Kanakuk's K-1 "K-Dome" Getting a Makeover #2

There's progress being made on the K-1 K-Dome makeover. As you can see in the photos the new wall structures are starting to take shape atop all new concrete footers. You might also notice the absence of the colorful murals that have been along the back wall of the K-Dome for many years. Those have been moved to storage with plans to put them back on display. The new location for those has not been determined, but they will maintain their place in the atmosphere of K-1!

Enjoy the day! Does this time of the year give you chills, like it does me? I just can't wait for summer to get here. There is just something about that first bus full of Kampers that rolls into the parking lot right outside my window. It's bigger than the start of football season, it's like 5000 men praising God at a Men at the Cross event. It just feels right. I don't see many of their faces (until I look through the 100,000+ photos) but I feel their hearts begin to beat long before I hear the grind of the bus engine up that last hill. It's electric!

To Kelley - I'm so glad you are going to be a part of it!

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New Employee Announcement - Jeff Wiskur

DATE: December 10, 2008

TO: Kanakuk Kamps

FROM: Human Resources Department


SUBJECT: New Employee Announcement

Please welcome Jeffrey (Jeff) Wiskur, CPA to the Accounting Department.

Jeff will be working as Manager of Finance.

Jeff and his family live in Springfield, MO. Jeff graduated from Missouri State University with a B.S. degree in accounting. Before joining Kanakuk, Jeff worked in public accounting, where he has more than 17 years of audit and consulting experience - mostly with KPM, Kanakuk’s accounting firm.

Jeff has been married to his wife (and high school sweetheart) Lisa for over 22 years and together they have 4 children: Julie (17), Katie (16), Eric (12), and Stephanie (4).

As a child, Jeff was a Kamper at Kanakuk Kamps and his children have attended Kanakuk. Jeff’s father created the stained-glass windows in the chapel and painted the mural at the K-1 K-Dome.


New Hire Announcement Written by: Julie Coxie, SPHR, Human Resources Director, Kanakuk Kamps

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Why Big Brands Struggle With Social Media

Why Big Brands Struggle With Social Media

This was a good article I thought people might find valuable. Sorry for the straight-up, rehash of someone elses content! I'll do it so infrequently, I promise.

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Contextual Expression Mark

New punctuation for the English language.

It’s more classy than an emoticon and sexier than an apostrophe, it’s the...

“contextual expression” mark.

It bridges the gap between a period and and exclamation mark. And, who doesn’t need that? Look at it's perfect form as it bends to the pressure of being not quite ready to be completely excited. How often have you written that line in an email or text message that just does not deserve a period, but can't muster up the sheer joy of an "exclamation mark"? This has been too long in coming. This new mark would not have been had Craig from Matchstic not voiced the yearning we all have had.

This "contextual expression" demands that the reader take the preceding statement in context of the entire message, your personality, current economic conditions, and general disposition of all previous communications. Then, and only afterward, apply the appropriate amount of "woohoo" to it.

Kanakuk Kamps will not have a use for this new mark and is considering banning the period and replacing it with "!". The excitement of summer camp deserves it.

The Contextual Expression mark, coming on all new keyboards beginning April 1st, 2009.

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What I wish my gymnastics parents would say on meet day…

What I wish my gymnastics parents would say on meet day…

Kat Hilton, Kanakuk Kamps Counselor, ’03-’05 LSU Gymnast

I recently took the opportunity to advertise Kanakuk Kamps on the back of the program for the Illinois State Level 5 Gymnastics event being held April 3rd and 4th in East Peoria, IL. It didn't cost a lot and felt like a great opportunity to share Kanakuk with a new group of families. It also felt like a neat opportunity for ministry as well. I recruited Kat Hilton, a Kanakuk Institute student, Kanakuk photographer/counselor, and former LSU gymnast to help me draft an article specifically for gymnastics parents entitled, "What I wish my mom and dad would say on meet day…". You can see it below. Then following are some of Kat's gymnastics accomplishments. It's kind of a neat story.

The Article----

Growing up in competitive gymnastics, competing for Louisiana State University (LSU), and now training high level gymnasts as a coach at Kanakuk Kamps, I know what the words; pressure, determination, and perseverance mean. My life as a gymnast has defined them.

