's in Avalon?
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_02: No, no.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_02: Well, yeah, but it's right next to Avalon.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_02: So if you were going into...
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_02: So if you go Avalon, Descanso, Campus by the Sea.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_02: Hamilton Cove,
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_02: where all those condos are,
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_02: and then Campus by the Sea is like a mile and a half down.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_02: But then the Isthmus is like 20 miles down.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_02: So we're the first one next to Avalon.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_02: So we go into Avalon every day.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_02: Get our mail, get our groceries, go to church, check our post.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we take our trash in.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_02: We don't have a road to our camp, so everything has to happen by boat.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_02: So we take our trash in twice a week.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_00: We get groceries for the camp twice a week.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_00: It's crazy.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_00: I told you all the things we had to do to do those two things.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_00: It's crazy.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_00: When I got there, I was like, we have to do what?
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_00: Gas is crazy.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_00: We do all our fill-ups
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_02: in town.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_02: I think it's $8 a gallon.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_02: And water is over $0.10 a gallon, which I don't know if you guys know what that means.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_02: You're probably paying a third of a cent a gallon here.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_02: We pay $0.10 a gallon for water.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_00: That's crazy.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_00: I did hear the other day, fast fact, one of the most expensive liquids in the world.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_00: You know what it is?
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_00: HP Inc. Oh.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_00: I believe it though,
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_00: we were actually buying ink and I looked at something like,
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_00: one of the most expensive,
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_00: it was ChatGPT, one of the most expensive liquids in the world, HP ink.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_00: That wasn't part of the interview, I know.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_00: That was extra bonus right there.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_01: Was there an activity that you grew up doing at the camp that maybe,
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know,
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_01: I'm assuming they just have been doing the activities since you were Little.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_01: And they're doing the same ones now.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe you've added more,
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_01: but was there one that like really stuck with you that you were like,
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_01: oh man, like, I really want this to be a part.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_01: As you started getting into leadership and stuff,
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_01: you were like, I really want to do more of this type of thing.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_00: So I didn't ask him to ask me that really that way beforehand.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_00: So this is funny you ask.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_02: That's a great question because I love to fish and I've always been
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_02: a little bit critical of the camp that we didn't offer enough fishing to campers.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_02: And now we offer a lot of fishing to campers.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_02: So that's what it is.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_02: I fished a lot growing up.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_02: I've always fished out there.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_02: And now we provide a lot of fishing access.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_02: So when you were out there, we didn't have fishing poles.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_02: Now we do.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_02: And we got tons of them.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_02: And everybody can go fishing.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_02: And there's a lot of fishing opportunities.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_02: And the fishing is great.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_02: It's actually really great right now because the water is so warm.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_01: I think what I'm sensing is that we need to do an associate event out there.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_01: And like a weekend and stuff.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_01: And then you can show us the ropes on how to lobster dive.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_00: You guys should pull an associate group together, and we put an adventure trip.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_01: But can we do it at night?
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_01: Can we do lobster diving at night?
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_00: If you know the right people.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_01: That sounds terrifying to me, but it also sounds pretty awesome.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah,
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_01: you have to lobster dive at night.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_00: Can I say that?
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_00: It's fun, man.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_00: It's one of those things where it's kind of like, I can't believe I'm doing this.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_00: And it's a little bit sharky right now.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, okay.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_01: Well, you shouldn't have told me that.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_01: Any other questions?
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_03: What's something new that you feel like God has for you next year?
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_02: I just hired a guy as our new program director,
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_02: and we have a little cove next to our cove that's pretty underutilized.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_02: We use it for summer staff, and then the rest of the time is really not used.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_02: It's off the grid, it's pretty rustic.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_02: It's where I would always bring the guys over.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_02: Whenever we came over with my guide group, we would stay over there and try to get a hike to it.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_02: I think it has tons of potential to be another camp.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_02: And we're not using it for anything.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_03: Do you guys mix that part of the land?
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_02: It's enough off the grid that it's going to be a lot of work to make it all happen.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_02: But I think with the right person,
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_02: with the right vision,
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_02: it could be super,
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_02: super cool for people who are looking for like,
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_02: I don't even want to be near the dining hall.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_02: I want to kind of be camping off the grid, do our own thing, have our own campfire.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_02: So I think there's some potential for that.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_02: And then we have room to grow.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, we've grown like crazy, but we still have openings in the fall and the spring.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_02: But as far as programs,
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_02: right now, we're in a sweet spot of the kind of different things we're doing.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that area next door is kind of a,
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_02: it lends itself in my mind to a men's ministry, father-son thing.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_02: It's outhouses, cold water.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_00: But I think the right, if we could position it right, it could be really awesome.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_03: I actually love it.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_03: The Boy Scouts or Cub Scouts or like team guides or anything like that?
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_03: I know that they used to be on Kelly.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, they have their own place.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_03: So the outside of summer and family camp.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_00: Mm-hmm.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_03: Is there like a size limit or is it like a flat rate for like if you're going
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_03: to book out per day?
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_03: It's per person.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_03: It's per person.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_03: It's per person.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_03: So like technically more groups could be at
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_00: the- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_00: So we will host multiple groups at the same time.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_00: With our staff?
