TO: Rocky Mountain RYLA Board of Directors

FROM: Curt Harris, 2012 RYLA Conference Chairman

DATE: January 14, 2012

SUBJECT: Report to the RMRYLA Board

I apologize for not being able to attend this month’s Board meeting but I am out of town on a family matter. Initial planning for the 2012 RYLA Conference continues to go well. I would like to report on the following items:

· I continue to stay in contact with our Head Junior Counselors for 2012 RYLA, Emily O’Boyle and Darian Finley-Garcia. We met on December 19^th to discuss JC selection and other RYLA issues.

· All eleven Junior Counselors eligible to return for their second year have indicated their intent to return.

· A meeting of all three conference Chairs and Head JCs was held on January 4^th to determine which candidates will be further considered by their respective programs. This year’s process was different from previous years in that the Head JCs from all three conferences interviewed some selected candidates prior to the “draft” meeting. The meeting went very well and all three conferences received a strong pool of JC candidates. Because of the interviews before the meeting, the RYLA team was able to select the nine candidates to serve as first-year JCs and a number of alternates. All of these JC candidates have been contacted by phone by either Emily or Darian and all have accepted.

· 2011 RYLA Chair Kelly Albright has indicated previously that she will not return to RYLA in 2012. Therefore, I recruited Bob Wallace, an experienced RYLA SC, to serve as Assistant Chair. Bob is very qualified for this position and is excited to serve.

· I currently have preliminary commitments for 17 Senior Counselors. I also have two individuals who have indicated they will serve as SCs if needed on short notice. I currently don’t anticipate any problems with finding three more SCs to fill the roster of twenty senior counselors for the conference.

· All of the speakers that we wish to invite back have been contacted and have agreed to speak again at 2012 RYLA. We currently have one speaker slot available and are attempting to fill that slot with a suitable speaker.

· Training for RYLA had originally been scheduled for June 15 - 17 at the Boys and Girls Club in Fort Collins. However, I am attempting to change the training to June 29 – July 1. This change is necessary due to Head JC Darian indicating that he may not be out of school until June 15^th.

· We don’t anticipate any dramatic changes to last year’s program. However, based upon comments received from the debrief session last August, as well as other comments received from 2011 RYLA SCs, JCs and staff, we anticipate making improvements to several items in the program.

· At this time, I am aware of no significant issues or problems with the planning of this year’s conference.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Curt Harris

Chairman

2012 RYLA Conference