Resources for Deans

Welcome to your hub for information and resources! We want to do our very best to provide you with everything you need to have a successful session of camp. If there is anything that you don't see that you need, please let the camp office know.

Resources

As You Begin . . .

The first thing you need is an Assistant Dean! An Assistant Dean should:

Be someone not in your immediate family and preferably not someone you work with.
- An Assistant Dean is someone who can take over your responsibilities for the session if you are taken away by an emergency. If you in the same family, an emergency is likely to take both of you away from the session, leaving it vulnerable. If it is someone you work with, this can also be a challenge if the emergency is work related. This is less common, but can happen.
Be most likely a male
- Camp Northward’s current policy is that Deans (including Assistant Deans) are to be men who are associated with a Christian Church or Church of Christ of the Restoration Movement.
- The Trustees have recently allowed for a few sessions to be led by women. They are continuing to evaluate, pray through, and have conversations about this decision. We will let you know when more information is available.
Know that they are the Assistant Dean.
- Please do not assume that someone can, or wants, to take over for you if the need arises.
- Please ask them and make sure they know what they are committing to before they say “yes”.
Be a part of the planning process and decision-making.
- An Assistant Dean should help take some of the load off the Dean by helping to recruit faculty, plan activities, develop the schedule, write lessons, etc.
- The more they are involved in planning and leading, the easier it will be if something happens that requires them to step into the Dean position.
- This also is a wise way of "passing the baton" as you think about who will replace you someday.
Chosen wisely
- A good Assistant Dean is priceless. A bad Assistant Dean is a heartache.
Read the Dean's Manual provided. You can download it HERE.
- There is a lot of good information provided in the Dean's Manual that you are expected to know. Please let me know if you have any questions.

Before Your Session . . .

Keep these things in mind:

1. Faculty Recruitment needs to happen early! We want to have all of our faculty in place before registration opens on March 1st.

Faculty who have never served at Camp Northward have a specific form to fill out. They can find this on our website, or you can forward it to them (You can find it below in the "2027 Faculty Links & QR Codes" button).
- The camp office will be notified when a new faculty registers.
- The Executive Director will contact the individual for a conversation.
- The Dean will be contacted for either verification or a conversation with the new faculty.
- The Dean will send the new faculty their session-specific registration form.
Returning faculty should only receive their registration form link from their Dean. Each dean will receive this link via email, but you can also find your session-specific link below in the "2027 Faculty Links" button). If you wish to add anything to this form (i.e. a welcome note, specific questions, specific instructions, etc.) please let me (Nathan) know.

2. Communicate with your Faculty often.

When you assign them a role (recreation, music, lessons, campfire speaker, etc.), let them know so that they can start preparing.
If you assign dorm rooms, make sure they know the faculty who will be in their room.
Make sure that you assign "Dean of Men" & "Dean of Women".
Consider meeting with your faculty before your camp session to talk, plan, & pray.

3. Schedule your Pre-session meeting with the Executive Director as soon as you can.