Your gymnast daughters are unique. They live in a world few will ever understand. Commitment and desire run deep, driving them to achieve, accomplish, and succeed in this highly physical and mental sport!

The support and encouragement of my teammates, coaches and especially my parents allowed me to walk on at LSU and be a first place winner.

As a gymnastics parent you may never understand the pressures, intensity, joy, and passion that your gymnast encounters, but the encouragement you share today can make all the difference.

You’ve supported her all the way and here’s what she’d want you to say today…

• No matter what, I’m proud of you.
• You’ve got this!
• I love to see you chasing your dreams.
• I still love you, No matter what.
• I’m so excited for you!
• You’ve worked so hard for this! Enjoy it!
• No regrets! Give it all you’ve got!
• I love you!
• I’m so excited to see you compete!
• Your effort inspires me, I’m proud of you.
• Remember to just have fun.
• You are doing awesome!

…and remember, it’s not the score that matters, only that they gave their all. Gymnastics parents alway stay positive. Hugs and little notes of affirmation in their gym bags are always a great way to let them know you are behind them.
-----

Kat Hilton's story (in her own brief words)

"I was actually a walk on and I had to fight to get on the team.. my head coach at LSU didn't think I would make it. God had a different plan. I won my first meet for LSU..."

The rest of Kat's story is chronicled here:

SOPHOMORE SEASON (2003)
A walk-on that worked her way into the Tigers' bar lineup ... Had a phenomenal collegiate debut against Denver, scoring a 9.925 on the bars to win the event title ... Her score ranked as the second-best by a Tiger on the bars in 2003 ... Scored a 9.800 against Florida. Recorded a 9.875 on the bars at the SEC Championships ... Matched that mark a week later at the NCAA West Regionals.

JUNIOR SEASON (2004)
Competed on the bars in eight meets for the Tigers ... Scored a season-best 9.900 against Texas Woman's and Arizona ... Notched a 9.875 at the NCAA Central Regional Championships ... Posted a 9.850 at the NCAA Championships ... Opened the season with a 9.850 at Michigan State ... Finished the year with a season average of 9.750 on the event.



SENIOR SEASON (2005)
A bar specialist for the Tigers, she competed on the event in seven meets in 2005 ... Won the bars title in the Tigers' quad meet with Illinois-Chicago, New Hampshire and Western Michigan, scoring a season-high 9.875 ... Title marked the third of her career on the event ... Notched a 9.825 at Ohio State ... Scored a 9.800 at both Kentucky and Auburn ... Averaged a 9.796 over the course of the season ... A member of the SEC Honor Roll.



Kat, thanks for sharing with us and the parents of gymnasts everywhere. In our book your gymnastics training will pay eternal dividends. You may even run a gymnastics camp or gymnastics school someday.

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Another Kanakuk Director on National TV!

The New K-Kauai Kanakuk Family Kamp Assistant Director recently took a pass from an NFL quarterback on National TV. Check it out.

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Ice makes Kanakuk Flexible

What will no doubt go down as the Ozark's ice storm of 2009 is upon us. Normally this time of day the offices of Kanakuk Ministries are buzzing with phone calls, meetings and planning for the summer. Yesterday about 3:00 the freezing rain started coming down. By the time I left the offices at 4:00 the roads were getting icy. I even took a short detour through the ditch on the way home. As of this morning it's worse, much worse. A mix of sleet and freezing rain continued all night and promises to go on all day. I'm watching the tree branches outside my window slowly bow under the pressure.

So today, Kanakuk's registration department, marketing department and many other offices are staying put at home.

We will be monitoring email and phones the best that we can. If you have registration questions please email reg@kanakuk.com and we'll get back to you.

So, in the marketing department an ice storm may keep us out of the office but not from working. There are too many fun things to get ready for summer. We are working on changes to the website, a logo for the 2009 summer theme (Dare to Dream!), and keeping all the communication flowing.

2008 term videos are on there way to Kanakuk families in the next 2-3 weeks.

Hope your family is warm and safe while here at Kanakuk we get a chance to exercise our K-Flex skills.

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What Changes are Coming to Kanakuk.com?

