OT - New Camp Michigania Rule
Are there any other Michigania Campers out there who noticed the new rule stating that "every adult attending (camp) must be an Alumni Association member"?
The stupidity of this rule has my head spinning and I'm wondering if I'm the only one. What is the point of forcing my wife, who did not attend U of M, to join the U of M alumni association so that our family can go to camp? This seems like a petty money grab by the alumni association that only serves to dilute the whole purpose of having an alumni association in the first place. It actually makes me kind of embarrassed that to be associated with the alumni association...
Anger
January 8th, 2014 at 9:45 AM ^
January 8th, 2014 at 10:02 AM ^
The only difference is alumni have access to the graduate database.
January 8th, 2014 at 12:50 PM ^
It's always been the case (as far as I know) that the adult campers didn't have to be UM grads, merely associated in some way with the University - and an acceptable way for non-grad family members was to join the Alumni Association.
It has never been required that all adults be UM grads. I have friends and family who attended the camp who were not UM grads, though they had UM grads in their families.
It may not have been as strictly enforced in the past, I don't know, but I was told back in the 90s that all adults had to join the Alumni Association.
I donated to Michigania as did many of my friends who attended the camp. My daughters were also counselors there. Aside from being a student, these were the best weeks of my life, by far. I may go back soon, as my daughters have expressed interest in doing it again.
January 8th, 2014 at 10:02 AM ^
The Michigania Up North (on Walloon Lake) is the original, the only one exclusively for M grads that runs all summer and has some fall and winter weekends too. They now also have availabilty somewhere out in California (I believe its Cal-Berkeley's camp and they let Michigan grads attend) and for a couple of weeks at the end of the summer in upstate New York at at a youth summer camp called Point-of-Pines that rents itself out to the alumni association after the kids have gone home for the summer. Never heard of one in Europe.
January 8th, 2014 at 10:50 AM ^
Correct me if I'm wrong but is the camp subsidized by the alumni association? If they had groups of 30 people showing up to one alumni member they probably felt the need to do something, you are sort of just paying for the camp in a slightly different way. They could always just charge non members a fee and do the same thing but that would piss people off just as much.
January 8th, 2014 at 10:57 AM ^
In fact, someone who is a long time camper and on the Camp's leadership group told me its actually the opposite. They fill every spot during their 11 week session and when they need to build something they fundraise and get donors to build it. Pretty darn sure Michigania more than covers its expenses and actually puts money into the AAUM budget.
January 8th, 2014 at 11:46 AM ^
January 8th, 2014 at 12:37 PM ^
Thanks for the correction, I still don't have a huge problem with it as that money was still raised as a michigan alumni thing but good to know.
January 8th, 2014 at 12:08 PM ^
Would I then have to pay annual for her, or purchase a life... (spouse isn't an alum at all) I purchased the life when it was 400... (it was going up to 700 and wife and I decided it would be awesome to do it that way, 4 monthly 100 payments and all done) So 1400 would be a big bite for this limited use.
EDIT: It would be a 200 charge. (from the website)
January 8th, 2014 at 2:17 PM ^
January 8th, 2014 at 3:19 PM ^
... and I'm not seeing this. Do you have a source for the rule change?
EDIT: I see it. Man, that is confusingly written. So an alumni can sign up a bunch of non-alums, but for those non-alums to actually be able to attend they need to buy memberships? Yikes.