Monday, August 20, 2007

Well I'm back

And I'm feeling grumpy.

Running around between three camps and a major family visit all in the span of 14 days has taken their toll. I've come down with a summer cold, quite possibly the most depressing of all illnesses. Plus the weather has been cold and dreary the last couple days.

Grump, grump, grump.

But that's not all. We had three campers simply not show up at one camp. The new management team at our facility is holding us to the terms of the contract (the previous managers were more casual about that. Which may be why they're the "previous" managers) which says we have to give a final count two weeks in advance. Well the count we gave was 33 and the final count was 30. That's a nearly $900 unfunded expense staring at me. I'm not upset in anyway with the facility, they are perfectly in their rights and they are at least considering my request to adjust the count. That's EXTREMELY nice of them. And something they don't have to do.

No the people I'm ticked with are the folks who simply didn't show up. Two of the three are folks with whom I'm familiar, they have my number, my e-mail, my address. Never heard a word from them. And now my budget, tight at best, has a big ole hole in it. The bills will be paid, money can be juggled to cover. But it means that other programs will be even tighter for the rest of the year.

So next year we'll be more serious about deadlines, deposits will be non-refundable, and fees paid for campers who drop out less than two weeks prior to camp will be forfeit as well.

And people will scream bloody murder. Just lovely.

Other than that camp went really well. All our camps were successes on their own merits. The kids had a great time. The staffs were marvelous.

Just wish I could enjoy the moment.

Grump, grump, grump.

Peace

1 comment:

terri c said...

God, YouthGuy, I can understand why you are ticked. One thing is, I think before you implement the changes you are planning, you'll need to find a way to communicate exactly the impact of not making those changes, without blaming the ones who no-showed, because they probably didn't intend for their actions to impact things as they may. Let's hope, that is. It may be politically best to assume that they thought there would be no problem if they changed plans at the last minute for some crucial reason like, oh, kid didn't want to get up in the morning the first day of camp or something. Bleh. Take a break, get some REST.