May 2012 | Volume 2, Number 5
Your CCCA Northwest Section Newsletter

Use verbal tips to make presentations pop
Need to make a presentation to a congregation, several key donors or another group? Consider these tips for effective speaking from Bryan Flanagan, corporate trainer and author of So, You’re New to Sales (Roundtree Press, 2011).

• Eliminate padding: Avoid using any sounds, words or phrases—such as “you know,” “well” or “uh”—that distract the listeners, taking the focus off your message. If you need to stall while you get your thoughts back on track, Flanagan says a short silence is better than an unnecessary or annoying phrase.
• Vary volume: Raise or lower your voice at appropriate times during your presentation to encourage your audience to listen and give your speech more punch.
• Use inflection: Help listeners focus on certain words or points with careful emphasis; using inflection can change the entire meaning of a sentence.
• Introduce pauses: Instead of fearing pauses, plan for them, Flanagan recommends. They can be used to help you transition to a new point, effectively slowing you as the speaker down and allowing certain points to sink in with your audience.

To catch padding words you may often use and to hear if you are using volume, inflection and pauses appropriately, Flanagan suggests making a video recording of your speaking. You can also listen carefully to your own voicemail message or record your speech while you’re talking on the phone.

Keep campers happy when adjusting prices
If you need to raise prices for summer camps, retreat groups or day events, learn from large companies whose sudden fee increases have been met with consumer disgust, resulting in falling stock prices, fleeing customers and online petitions to protest the change.

To help your campers and guests understand and even welcome a price hike, consider taking the gentler, wiser approach recommended by Rafi Mohammed, pricing strategy consultant and author of The 1% Windfall: How Successful Companies Use Price to Profit and Grow (HarperBusiness, 2010).

• Explain: Because most people naturally appreciate lower prices, offer a good reason for the increase, such as that your costs have gone up or that you haven’t changed your fees for some time.
• Provide options: If possible, give your customers another way they can save money, such as a discount they can take advantage of, or a shorter camp experience that is less expensive.
• Be fair: Only apply updated prices to new bookings or registrations, not those groups that reserved your place several months ago.
• Focus on value: Explain that your camp or conference center experience is still an exceptional value, even though you will now have to charge more.
• Compare to others: If appropriate, let campers and guests know that other similar organizations have also had to increase fees. This makes customers feel the change is fair.

Facebook helps California camp alert guests to cold-weather crisis
When a major snowstorm hit Forest Home (Forest Falls, Calif.) one Thursday in 2010, knocking out its power, telephones and e-mail server and resulting in road closures, the ministry chose to use Facebook to inform the more than 900 guests expected at the camp in the next 24 hours.

“Guests couldn’t call or email in and we couldn’t call or email out, so we resorted to generators and the Internet,” says President/CEO Stan White. “Through Facebook status updates as well as banners and newsfeed updates on our website, which is hosted offsite, we were able to communicate to each guest and staff member the untimely storm, its effect on our operations, and even rebook many of our groups for another weekend of camp just a few weeks later.”

The messages Forest Home posted to Facebook included:

• All camps are CANCELLED this weekend! Due to road closures and a major power outage, we are extremely disappointed that we are not able to enjoy serving you this weekend. Please check back regularly to stay updated on the plan for getting you to camp!
• All camps are CANCELLED this weekend! Don’t put away your snow clothes just yet! We really want to see you! We still have a variety of options for your group for upcoming weekends this winter. Your group leaders can expect to be contacted very soon. Thank you for your flexibility! Every camper is important to us.
• We are looking forward to next weekend's winter camps! Due to the recent snowstorms, our Mill Creek Canyon location is without phone service, electricity or Internet. Our utility providers are estimating that service may be out until Tuesday, January 26. We are currently planning to reopen at that time, and expect that camps and retreats scheduled for the weekend of January 29 will be unaffected. Click here for more information.

Like it did for Forest Home, Facebook can play a vital role in your communication with those you serve. Guests who are your Facebook friends have easy access to your page where you can share the latest happenings; plus, they will be updated via the news feeds. With one update, you can reach numerous groups of people (leaders, campers, prospects, etc.) in a singular web location.

To use Facebook this way in the future, encourage those you serve to “like” your page, and that they to go to it for current information about your organization. Update your page with regular, clear posts so that customers will keep your page in mind.

What has your camp done well? Send your best practices for the Case Study feature to jjohnson@ccca.org.

Making eternal connections
by Laurie Fertello, Warm Beach Camp

I wasn’t there that day in 2001 to attend the meeting, but I’ve heard a hundred times over that it was a “God thing”—the way He drew the people with passion and vision together to establish the Angel Tree Camping Program at Warm Beach Camp.

Prison Fellowship’s Angel Tree Program started in 1982 as a Christmastime ministry to the children of prisoners. In 1995, the program expanded to encourage churches to get these same children into summer camping experiences.
Warm Beach Camp was being invited to participate, and we responded with a resounding yes, not knowing it would become one of the most profound youth ministry endeavors we had ever undertaken.

I got a call one July evening in 2002 asking me to come down and talk with three girls who’ve been struggling since they arrived at camp. It took just a few minutes to drive to W-BAR-B Ranch and connect with the girls. I introduced myself and told them why I was there and what I expected to accomplish through our conversation.

Laquisha was closed off, literally. Frustrated and angry, she had her hooded sweatshirt pulled tight across her face. Marika sat sideways, her gaze fixed forward. At every comment and question, she was shaking her head back and forth. Tierra was sitting quietly with a steady stream of tears rolling down her cheeks.

We covered the issues that brought us together, and, with that out of the way, the Holy Spirit began to move. Laquisha began to pour out her heart and in one revealing moment, she blurted out, “Words are powerful!”

“Yes Laquisha, they are.”

“You don’t understand. The word love has the most power of all. You people say you love us and you don’t even know us. How can you love us when you don’t know anything about us?”

“Laquisha, Marika and Tierra, you are absolutely right. Love is the most powerful word of all, and if you give me a few minutes more, I’ll be happy to share with you how it is that we can use the word love honestly, and where that love—the love we have for you—comes from.”

For the next half hour, we had a powerful conversation about the Lord. The Holy Spirit moved in their hearts. He revealed Himself to them and they began to understand. It’s a joy to say all three girls made earnest decisions to walk with the Lord.

Tierra Howard returned to Warm Beach Camp as a camper two additional summers. In June of 2006, she applied for and was accepted into the Counselor in Leadership Training (CILT) program. She successfully completed her training and went on to stay the entire summer volunteering at W-BAR-B Ranch.

In August, Tierra was scheduled to be a junior counselor in a cabin group. Her lead counselor, Maggie Parks, shared about the week.

“When Wednesday came, the campers opened up to Tierra and poured out their life stories. Tierra’s story related to these young girls,” Maggie says. “God gave Tierra this opportunity to open up and grow spiritually—to understand that she, too, can make a difference not in spite of her background, but because of it.”

"Tierra stayed up most of the night telling me how excited she was. She wouldn’t go to sleep because she was so excited about what had happened. Three young girls came to know Christ as their Lord and Savior that night.”

I may not have been there during that first meeting, but I have no doubt: Truly this has been a “God thing”!

Editor's note: Some names in this article have been changed.

Do you have a faith story to share? Send it to Jackie Johnson at jjohnson@ccca.org.