User:Middy g
The middy gester 25.2
Disciple of Jamie
Cult of the Rain God Heretic 25.1 and Fallen Priest
Gaynor fan and Chris NJ enjoyer
Speaker of the National Plumbers student line 2025
Classes:
COGN.A.LAN.23.2
ETHC.CAR.24.2
PDOX.CAR.25.1
INCW.CAR.25.2
My Passionfruit speech 25.2: Read the last paragraph of this
I was lucky enough to be able to double session in 2025. I did a lot of management and advocacy for traditions both sessions, and I think that all in all, things went pretty well. Not quite what I had hoped for, but pretty well. I think/hope that this was partially due to the efforts I made to communicate with staff, so I guess here's my advice for dealing with staff and getting stuff done:
Don't antagonize staff. Over the years, admin has become (by and large) a bit of a pain in the ass. It is a little weird that we are considered smart enough to thoroughly analyze college-level material or learn and understand proofs for some of the biggest concepts of math, yet are not allowed to be outside of eye/earshot of staff members at almost any time. Being a dick to admin for creating these rules and to general staff for just doing their jobs of enforcing these rules is not going to help, and if anything, it will make staff more interested in enforcing these rules and validate admin for making them.
Respect staff. This is pretty self-explanatory and it transitions very nicely from the last point. Don't give admin or staff a reason to crack down on your stuff. And hey, if you're nice to them, maybe they'll actually cooperate with your stuff, which brings me to the next point.
Build relationships with staff. You (probably) don't come to camp to talk to adults. I get it. However, most of the people who are here are here because they want to be here. They want to talk to smart kids. They want to teach you, and they want to learn from you. And of course, they want to have fun. This might not be everybody's cup of tea, but quite frankly, there aren't many things that have made me happier than talking to the site director about Weird Al, or listening to my FicPoe TA go on tangents about the Shelleys, or having a half-hour discussion with an administrator about David Foster Wallace, Zadie Brown, and Romantic-era English lit. If you, like me, are a nerd, and if you, like me, want to organize, preserve, and get camp support for traditions, do this. Talk to staff members. They will appreciate it, and you, more likely than not, will also appreciate it.
If you want something from staff members, ask them for it. Especially in a time when staff do not often return or know traditions, they do not know what you want if you don't tell them. Assuming that you've done everything that I've recommended so far, it will be much easier to tell them. You're smart, so you've probably figured out where I'm going with this already. It's also pretty obvious, but it's still worth saying: if staff members like you, and you don't give them any reasons not to trust you, they will be significantly more open to helping you and supporting the stuff you want to do. Also, as a corollary, if you make staff members' experiences good, in addition to being more open to supporting you, they will be more likely to come back and provide that support for future campers.
Be good to each other. Nerd camp is very much not exempt from normal teenage clique stuff and bullying etc., but we want to get it closer to being that exception. There is no point in running traditions if not to build and maintain a strong, loving, and accepting community. Act like it. Just be a decent human being. :)
Love ya!