Jeremy our web development guru has a lot of projects on his list! Besides putting out fires here on a daily basis he's working as hard as he can to get through a bunch of this by summer. There's just one thing in his way...



This chart (meant to be somewhat humorous and a tiny :-) bit exaggerated) tells the tale of the pain and agony of web developers the world over. If everyone in the world would upgrade to the latest version of Internet Explorer (Wait the beta of IE 8 is so far worse than 7) or better yet upgrade to Firefox the web world would be a better place for all.

Here are some of the projects on the list of changes that are coming to kanakuk.com:
Kamp specific Kamper pages
Legit Alumni pages
Ajax based Daily Photo viewing application
new myKanakuk.com user interface
Kanakuk Resources Pages
kanakuk.com site wide search (Powered by Google)
Kanakuk Radio
Sayso Upgrade
Error handling
K-Kauai Kanakuk Family Kamp Registration process and content
New Flash Doc for Home page
Games for Kampers
Facebook Connect integration
Upgrade all Staff sections
Integrate video content from iQuestions.com
Kanakuk Blog Page

That list is in no particular order and there are lots of little things that we are working on. If you have suggestions or ideas for the Kanakuk website we would love to hear them.


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Monthly Payments Extended for Kanakuk families

Calculated monthly payments has been available for Kanakuk families for a couple of years now but not much has been said about it. Quite a few families use the option and it sure does make paying for Kamp a lot easier.

A friend of mine on twitter and a Kamp mom said: "After 8 years of coming up with mega $ on April 1 to send multiple kids to Kamp, I am loving the direct debit pymt plan! Good mktg tool too"

I took that to heart and worked hard over the Christmas break to put together a way to soften the payments even more. What I came up with was extending the payments all the way to May 1st. You can now login at www.myKanakuk.com, choose a child, choose this summers term and then click on Monthly payments. After that you just follow the steps to set-up a calculated monthly payment it defaults to adding one last payment on 5/1/09. That's 5 payments instead of 3. Could make a difference for you or for that friend who might be thinking about Kanakuk this summer. To extend the final tuition due date to May 1st you must set-up calculated monthly payments. The sooner you do it the lower the payments!

Let's be real, it doesn't take any less to provide the absolute best summer camping experience for Kanakuk kids, but we're all being just a little more careful with our money. It's a wise thing. Thanks for making the spiritual, social, & physical life of your kids a priority this summer by sending them to Kanakuk.

Side note: 2009 Summer theme has been picked. "Dare to Dream" You heard it here first.

Side note #2: Thank you for all the feedback on the new website! So much of it is positive that we feel like we are headed in the right direction. Some of you have expressed disappointments with one or more aspects and that is easily the most valuable input we could get. We are working on making improvements based on your feedback every day.

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K-1 "K-Dome" Getting a Makeover

This photo was taken during Tournament day in the 1940's on the "bottoms" at K-1. That location is just a stones throw from where the K-1 K-Dome is getting a makeover. Here are some photos of the current state of construction. Click to enlarge.

The project, which may be completed in 2 phases includes:

Phase 1 -

1. Adding air-conditioned men's and women's bathrooms
2. Adding an elevated stage between the bathrooms on the West end (closest to the Dining Hall)
3. Extending and enclosing the East side and adding bleachers for more seating

Phase 2 -

1. Enclosing the North and South walls, adding 6x8 ft roll-up doors along the walls
2. Installing sprinkler system
3. Installing Air-Conditioning to be used during closing ceremonies.

I don't know all the details on the funding for this project but with out complete funding Phase 2 will have to be done next year or later.

To make these changes to the K-Dome a special variance had to be granted because the building additions would be inside the 25 foot road set back. You might have seen the following in this Branson Daily News article.

On Wednesday, the Board of Adjustment also voted to approve a request for variance from Kanakuk Kamps. The camp owners are planning to build an addition to an existing structure that will encroach into the setback area. The variance request consisted of a 5 foot 6 inch encroachment into the setback area along Lakeshore Drive.

This project is being managed by Kanakuk Kamps' Dean Dewitt, Construction Maintenance Manager and Byron Joplin, Taney County Construction Superintendent. Those two are always making things better around here!

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