Leadership Retreat:

Held May 19, 20, 21 of 2012 in St. Helen MI (48656)
 

While attendance is not mandatory to be a leader, it is recommended.

The retreats will feature two important things for our troop leaders and camp instructors.  It will provide an avenue to perfect their  teaching skills on a group that will be helpful and constructive (other leaders in various stages of leadership training).  And, it will give the camp staff and instructors a chance to earn some of their badges outside of camp, so that their camp time will be much more productive. 

The retreats offer new troop leaders a chance to meet others who have been in the same situations with the same questions.  The veteran leaders also learn from the new people!  The socializing can be just as educational and helpful as the presentations!  The relaxed and friendly atmosphere makes learning fun.

The annual retreats will take place prior to the year’s camps.  The instructors, staff, troop leaders and future leaders desiring leadership training will be the only ones attending the retreat.  We will use a three day weekend, and each attendee will provide a 15 minute presentation.  We will work out any difficulties and smooth out any bumps, at the same time we will be allowing attendees, particularly our camp instructing staff an opportunity to pre-qualify for the badge they are instructing, so that they will not have to spend their time in camp doing this.

For people that are new to DSA, it will give you a chance to see some badge testing take place and if there is time, you may be able to earn a few badges with your dog.  You will get an introduction to the Dog Scout Way and find support and friendship in your fellow leaders.  If you are interested in getting certified as an Evaluator or Scoutmaster, you can practice those testing skills at camp, getting valuable feedback and help.  A video taken of you testing someone in your home area is still needed to finalize your certification status as a Scoutmaster (tester) for the Dog Scout badge. Evaluator status for the specialty badges can be obtained at camp if time allows.

The leadership retreats will be provided at no cost to the staff instructors and leaders (other than their lodging.)   In 2005, DSA started sponsoring some of the food for the retreat as an extra convenience for the attendees and in 2009 started providing all the food.  It is still recommended that you bring some snacks and you're on your own for meals on Friday  before the retreat officially starts. 

The lodge has a full kitchen including: a stove, several microwaves, toasters, toaster ovens, coffee maker, refrigerator, freezer, etc.  There are also bathrooms in the lodge with flush toilets and hot/cold showers.  The walls between the rooms however are very thin, so if you snore or your dog is very reactive to sounds at night, your fellow campers would probably appreciate it if you tent camped, reserved a cabin, brought an RV or got off site lodging J  View the photo tour of camp on the "camps" page of the website to see the lodging options.  There is no smoking allowed in any of the camp buildings or in the provided on-site accommodations.

The retreat will NOT be on Memorial Day weekend this year. Instead, it will be the weekend prior (May 19-21) starting early on Saturday and ending at noon on Monday (arrival on Friday the 18th is highly recommended). Anyone in a leadership role within your troop, anyone interested in a leadership role within your troop and/or anyone that is (or wants to be) a Scoutmaster or badge evaluator may attend.
 
THERE IS NOW A $25 deposit required to reserve your spot at the retreat!  Because of several last minute cancellations last year, this reservation fee is non-refundable, but it does get applied to your camp tab when you attend.  This means that if you attend as you say you will, you aren't actually paying anything extra. But if you can't attend after you say you will be coming, you are out the $25. 

• Registrations won't be considered "official" until I get the $$. 
• You can mail a check/money order to Chris Puls- P.O. Box 158, Harrison, OH 45030. Please make your checks out to DSA and I'll bring them with me to the retreat to apply to your tab. Be SURE to include a note that indicates it's for the retreat! There is also a PayPal button below but we had to use a "donate" button to get it to stop charging S&H, so if you use the PayPal option it's only a donation if you can't attend, otherwise it gets credited to your camp tab.  

Options for the weekend:
 
Put one human/dog team through the whole Dog Scout test in 15 minutes 
If you are not yet a Scoutmaster, but would like some practice in putting a team through the dog's part of the test where you can get help and feedback, this would be a good thing for you to select. There will be a demo of the whole test earlier in the retreat so you'll know what you need to do. Please make a note on your registration form below that you would like to GIVE the Dog Scout test. 

Take the Dog Scout test with your dog
If you are bringing a dog that still needs to get certified as a Dog Scout, just make a note on your registation form that you'd like to TAKE the test.

Cook and Kitchen Help - Each attendee will be on "kitchen duty" for one or two of the meals. Please indicate your preference for the meal you would like to help with.  I will divide the attendees into teams of three people for each meal.  How many meals you help with will depend on the number of attendees.
     Breakfast 
     Lunch 
     Dinner 

“Welcome wagon” go-to person(s) for first-time attendees This should be experienced attendees that are arriving fairly early on Friday (or earlier for the Spring Outing and/or "camp clean-up" held just prior to the retreat), know where things are located and know how the retreat generally works.

Timer/MC (keeping us all on schedule) This person rings the big bell 1-2 min. before each session and sets the timer (for the appropriate minutes) at the start of each session. Each presentation slot has a set number of minutes.  This gives everyone 15 minutes each hour to stretch, potty dogs, potty themselves, allows set-up time if needed, etc.  We have been lax with this in past years, so it will be enforced this year.
 
Click to see the potential schedule for the weekend.  This will likely change a bit, but should give you an idea of how the schedule is laid out. As you can see, things start early on Saturday, so arriving on Friday evening is highly recommended.

To register,
Use this PayPal button to pay the $25 registration fee (Note: It is not a donation, it is a deposit that will get applied to your camp tab when you arrive, unless you can't attend- then it's a donation :-) 

Or send a check/money order made out to DSA to:
Chris Puls to: P.O. Box 158, Harrison, OH 45030.

Then complete/submit the form below: