STAND Camp Day Three
By Regional Organizer MJ Engel 
After a night full of conversations that left many STAND campers up until the crack of dawn, day three began with a debriefing about Sudan and genocide prevention legislation with staff members of GI-NET/SDC. It was a time for everyone to get up to speed on what our national direction will be this year. After the debriefing, Advocacy Coordinator Maria Thomson and Programming Coordinator Cassie Wiegmann explained this year’s national campaign, which the MC hopes will act as a framework for chapters to work off of this upcoming year. Then, teams (all the colors of the rainbow plus SILVER!) broke off to discuss future tactics and strategies. One member from the silver team described one fundraising campaign in which STAND members sold duct tape pieces that students could buy and use to tape their school administrator to a wall. Could CCLs get any more creative?
During lunch, chapters met with their respective Regional Organizers to get to know each other and brainstorm ideas for future collaboration. At my table, chapters from Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine told stories about the highlights and lowlights from the past year, gave advice, and even started planning for a regional conference. Needless to say, STAND Camp has gotten everyone pumped up and super excited to get the year going.
The next presentations were on creative advocacy, how to make strategy charts, public speaking, and how to best use social media. STAND alums explained several innovative and effective ways to advocate creatively, and then CCLs got to work on their own strategy charts to plan their own campaigns. Afterwards, we got a crash course in public speaking, including how to pitch your organization by learning an “elevator speech.” An elevator speech is a 15-60 second pitch about what your organization is, what it needs, and what it wants, a very useful tool to leaders everywhere. Many STANDers in the audience had never spoken publicly before, so of course, at the end of the workshop, some of these people did for the first time. UpSTANDers also learned how to pitch their stories to newspapers, magazines, and other types of “old media,” while also keeping up with “new media” such as Twitter, Facebook, and other social media websites. Everyone gathered around the campfire one last time to learn and discuss the recent event in Libya, and, of course, make delicious s’mores.
The highlight of the day by far was Team Silver’s team spirit performance. A member of the team composed a piece of slam poetry that the rest of the team did interpretative dance to. It was a powerful showcase of team spirit, collaboration, and beastliness. GO #TEAMSILVERNOTGRAY!
Check out Team Pink’s Group Skit below!