5.12.2006

Indecon in the future

Upon first hearing about Camp Indecon, I've greatly desired to see the camp continue to flourish until my own children could attend. I remember the joy I had attending various camps and wanted my children to experience the same, but in an environment conducive to developing their independence. Every now and then I ruminate about how I would like to see the camp grow. These are some of my thoughts.

1. Once Camp Indecon can find a campground of its own, it will be able to expand its summer offerings significantly. As attendance grows, camp should be split into multiple weeks. Lorie, the camp founder, wanted to extend camp to two weeks. While I agree that the curriculum could easy stretch that long and still be valuable to the campers, I think the additional price tag could place the camp out of reach of many families. Instead, I believe camp should be split into multiple 1 week sessions, with different curriculum emphases in different weeks. So for parents that can afford two weeks of camp, the campers will experience different curriculum. But for parents that can't afford more than 1 week, their children can still attend.

2. Along the lines of the suggestion above, one week could emphasize business and finance, another decision making, another science, another art, another life planning, etc. In addition, a generalized curriculum week, that hits the basics of all the above could appeal to children as it does today. But the focused weeks can will be geared toward specific competencies that parents or children want to achieve.

3. Another idea about expanding Indecon's reach is to extend the camp to individual cities throughout the U.S. (and world eventually). Because the curriculum has been developed to be turn-key, new instructors should be able to quickly ramp up on the lessons and apply them at any location. This obviously creates a number of different logistic hurdles, but may make Indecon more well known.

4. Once Indecon has its own facility, an adult curriculum could be developed to further the appeal of the camp. Weekend retreats and seminars for working adults could induce a tighter bond with the camp, perpetuating the growth and commitment to its future. Parents (and potential parents) that are pleased with the curriculum will likely want their children to attend.

5. By renting the facilities, more groups will be knowledgeable about the camp, which will ultimately lead to increased supply of campers (besides helping to pay the bills).

2 comments:

  1. John, Do you know what happened to Camp Indecon? I got here by following the link you posted on OGrownups today and then going deeper into your blog. I was not aware of the camp before. The camp link you posted no longer works and google leads to the same broken link from multiple places, so I can't find the camp website and the articles I do find are years old. I am so interested!

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  2. Cheryl,
    Camp Indecon closed its doors a few years back. The founder attempted to find a replacement, but did not succeed. Perhaps in the future I'll take up the torch and re-start it, but until then, there is unfortunately no camp.

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