Florissant, Colorado
November 13, 2012
www.thenatureplace.net
The nature place, Sanborn’s conference center, was a perfect location for the Rocky Mountain Conference, its warm and cozy atmosphere lead to some great conversations and hopefully some life long friends. We could not have felt more at home between the wonderful Betsy Thamert (the Rocky Mountain ACA Executive), all of the camp directors of camps we had already visited, and the instant embrace of the rest of the Rocky Mountain community. We were fortunate to hear Bob Ditter speak as the keynote and were once again inspired and reinforced in the mission and passion of camping as well as impressed by his warmth and total lack of ego. We also learned so much from the variety of talks and workshops available over the three days, but I think that our favorite part was hands down the open space portion of the conference. We had no idea what to expect but were astounded by the camaraderie, focus that came about when we all sat down for about an hour and talked about what we all needed and what we all had to give. Tom Leheay facilitated open space and was so skilled at moderating the atmosphere and finding solutions. We all left feeling refreshed and confident that all the questions and needs we came to the conference with would be answered. Throughout the conference were scattered talks lead by anyone who felt comfortable in the topic, most of the sessions were round table discussions where everyone was able to add their two cents. Most importantly the open space structure gave each participant permission to continue in depth conversations during down times and through out meals. -Laura