Now that I’m no longer working for the BSA, I’ve decided to share some sought-after information. There are some who will find this particularly interesting and others that won’t. But still, it will be fun.
So let’s talk about the closing staff slideshows.
The closing staff slideshows were my gift to the camp staff each year. And while I could never include everyone, I tried to showcase a wide range of the staff, as well as sum up the spirit of camp staff, the camaraderie that is felt, the family that is formed.
Gathering photos was always hard, and I relied on camp and program directors, as well as a lot of the central staff, and a little bit of Facebook research. So sometimes the pictures weren’t perfect, but I always worked with what I could.
The music was always a closely guarded secret. Music has always been very important to me and I always tried to find tracks that not only worked well as a background for the slideshow, but also told a story, sent a message and even dropped hints about where we were heading.
More often than not, the music was selected six to eight months out, but sometimes a late substitution would occur in May, or even July. As I write this, I have some of the music picked out for a slideshow I won’t be creating for the 2013 staff, but maybe I’ll mix it together and use it for something else.
The slideshows were created to be one-off performances. Mostly because porting them to youtube usually ends up in a copyright claim. Not that we make any money off of them, but because they could be construed as an endorsement. I’ll include what videos I can.
I’ll try to keep personal commentary about the people in the slideshows to myself of course, I’m still polite.
Now that some of the background is out of the way, let’s take a look at the slideshows, and the secrets within. First up, 2007.
