Questions, Queries, and Quandries...

"I was wondering what the difference is in 'reserving for a family or individual' and 'scheduled celebration for individual organizations' was, are they th...e same thing? Are reservations by families or individuals treated the same if they want to scheduled a celebration? Or do they need to schedule a celebration as well as reserve? And what kind of conflict might there be if a few families and individuals scheduled/reserved celebration the same time as individual organizations scheduled celebration?...Ehh...MAKE ME STOP !!!" 

I've always liked questions, and here are a few a friend recently sent to me about the Church. I thought I would answer them here for everyone's benefit. These are ALL hypothetical answers, remember that.


(1) "I was wondering what the difference is in 'reserving for a family or individual' and 'scheduled celebration for individual organizations' was, are they th...e same thing?
     Organizations will need to submit some type of schedule concerning the regular meetings, events, etc... that they plan to hold at Middleworld Woods. For example, Group A plans on holding their private celebration here the 2nd weekend every other month.  They were one of the organizations that came out and helped work on the woods intitally and were allowed to choose and set up their own exclusive site.  A family or individual can still make a reservation for the same weekend.  The organizational sites and individual camping areas are separate so there should be no conflict.

(2) "Are reservations by families or individuals treated the same if they want to scheduled a celebration? Or do they need to schedule a celebration as well as reserve?"
     A "reservation" is treated like any other you would commonly think of. The Individual or Family calls or emails us and wants to know if there is availablitity for such and such date(s) for them to come out either for a day, or to camp and use the common worship sites. It is on a first come-first served basis.  If an organization wants to come out and it isn't a time on the schedule they submitted when they joined the church , we check availablity and handle it in the same way.

(3) "And what kind of conflict might there be if a few families and individuals scheduled/reserved celebration the same time as individual organizations scheduled celebration?..."
     The number of Families or Individuals coming out at any one time will only be limited by how many camping spaces we have open at the time. Use of the common worship areas will be determined by a sign up sheet here at the office. They will be able to "reserve" the common area for a block of and hour at a time, depending on how many people sign up to use the common area.  The REAL problem develops when Organizations that have never come out to help develop Middleworld Woods (and therefore do not have a designated, private organizational area) all want to use the woods at the same time.  That's why it is so important for interested Organizations to get involved quickly, come out and help cut trails and establish celebration sites, etc... those that do can choose their own privately designated celebration site and do not have to worry about someone else using it when they want to come out.   
     At the same time, Individual or Families that come out and help to develop the woods get a voucher for a free day pass or free night of camping for every day that they come out and spend at least 3 hours helping to develop the woods.
     The way that we have set up the designated area program, those organizations that invest time and effort into helping to cut trails and establish celebration sites guarantee their organization a standing reservation for use as they see fit.  Those organizations that want to benefit from using Middleworld Woods but who have never contributed to the development can make reservations on a first come-first served basis, but if an organization with a designated area wants to use the woods on the same date(s), they get priority.


The number of campsites will greatly depend on how many people come out and help cut trails and clear campsites, as well as how many people are wanting to be here at the same time.  Since the campsites and designated celebration areas will  be separate, we can still have Families and Individuals out here when organizations have scheduled activities.


I hope that answers some of those questions. As stated before, these answers were hypothetical. The exact administrative documents outlining the rules and regulations of Middleworld Woods have not been drafted yet.  The answers here are as close to the proposed standards as we can get at this time.