CAMP DOUGLAS SMITH REUNION POSTPONED!!!
Unfortunately, we will be postponing the reunion due to low attendance. Thank you to everyone for their feedback on the recent survey that was sent out. The overall consensus was that the timing was not convenient for most and most would like to have a one day event. I would especially like to thank Lauren Rein, Jack Coladarci, Tom Coladarci, Margaret Freeman and Rich Rotblatt for the time they spent on the committee.
We will keep you posted regarding an event that will be planned next fall.
All the best,
Alana Flatley
Director of Development
Winnetka Community House
Everyone – I am so sorry about the reunion – the feedback we were getting was that the date was bad (too many conflicts), we had too many events planned, and it was too expensive. When we looked at the FB and blog comments by everyone – only a few people were committing to attending, and only a few had contacted us outside of FB and the blog, saying that they were attending We only had 12 confirmed with 9 ticket sales, I think, and only 16 had taken the poll (out of 183 possibles- from the FB group size)
When we added that in with the low poll and e-mail responses and ticket sales, we thought we should take a mulligan for June, and try for a new date with something smaller and less expensive. It looked like both Friday and Saturday were bad for everyone who responded (school was the most common conflict) and none of the three events seemed to be more or less popular than the other- so no way to weed out anything and trim the reunion down.
Although we know people sometimes wait until the last minute to register to go, We were worried that waiting until later to decide on having the reunion could cause a cascade of unintended disasters on a lot of levels: tying up valuable (rentable)space and personnel at the Community House during a high demand time of year (for an event that might not take place), financial commitments for the food services, keeping WCH staff working on this event, and away from the WCH’s “Centennial Year Celebration” (I know from my Board of Governors’ meetings that Alana and Josh are up to their eyeballs, and are already under huge time and attention pressures for planning and managing other WCH events, esp a huge one taking place in May), causing people to set up travel plans, buy plane tickets, etc..
Finally, I feared that putting on a reunion that turns into a bust in June would kill the CDS reunion idea for years to come, and possibly forever.
Given all that, and the large amount of work and planning still to do for June, spread over very few of us we felt we had no choice. Originally, we though we would have more people to help with planning and working, but in the end, everyone’s schedules were booked, and we didn’t have enough volunteers, and time was running out (Only 6 weeks away).
My enthusiam for CDS and the idea of how cool a reunion for everyone would be, caused me to underestimate the difficulties of pulling this off.
As always, any input or feedback is welcome.
Sorry again,
jack c
Camp Douglas Smith 
Buck Warhover
/ April 20, 2012I am so disappointed!! I am sorry this has to be postponed, but I understand that enough people have not signed up. I was planning on coming and had talked some old CDS ers into attending as well. Thank you so much for all the hard work and all the great memories you have stirred up for everyone. That camp meant the world to me and apparently to many many people. I continue to enjoy the Facebook page.
laurenrantnrave
/ April 20, 2012Thank you, Buck! Hopefully people will be more vocal for the next event and we can expand our committee membership.
Liz Urban Horton
/ April 20, 2012I know of at least two people who have already purchased airline tickets to come to
Chicago/Winnetka for that weekend. Shame there was no warning that cancellation was a possibility.
laurenrantnrave
/ April 20, 2012Your point is well taken, Liz. The possibility of cancellation was hinted when we posted the poll last week. At first we thought it was because of the timing of the delivery – being spring break, Easter and Passover and tax season. However, after that passed, with the exception of the committee members, nobody had purchased tickets or even hinted that they would be. I truly wish people had told us that they were planning on coming so that we could ride the wave of positive momentum, as well!
Liz Urban Horton
/ April 23, 2012Lauren, my sister purchased an airline ticket to come to Chicago/Winnetka months before you hinted of cancellation with your poll/survey. The survey probably would have made more sense if you put it out to the possible participants last fall by inquiring what type of event/activities/venue people might be interested in, dates that worked for them, price point etc.
Jack Coladarci
/ April 30, 2012Liz – we will try again for another date. But we need to have people commit and say what they want – publicly and privately. Only a handful of people had said they were coming. Just a couple of people came to the committee meetings. We didn’t have any strong sense of what people wanted in terms of the event itself, so I was just putting it together with what made sense to me, based on my research into what other camp alumni associations do, and my memories of camp. But my ideas didn’t resonate with potential attendees – We only had 4 people buy tickets to the reunion – three committee members and one other person. I couldn’t ask the Community House to continue to dedicate the time and efforts of two of their main staff people to our reunion, when it looked like it was going to be a bust. Its the Centennial Year at the WCH, and Josh and Alana’s days were getting to be 18 hours long on the CDS meeting days.
We have been asking all along about events/activities/ and venues – take a look at FB and here on this blog – but again, we didn’t get a lot of responses or commitments, which made it hard to determine what to plan, and then just plan hard getting things done.
I don’t know why we didn’t get much response, or commitment on either the structure of the reunion or on attending – maybe people were afraid of being strong-armed into doing something on the committee, or they didn’t publicly want to say they were going to attend, so they wouldn’t be locked into the event, when they hadn’t made up their minds. Its also quite possible that I am the world’s most boring person, so people just dozed off reading my notes, and didn’t realize they had to do something.
Anyway – we will try again. The ideas and events we have are a good framework for the future. We just need people to get involved in the planning, and then, to say they are attending.
jack c
Steve Bergstrom
/ June 10, 2012Who owns the CDS property these days and what’s it’s used for? I’m thinking the housing crash in western MI might allow the WCH to re-purchase the parcel. Assuming they want to run a camp again. Would seem to be in their mission.