Frequently Asked Questions about Camp
What are the qualifications for the instructors? Both Team Leaders and Field Instructors are outdoor and environmental educators with in depth experience in the natural world. The focus for Team Leaders teach an array of incredible skill sets through their years of experience in outdoor education, martial arts, building, and social technologies. The focus of our instructors is the emotional and learning well being of the campers. The instructors at TrackersNW have made a lifetime commitment to a NEW approach in environmental education. What you will find is a consistent strength in our staff to facilitate communication between parents and staff. This personal level of communication comes from the understanding that your are trusting us with your children and that we must reciprocate this trust by building a strong relationship of communication.
Apprentices are immersion program students or high school students with an interest and experience in working with children. We review their hiring and treat their performance like a job. Because of the high quality working experience with TrackersNW, applications for working with us as an apprentice is highly competitive, this ensures that you have the best of the best for teen and young adult role models for your children. All of our break camp staff have a background check to qualify them to work with youth.
What is the staff-to-camper ratio? We offer a ratio of one instructor (Team Leader or Field Instructor) to every five campers (1:8 for older groups). Our goal is individual attention and conversations with students. Even more importantly is that the students work to guide each other with the TrackersTEAMS skills of leadership and teamwork we work to instill.
What is your instructors' medical training? All camp staff, including counselors-in-training, are trained in first aid and CPR. All programs have emergency procedure plans in place.
What if my child misses me, you know "homesickness"? We recognize that leaving home is rite of passage. We could keep kids so busy all day long they don't think about it (which we are often busy) AND we also take that as an opportunity to talk with kids about how important their family is. How we are working on building a team, a family in the camp. We keep things honest and every concern expressed in a opportunity for the camper to learn more about themselves and how they are "growing up". Remember any camp can be a simple rite of passage.
What is your refund/payment policy? Each camp registration is held to a 20% cancellation fee. If you cancel 30 days prior to program start, the total fee is refundable (minus 20% cancellation fee). If you cancel 14-30 days prior to program start, 50% of the fee is refundable. Cancellations made less than 14 days from program start date cannot be refunded. Registrations and fees are non-transferable.
What are your expectations for youth participants? We expect all students to support the needs of the team they are in. We help facilitate this by offering the safe and supervised opportunity for children to make their own choices for learning and fun. With safe guidelines will often LET a child make a "mistake" to actually experience the natural consequences of their actions. Consequences can be both positive and negative. At TrackersNW we DO NOT shelter children from the world but recognize the enormous power of being connected to it.
What is your discipline policy? We also recognize that any mentor relationship is a relationship with family. We will definitively call on parents for support when we may not be able to meet a child's needs. We recognize that "disruptive behavior" often means a child does not feel the support they need, so through healthy boundaries and conversation we work to get to the root of the matter. Sorry this may sound "soft" BUT, we always assume positive intentions and that no one is trying to "ruin our day." We know that a team is about all the members negotiating to work together in a healthy way, AND we also recognize that it may be beyond our scope to give immediate support to. We reserve the right remove a child from a program if we feel they are taking too much from the team. This DOES NOT mean no further participation in the program, this DOES mean that we have an opportunity to sit down with parents and child and develop better strategies and agreements for working together. Again, this may sound "soft" but you should see what we think of is responsibility to the community. Its tough, and its a rite of passage we create WITH parents. AND we will also admit when we make mistakes, had a bad day, or judged to quickly. So as a parent trying to help a child become an adult.
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