Christian Leadership
Value Definition - Servant leadership & equipping of others in a God-given direction through Christlike character, leadership capability, and love.
Overall Reflection
For my competence in the Christian Leadership degree, I am submitting:
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Thursday Volunteer Lists, which demonstrates that I have improved on making task lists to delegate to weekly volunteers.
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Administrative Assistant Lists to show the growth and development of this new role to aid in delegating administrative tasks.
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Sample Summer Staff Schedule to show the planning and foresight that was put into creating the summer staff team, and how jobs ad work hours as designated in ways that no one person should bear the brunt of the work load so that staff (including me) do not get burnt out.
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Staff & Volunteer Manual to show the base of training materials that needs to be used in training of all summer staff & volunteers
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Staff & Volunteer Training Slides to show how this information is going to be disseminated in a more engaging way to build relationships, trust, and overall competency of camp work within the team
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Staff & Volunteer Training Quiz to show how this information is going to be evaluated to ensure all staff & volunteers have been adequately trained on core safety policies of camp.
Lifelong Reflection
As a result of the experiences documented by these artifacts, I will continue to develop in the Christian Leadership degree by making more intentional space for reflection and feedback on leadership, so I can get that direction and energy sooner, and can plan ahead more effectively. I also need to have an administrative assistant sooner to delegate tasks to, because my work load was the biggest hinderance to being able to accomplish these goals in a more timely manner. Having this assistant the past 2 weeks has already proven to be an immense help, and if I had that in January, I could have gotten a lot more done. I also am looking forward to potential new opportunities at camps with more support staff where I can use these skills more effectively with a team of year-round staff - which I do not have now.
Learning Reflection
As I developed in the Christian Leadership degree and ministry experiences, I learned that I struggle to have time to plan far in advance for summer camp because I was so busy with rental groups, events, and other general operations of camp. Even in the "off-season" (typically November-February) we had the most events, rental groups, and winter retreat programs that we have ever had, that consistently put time for strategic planning on the back-burner to the immediate needs of camp.
However, in the past couple months as I have conducted staff interviews, recieved feedback from the board, mentors, and partner volunteer organizations, I have gotten good - and sometimes challenging - feedback. That has given me more direction and motivation to improve my leadership skills and strategies for team-building and training the summer staff and volunteers that as proven to be helpful.
I greatly benefitted from being able to attend leadership development events like the Outdoor Ministries Association (OMA) Retreat in Ohio in November, and also by serving on the OMA board, I got to attend the OMA Board Retreat in California in April. These professional connections have helped me grow as a leader as well.
I think the greatest leadership development I have gotten was done mostly in mentorship, therapy, introspection and reflection, that now I feel like I have more confidence and direction that I did not feel like I had at the beginning of this journey.