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_00: It's a question for Heather.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I got the microphone.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_00: It's a really good question.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_00: Well, we have a bunch of policies on how to handle it exactly.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, it's a lot of HR stuff, honestly.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_02: So we have community HR stuff that we go through, but a lot of it's just- We do.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_02: Yep.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_02: And then we have to figure out, is that work or not work?
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_02: And is the HR person allowed to deal with it?
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_02: So we're kind of, it's a weird sort of like, what are we even allowed to do?
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_02: Like I've got a rule right now that if you're not sleeping in your assigned space,
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_02: you have to let me know.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_02: And then I was like, I don't know if I'm allowed to do that.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_02: These are a bunch of adults.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_02: Can I tell them they're not allowed to sleep?
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_02: But it's like, but we're a community, and we kind of need to know what if your mom calls.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_02: You're 22,
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_02: but your mom still wants to know where you are if she calls you in the middle of
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_02: the night.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_02: Conflict, I think it's just like anything.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_02: We really, really, really talk about going to the person.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_02: We say venting is vilifying.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_02: And so we have sort of the anti-venting policy.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_02: You know, you're always like, not always.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_02: People go, I just want to see.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_02: Are you having the same experience I'm having?
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_02: And so we've really coached them not to do that.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_02: If you've got a problem with somebody, go to them.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_02: And it gets all accentuated in a community like this.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_02: But we just hit it right on.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_02: It's the only way to deal with it.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_02: Verifying plus venting equals vilifying.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_02: That's what we said.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_01: As we wrap up,
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_01: I'm curious, like, as you, like,
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_01: you work with a lot of people around our age,
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_01: and you see us probably at our best and our worst in many ways.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_01: I'm curious, like, what's, like,
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_01: a lesson that, like,
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_01: you're working through with a lot of your staff or over time that stuck with you
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_01: that, like, you would encourage us in the season that we're in right now?
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so this is what I would tell my boys.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_00: First of all, pay me now or pay me later.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_02: So everything costs more later.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_02: So put in the work now and it will be a huge payoff later.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_02: So be willing to put in the work now.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_02: And the other thing is manners are the new superpower.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_02: That's one of my new lines.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_02: And what I mean by that is people Are looking for young people who will show up,
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_02: do what they say they're going to do,
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_02: not whine, be on time, not do drugs.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_02: You know,
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_02: and so I've said to my staff, guys,
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_02: manners are the,
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_02: write notes, be a letter writer, you know, handwrite notes to people.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_02: You do those sort of things, now you stand out.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_02: I think it's a cool time to be your age because you can stand out pretty easily.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_02: I'm talking like an old guy,
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_02: but I think you can stand out fairly easily because I think a lot
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_02: of people just don't do the basic stuff.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_02: So do the basic stuff really, really well and you stand out.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_02: Awesome.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_02: But also just remember, put in the time.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_02: It's worth putting in the time now.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_02: You're going to thank yourself later.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I think that's...
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_02: One other line I use is people grow into the conversations around them.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_02: So put yourself around good conversations.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_02: You're the average of the five people you hang out the most with.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_02: So, you know,
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_00: yeah, you're doing
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_02: it right here.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_02: This is it.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_02: You are who you hang out with.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_02: You are what you eat.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_02: This is the conversations you guys want.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_02: You know, you're being intentional about putting yourselves around conversations like this.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_02: I think that's got a huge payoff.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_02: It's so easy just to doomscroll and go through the motions.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_02: Rage travel
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_03: every day.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_03: Rage travel every day.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_01: That's the best advice.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_01: That's awesome.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_01: She's here.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_01: She's all kinds of great advice, too.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_01: Well,
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_01: thank you for sticking around late and allowing us to pepper you with questions
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_01: and sharing some more of your story.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's amazing to hear all these ministries have their time,
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_01: but there's always so much more to the story than you have time to talk about.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_01: And so, again,
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_01: this doesn't do it justice either,
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_01: but it's just a little bit more that we get to lean into and learn from.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_01: So thank you for taking the time.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, this is a fun part.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_01: Come visit us.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_01: Cool to see.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, I will hold you to that.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_01: I think you should do an associates.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_01: I honestly,
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_01: after my call with you,
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, yeah, we got to figure out how to make that happen.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_01: Because that would be so much fun.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_02: My older son, who's 29, he's married, and they brought 10 couple friends out last weekend.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_02: How amazing.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_02: And they had an absolute blast.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_00: We don't, so you'd have to put it together yourself, and we would host you.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_00: But they had, they, huh?
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_00: Food, yeah.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_00: We clean your cabin before you get there, and then, we don't clean it all week.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_01: If you have some single friends,
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_01: make sure you bring them, and the lifeguards, you could end up matchmaking.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we, there's some
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_01: cute lifeguards.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_01: There's probably some HR
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_00: policies in there too.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_00: But my dad broke it, so you guys are good.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_00: No, but it's, I'd love to host you guys out there.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_00: It'd be super fun.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_00: Awesome.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_00: Go to our website and you guys go to the website and you'll see all kinds
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_00: of cool stuff going on.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_00: Sweet.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_01: Awesome.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_01: Well, thanks for your time.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_00: I'm proud of you guys for doing this.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_00: This is, I know this is, you're probably, this is not what all your friends are doing tonight.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_00: So that's just super cool that you guys are being intentional to be part of something like this.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's awesome.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_01: Well, thank you guys.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, absolutely.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_00: Appreciate it.