Note
The CSU Pawtuckaway training camp was a tremendous success, largely due to Brendan and Clem's sublime organizational work. The training plan and courses were more structured and focused than previous camps have had. Brendan put together an excellent evaluation document for course analysis, and both Brendan and Clem set the controls well in advance. The cost of the camp was $15 per person to cover map expenses and food.
Clem edges Brendan out as the MVP of the camp for his work picking up the controls from the Saturday exercises and setting the flags for the Sunday exercises early on Sunday morning. Those attending included Ross, Brendan, Alex, Lori (and Presto), Giovanni, Katya, Sam, Jeff Saeger, Jeff Schapiro, Ali, Becky, SGB, Andrew and Ethan, Siobhan, Bob Lux, Ernst Linder, Jim Paschetto, Lynette, John Goodwin Sr, and me.
The Andersens and their pushily gregarious dog, Buck, were fantastic hosts and welcomed us with delightful hospitality. Once we arrived at their house, they basically took care of our every need, despite that we were tired dirty orienteers who smelled like Pawtuckaway.
Conditions at the camp were in general quite good; there were very few mosquitos, no deer flies, and clear skies. The temperature was unfortunately high - with a maximum of 23-25 C on both days; we readily dehydrated. As was to be expected, Pawtuckaway offered highly technical training, and the course design made good use of the challenges.
When it was decided by the CSU training group to host this camp, one of our goals was to make it open to anyone who wanted to come, in the spirit that we want national training camps to be. There certainly are times for exclusion - e.g. the US team preparing for WOC and building camaraderie - but in general, the purpose of training camps implies inclusion. The camp largely accomplished that goal; it must be hoped that no one felt left out by the strength of the friendships among those most active in the Boston training group.
One thing we can do better at subsequent camps is more deliberately review our courses together. There was some conversation, but it was unstructured. For instance, everyone could get into small groups and discuss routes, attackpoints, challenges, successes, and so on.
I met a number of new people and especially enjoyed hanging out with the Childs, e.g. on the Night-O. I can see why Sam has reported of much laughter from her JWOC coaching experiences.