May 21st Video FAQ with Jackie and Jared

Video Transcript

Jared

Welcome back for this week’s video. We’re so excited to talk to you once again. I’m Jared. I’m here with Jackie. How are you doing today, Jackie? I think we should point out to everybody where we’re standing. So right behind us, you’ll see a little bit, because construction that’s being done for our outdoor dining that we are adding for this year. So this is going to be a big awning and have an opportunity for our campers to have another space to sit outside. We’re really excited about that.

Jared

Of course, we have pools right behind us, junior camp up in the background. So it just feels great to be outside. It’s beautiful out. So we’re going to do what we’ve always done with our videos. We’re going to give you all the information we have available to us now. We’ll be as transparent as we possibly can be. But before we get started, let’s give a few reminders. So first of all, don’t forget if there’s any forms that you owe us please make sure that you get those as soon as possible clothing, make sure that you order your camp clothing.

Jared

If you haven’t already done that, make sure you contact Ramaquois.com/clothing. Staff medical forms. If you haven’t already made an appointment to get your form filled out by a doctor’s office or to go for the actual updated physical, please make sure you do that as soon as possible. We need to have all those forms in place and for any of our twelve year old campers and up who may be getting the COVID vaccine or have gotten it. Please make sure to include that information as well.

Jared

And we’re really excited to get all that stuff done so we can welcome everybody back to camp.

Jackie

Absolutely.

Jared

So I’m ready to get started with the stuff. Are you ready to get started?

Jackie

I’m ready to get started.

Jared

Okay.

Jackie

It’s all you and we have a lot of stuff, and it’s actually good stuff, because finally, we have received our first draft of the New York State guidelines for camp. A few things to keep in mind. We’re actually really pleased with the guidelines. We are not going to really have to modify very much of what we have planned. It is a first draft. There are definitely some items that are a little bit vague, and we are in the process of communicating with our governing bodies, hopefully to get some clarification.

Jackie

So having said that, we have something really positive to work with and Jared is going to elaborate.

Jared

Yeah, in broad strokes. The good news is that the guidelines allow us to follow the same plan we’ve had in place. For the most part, there may have to be some modifications. And like Jackie said, we’re working on getting some updated interpretations and some clarifications on some of the language in there, and we will communicate that to you probably sometime early next week. But in the meantime, we’re really excited about the opportunity to still be able to execute camp in the way that we’ve been planning for most of the year.

Jared

So that’s been, I think, really good news. One of the big ticket items is group size. And we’re very happy to say that the guidelines allow us to have the usual group sizes that we have had in the past. And so we really don’t have to limit campers in that regard. We’re really excited about that opportunity to run our program and execute the way that we always do. So the guidelines are really positive, and we are very excited about the opportunity to be able to run camp the way that we planned, the way we told you we planned and the way that all of us expect camp to look this summer.

Jackie

The guidelines provided us a lot of information we’re waiting for with regard to enrollment and program and different aspects of our plans. But the guidelines also provided some additional information about vaccinations and different protocols for vaccinated staff and unvaccinated staff. So to our staff and our families, what’s the story?

Jared

Yeah. So we’re really excited that in the guidelines here, I made it very clear that any of our staff that are vaccinated will be permitted to be masksless for really the majority of the day, most of the day, especially all the time they’re outside. And what we love about that is that the campers are now going to get to see smiling faces and seeing the joy that our staff has and sort of giving that back to our campers. So we think that’s going to not only create a really safe environment, but a much happier one as well.

Jared

And while we’re talking about vaccines, one of the most common questions we got is are we requiring our staff to be vaccinated. And so just to keep talking about that, we’re really happy and able to say that we expect almost all of our staff to be vaccinated by the time camp comes. And we’re really excited about that. There may be a handful of people who are unable to for one reason or another, and they’ll probably be in a position at camp where they’re not necessarily in the same proximity to our campers and doing something that’s a little bit more behind the scenes, a little bit safer.

Jared

So we’re really excited about that and think it’s going to make for a really healthy and a much smilier environment. We’re really excited. So that part was great. Yeah.

Jackie

Absolutely.

Jared

So as long as we’re talking about protocols, I know one of the questions we’ve gotten a lot. And certainly after last week’s video was sent to us was about what happens if there is a positive case and if there is a contact trace of some kind, how does that work? What’s the quarantine look like? What’s the readmit, what’s the refund, all that stuff. So maybe you want to talk a little bit about that. Sure. Absolutely.

Jackie

Ramaquois as an organization is not going to have our own quarantine rules and protocols. We are going to follow whatever is given to us by the State of New York and the Rockland County, Department of Health. So when it comes down to a contact trace or just certain protocols who’s caught up in a contact trace, is it a distance thing or whatever the rules may be, it will be whatever the Department of Health and the State of New York tells us, Ramaquois is not going to have our own separate policy.

Jackie

It’s going to be the same as far as readmit, a lot of this stuff is still changing what you say every time. But I’m going to highlight that again. Things are changing daily. Maybe you can tell everyone about the conversation?

Jared

I think the simple part is just this that if we were in a situation where a child or staff member had to be quarantined as a result of a contact trace that happened here at Ramaquois, we’ll be offering full refunds for each day per diem refund for each day that the campers required to be out. So it’s really not a question of money at all. We’re going to make sure that everybody is made as complete as possible. We’ll try to offer you different days if you think that would be better based on where the current infection rates are and all the numbers, we’re really hopeful and optimistic that it won’t really be much of an issue if at all this summer.

Jared

But if it is, we’ll make sure that we will fully reimburse anybody for any days they are required to miss because of a contact race here at Ramaquois. And I think that kind of covers our content for this week. So bear with us. We’re still getting some interpretations and getting some updates on it. But again, like we said before, really excited that camp is going to look and feel even better than I think we planned because of the vaccinated staff and whatnot so I’m really excited about that.

Jared

I think that’s it for this week’s video, and we’ll certainly continue to share more information with you as we move forward. Again, our normal reminders like to tell people, make sure you follow us on social media, both Instagram and Facebook. We had an awesome Instagram post yesterday because we had a big birthday we celebrated here, and so that was really very exciting. So make sure you check those things out and we’ll provide not only this video or videos like this, but other updates as well. If you have any questions, you can certainly always email them to us.

J##### ared It’s Jared at Ramaquois. Com that’s J-A-R-E-D at R-A-M-A-Q-U-O-I-S dot Com.

Jackie

Actually, one more thing I just want to add, because I know a lot of you have gotten emails. Please understand that grouping has not been announced yet. Divisions have been so some families, new families to Ramaquois have gotten an email from the side director. Notifying you what division your child is in and introducing you to the division leader. That is not a group. That’s a division. So the groups will come out about ten days prior to camp. We’re still working on it. So I don’t want you to feel that you did not get information that someone else did.

Jackie

Nobody knows yet.

Jared

Right. All right. So thank you for adding that. And I think that’s it for this week. Right? So let’s end it the way we always do. We’ll do it together.

Jackie

Are you ready?

Jared

Here we go. Have fun. There’s a camp out there.