Young Life parent meeting should be engaging and interactive.  But, many times we have one person up front that just talks to parents and students in the crowd.  We can create ways to connect with parents in cool ways.

1. Create a place to share photos from your camp trip.  Use a place like Flickr to create an online album, that is password protected, for kids and leaders to share their pictures for camp.  Then all parents and kids can

2. Create a text to join group for parents and kids for camp.  We use a service called eztexting for all of our are text messaging needs.  You can create a text to join short code for each of our summer camp trips.  Have parents and kids join the same texting group.

3. Share your social media sites for parents to join.  You can promote your Facebook page, Twitter account and Instagram account at your parent meeting for Camp.  Many times the most increase we see all year around our social media sites, is summer camp.

4. Set a QR Code for parents to make final payments for camp with a credit card from their smartphone.  Many parents will drop off checks and forms at your summer camp parent meeting.  If you have a QR Code that takes them directly to the camp payment link for your specific camp trip, they will get the money to you.

5. Create an video from Keynote with your voice over for parents that miss the meeting.  Keynote (a Mac presentation program) you can record a voice over your Keynote.  After you do your voice over you can export your Keynote presentation, with your voice over, to a QuickTime video.  Then upload your video to YouTube or Vimeo and share it with the parents that missed the meeting.

Do you have any ideas are engaging parents for a summer camp parent meeting?  Leave a comment!

Young Life training for summer camp is vital to being a great leader there.  The more we understand the philosophy of Young Life summer camp; we are emotionally, physically and spiritually ready for the week of camp and the calling for your summer camp week. 

As Young Life leaders we are responsible for summer camp.  If you don’t feel that you are ready to be a leader at summer camp, it is your responsibility to work to be prepared for summer camp.  Be prepared for summer camp as a leader.

Download our leader training guide for summer camp:

• Pages Version
• PDF Version

If you have any great ideas around Young Life training for leaders this summer for camp.  Leave a comment.

To finish out the year our area Young Life staff have been reading book Letters to a Young Life leader by Bob Mitchell. He has a great insights on what motivates us as Young Life leaders. It is a MUST read for all Young Life leaders.

One area to look at is what motivates people become Young Life leaders in the first place. There are 3 reason I believe people are Young Life leaders in the first place:

• Former Young Life students.
• They don’t know much about Young Life, but they have heard it is a quality organization.
• They don’t know about Young Life, but they have a heart for kids and Jesus.

Great Young Life leaders have high levels of perseverance and continued faith that Jesus is working in the lives of kids.

1. Their passion and heart for theology and Jesus compels them. These leaders are missional no matter if they were a Young Life leader or not. Their hearts break for people that don’t have the same love for Jesus as they do.

2. Their passion for kids outweigh everything else. These leaders love kids and kids love them. They see great potential in high school and jr. high students.

3. Their history with Young Life out ways everything else. They meet Jesus through Young Life and that compels them to be Young Life leaders when it is hard. Their passion for kids to have the same experience with Jesus pushes them to be better leaders.

How would you evaluate yourself as a Young Life leader? Take this self evaluation to know where you are and where you want to grow. Below are two versions of the same form. The first one is meant to print out and fill out. The second is an interactive PDF where you can fill it out in the document.

• Volunteer Leader Evaluation Sheet – for leaders
• Volunteer Leader Evaluation Sheet – for leaders (interactive)

What motivates you to be an excellent Young Life leader? Leave a comment.

Young Life t-shirt are a badge of honor in the Young Life world.  You most likely know someone that has a hundred or more Young Life t-shirts.  People go crazy over a well designed Young Life t-shirt.  So, how do you make yours excellent?

I love feeling of showing up at Young Life camp during the summer and having summer staff and/or work crew that want our area Young Life t-shirt for summer camp.  It gives our leaders and kids pride in knowing what they have is valuable.  It creates admiration with other Young Life areas.

