Camp 360

The artist formerly known as the "stache" has just completed all of the assignments assoicated with our Senior Research/Omega project. All that is left is the presentation. For those that are not familiar with what I am talking about, our senior research business class was divided into 4 groups of 4-5 members each. We had to come up with a business plan on what to do with the 200+ acres of land that the school owns on its property. Our group came up with the idea of a camp called Camp 360. This camp would be geared towards youth groups from local churches in the area. The basic idea behind the 360 came from what Lees-McRae College has came up as its motto this past year. A 360 degree experience in your education incompassing many different aspects not just inside the classroom. We want the campers at our camp to have a variety of different experiences, all seperate, but all connected in the end. We want them to have fun, but to also work hard and learn some different things along the way. A full, unique expereince, different from any camp they have ever been to is what we are trying to accomplish with this camp. Last I checked, we had the idea to set up 6 cabins with one central multi-purpose building set away in the woods of the 200 acre plot of land. Each cabin would hold 10 campers with 2 counselors per cabin. The main facility would be used for dining, as well as other different kinds of activities and such that we see fit. Our plan is to be open weekly during the summer and on weekends during the winter months. There would be a lot of planned, off-site activities, such as whitewater rafting or skiing in the winter time. There were a lot of different things that we had to put into consideration when putting this together, more than you would realize. All of the zoning issues, how much it would cost for each of the buildings, how much it would cost to build roads to the buildings. What kind of roads to use, gravel or paved? The terrain of the land, how you take that into consideration. It took us awhile to decide on the activities we wanted our campers to partake in and whether we wanted weekly or weekend camps. Did we want to hire a full time camp manager? The answer to that was yes we did. This person would be resonsible for marketing the camp and finding out who wanted to attend our camp. It would be their responsbilty to maintain and develop good realationships with different businesses in the area just in case we needed their assistance for anything. I told you there were a lot of things to consider and that is not even half of the decisions that went into this project. I was so glad that I was not responsible for putting together the financial plan. There were so many numbers and things to consider. The guy who did it for our group, I give him big props for all the serious hard work he put into it. I know there was a lot of frustrating long hours, but it looks like he did a good job from I could tell by glancing at it. Our plan was nowhere near as long as some of the other groups in our class. Two other groups had business plans that were well over 100 pages long. They put a lot of work into theirs, we just had a different type of idea that took a lesser amount of work, I am grateful for what we did. Ours is around 40 pages long and I feel like it is sufficient for what we are doing for our project. We will have to see on Wednesday, when we all present who comes out on top. The top group gets an automatic A and has the priviledge of presenting on Friday in the Senior Symposium presented for the entire school to see if they like. We will be judged by the business faculty, the provost, and some other distinguished guests. Based upon their ratings, the winner will be determined. I am curious to see who comes out on top because I know there are a lot of other smart people and hard workers in our class. It should be fun. My role in the actual presentation will be pretty small as it is not required for all members to participate in the presentation. We have a guy who is really good at presenting and I think he will do a majority of it for us. Wish us luck. Thanks for reading.

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