Before fixing anything, protect what worked. Leaders, the host and the funder agreed on most of this list.
Villages. Grouping students by learning focus, and by region, was the first thing leaders said to keep.
Real work. Engagement peaked when students did their village’s job: medics learning Stop the Bleed, builders building. Builders asked to keep working after dark, and the funder heard that students wanted to stay active and keep building.
Setting up camp. Pitching tents and building the camp on arrival turned out to be one of the students’ favorite parts of the week.
Mixed teams. Students from different schools and regions became working teams within three days.
Agency collaboration. Partners who had never worked together did, and the partner log filled with offers to return. One leader called the networking “invaluable.”
The host relationship. Daily check-ins, materials pre-staged on site, and a host whose leadership sent nothing but positive feedback and said it looked forward to hosting again.
ICS in the background. The morning Command and General Staff meeting let leaders hear about problems early and fix them the same day: adjusting the schedule, setting out a snack table, finding bug spray, planning the build wrap-up around rain. The ICS-qualified volunteers needed little instruction. On day one the logistics chief knew the broken kitchen unit was his problem and patched it so the camp could eat dinner while the National Guard kitchen volunteers waited for parts. When wildfire threatened on day three, the same structure produced a response plan quickly.
Community bulletin boards for schedules and updates.
Optional classroom sessions. Sessions worked better once they became optional mid-week, and the host said the same. Keep learning optional.
Ten-minute warnings. From day three the communications team announced each transition ten minutes ahead, and transitions improved.
Student media. Content went out from day one and drew partner attention.
A welcome with meaning. When the tribal education leader spoke, students lined up afterward to hug her. One leader wrote that it gave students a sense of cultural purpose and a call to service beyond themselves.
The big dinner. The host-sponsored dinner gave guests, partners and educators time to talk.