Here are somethings we have done to create awesome Young Life t-shirts:

1. See what is trending.  I used to spend half a day in the mall going from store to store and taking pictures of t-shirts with my cell phone.  Now we can use Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc to see what is trending.  See what gets the most likes or retweets.  If you have an idea, invite your Young Life online community to weight in on what they think of it.
2. See what has been used before and figure how to make it better.  There are lots of good ideas out there for Young Life t-shirts, but with a few modifications here or there; we can make it a wow.  And a wow is what we are after.  Take lots of pictures of Young Life t-shirts and save them somewhere you can come back to them.
3. Don’t use an inside joke on your t-shirt.  I know people that have been caught in this before.  They create a t-shirt around an inside joke for their area or Club, then a few months later the t-shirt is not the same and the joke has run it’s course.
4. Invite kids into the design process.  Many times what we think is cool, does not have the same impact as if kids are behind it.  If you have done the Ministry Strategy 41 training with Brian Summerall, you know that inviting kids into the design process is key.  If kids own it and love it, it is a win for everyone.
5. Don’t miss out on not having Young Life on the t-shirt.  One of the best brand equity things we can do is have a well designed Young Life t-shirt kids love wearing to school.  Make sure it says Young Life somewhere on the t-shirt.  I have seen great designs, but there is no mention of Young Life on the t-shirt.  Don’t miss out on this golden opportunity.

Do you have an idea on how to create a great Young Life t-shirt?  Leave a comment.

Everyone one loves Young Life t-shirts. Young Life t-shirts are the crown jewel of all Young Life apparel. It is like Young Life currency between Young Life kids, leaders, staff, etc.  But there are so many other things that we can put the Young Life logo on that will help build the Young Life brand in our communities.

You will need to figure out if you are going to sell these items, give them away or a combination of the two. If kids are used to paying for Young Life t-shirts in your area then you should sell the majority of these.  But, if you give Young Life kids free t-shirts and apparel, then you should give them away.

I am only saying you need a few of each, on hand.  We are not a camp store.  Use your judgement here.

1. Extra Young Life t-shirts. There will be plenty of places throughout the year where can give away Young Life t-shirts.  Yes, Club; but many other places as well.  Having a few extra on hand can be a great resource for your Young Life area.

2. Young Life hoodies or fleece. We live in a cold weather climate. People in our area wear hoodies and fleeces as much as they wear t-shirts. The need for us to have Young Life hoodies and fleeces on hand is a huge need.  We gave all of the leaders in our area a Young Life hoodie as a gift this year.

3. Young Life car stickers. If you walk through the parking lots at most high schools were they have Young Life, you will see lots of cars with a Young Life sticker in the back.  At one of our high schools, the Young Life students all parked by each other.  On any given day you would see 30-50 cars in the parking lot with a Young Life sticker in the back.

4. Young Life mobile phone & tablet cases.  Custom or logo cell phone cases and tablet cases are hot right now.  You see many companies giving away cell phone cases or tablets cases, if you purchase a certain amount of times or dollar amount in a store.  Or you see companies giving them away as frequent purchased gifts.  A cell phone cases says a lot about what we value.

5. Young Life pens.  Young Life pens should be at every banquet, leader meeting, Campaigners and anywhere else.  Get them made with your Young Life area info on them.  Give them away to others.  Re-order often.

6. Creative promotional products.  How about ear buds with your Young Life logo?  Or sunglasses with your Young Life logo?  The sky is the limit and maybe some resources.  See what kids are wearing or consuming that you can use to creating Young Life branding in your area.

Unfortunately, in Young Life we have to create our own brand equity many times in our own community.  Having the right promo materials for kids, leaders, donors, parents, etc can go a long way in which creating that.  The visual representation of Young Life and the Young Life logo through Young Life gear, can help in the brand equity in your community.

Do you have other ideas for Young Life promotional products for Young Life areas? Leave a comment.

Our Young Life logo is great design and can stand out amongst the crowd. Whether you are using the Young Life logo or your area specific logo Young Life logo, get the Young Life logo out there in your community. Mobile phones and/or tablets are a great place to flash your Young Life pride. They will be more visible than you think they are.

Why use wallpapers?

Wallpapers are a digital expression of things what we care about. If you are a Young Life leader or staff, you should want to promote the Young Life ministry you serve.  Movies, bands, organizations all use wallpapers to promote something that is new in these areas. Why not promote what you know as a Young Life leader or staff, the mission of Young Life by using mobile wallpapers.

*NOTE – to download any of these wallpaper, right click on them and choose “save image as” on your computer.

iPhone 4/4s Young Life phone Wallpapers:

iPhone 5 Young Life phone Wallpapers:

Android Young Life phone Wallpapers:

iPad Young Life phone Wallpapers:

Want to create your own?  You can download any of these Photoshop templates below:

• iPhone 4/4s Wall Paper Template
• iPhone 5 Wall Paper Template
• Andriod Wall Paper Template
• iPad Wall Paper Template

If you have a request for logo that was not offered here, leave a comment.