What we need from you and when we need it

These are the dates your stuff must be postmarked by if you live in the U.S. and are using first class mail. If you live or are traveling outside the U.S., make sure to send it so that we will receive it by our postmark deadline. You’ll find more details on some of these items elsewhere in this handbook. Please double check everything for completeness and accuracy. Every year we get a lot of stuff that is neither complete nor accurate, and it’s a really big, frantic job for us to contact all the culprits. Save yourself and us some time and keep us in our usual happy friendly mood by doing it right the first time, thank you. Also, any forms that you are not filling out online must be typed or filled out in ink, and snail mailed—not faxed or emailed—to us.   (If you register quite late or for some other reason are working past our deadlines, you’ll need to overnight your paperwork.)  

Mail everything to NBTSC, 212 Rachel Carson Way, Ithaca, NY 14850.

If you're coming to more than one session of NBTSC, you don't need to send us duplicates of everything. You can send 1 waiver per location, 1 order form, 1 health history form, and 1 bliss book page (we will put it in the bliss book for every session you're attending -- but you're welcome to submit more than one for variety, too). You do need to send us a separate travel questionnaire for each session.

 

A special note for Canadians (and other campers living or traveling outside the U.S.)

Occasionally a few of the items that Canadian campers mail us take an extremely long time to arrive. (In one case the postmark date was over 5 weeks prior to when we actually received the item.) If you are Canadian you probably know more about any vicissitudes of the system than we do, but we do think it might be a good idea for you to 1) airmail your stuff, 2) get it in the mail early, and 3) phone or email to make sure we received it after a week or so. (We don’t often have campers from other countries, but we recommend that anyone living or traveling outside the U.S. take similar precautions.)

 

Tell us if your email address or other contact information changes

Preferably, log into your online account and making changes there. If you signed up to receive updates via email, but your email address is incorrect, you’ll still be accountable for whatever we send via email.

(And make sure your email program understands that our profound missives are not spam! Gmail, especially, seems to be confused on this issue. Good chance you'll receive emails from Sarabeth@nbtsc.org, Grace@nbtsc.org, Matt@nbtsc.org, Heather@nbtsc.org, and perhaps others.)

 

About Money

We continue to accept payment via PayPal. Go to the PayPal website and send the amount you owe plus 3% (to cover our PayPal fees) to NBTSC@aol.com. Make sure that you specify the camper’s full name and what the money is for. (Do not use this address for email correspondence! It will fall into a black hole.) You may see a charge on your credit card statement (or PayPal account) from LowryHouseP. That’s us.

Please make sure you are familiar with our refund policy to prevent misunderstanding and frustration for everyone.

Please make checks or money orders out to Not Back To School Camp. (Please make sure your check isn't going to bounce. We charge $25 for NSF checks plus, if your legitimate check arrives after our payment deadline, then you won't qualify for the $100 rebate!)

 

$100 rebate, anyone?

You probably noticed when you registered that you are entitled to a $100 rebate per session if you get all your fees and forms and other requirements in on time. (We mail your rebate about the same time that your session of camp begins, so most people receive them about the same time they return home.) Our hope is that every single one of you will be receiving a rebate. But, we really do require everything in, complete and on time. We do not plan to engage in discussions about why somebody thinks they are entitled to a rebate even though their postmarks are one day late, or because all that was late was their T-shirt order, or because in some other way they didn’t fully meet all of the conditions. That would defeat the purpose of the rebate, which is to simplify our summer work calendar. Wherever you see the word “optional” describing an item (such as a bliss book page, or a bio for the directory), it is not required for the rebate. (But, if you get it in late it may not appear in, say, the bliss book or the directory.)

Your rebate will be sent to your first contact (parent) listed in your online NBTSC account. If you'd like your check made out to someone other than that person, please contact Maya, who mails the rebates. (Good idea to make sure that if that parent/contact has recently moved, you've updated their address in your online account.)

If you have a question about your rebate (such as whether it's been sent), it's most efficient to contact Maya directly. (But please wait until after your session of camp is over -- that's approximately when it should arrive.)

 

How not to get dropped

Unless you’ve made prior arrangements, you may be dropped from our roster (without being entitled to a refund) if we do not receive your tution balance on time. So, please communicate with us well in advance if you are going to be late. You will forfeit your rebate, but if we know what’s going on with you then we can possibly work out a payment plan with you.

Sorry, we know that dropping people from the roster may seem harsh, but often there are a few campers who let us know they are not coming to camp by not paying anything after their initial deposit. We tend to wait for their money, call them and not hear back from them, all the while holding their spot—and eventually it turns out they’ve decided not to come….and by then it’s too late for many people on the waitlist to change their plans. So we have become sticklers. And, please don’t expect us to remind you to get your money in. We will give you a call or send an email before dropping you, but if you don’t check your email, never hear the phone message we leave, etc., the responsibility and consequences are still yours. Anyway, by the time we call, you may need to overnight your check in order not to be dropped—so just avoid all of this, in the first place, by sending your money on time! Thank you.

 

Must be completed by June 1 - All Sessions Campers:

• Money—the balance of your camp fees--must be postmarked or paid by PayPal by June 1. To see your invoice, login to your account at http://registrations.nbtsc.org and click on the “money” tab.
• T Shirt design contest entries (optional) must be postmarked or emailed by June 1.

 

Must be postmarked (or completed online) by July 1 - All Sessions Campers:

Optional (not required for rebate)

• Page for the bliss book
• Bio and photo for the directory. You will be prompted to upload these electronically during your enlightenment, or you can snail mail a photo (but we can’t return it).
• Oregon -- Permission form for tobacco cigarette smokers. (In past years this was part of the health history form, but it is now a separate form.) If you smoke cigarettes and want to be able to do so at camp, your parents must sign this form -- unless you are 18 or older. Please mail it by July 1, or bring it with you to camp. Either way is okay, but if you mail it later than July 1, you will be disqualified from the rebate. (Non-smokers can completely ignore this form.)
• Vermont -- email Matt if you hope for an indoor sleeping space. See more on this topic on our Vermont Notes page. (But, we recommend you let us know sooner than July 1. And, it's okay to ask later than July 1, but your chances aren't as good at that point unless you have special circumstances.)

 

Required Items

• Enlighten us with your personal info as reminded by the Naggifier when you login to your account – “About Me,” “Contacts,” “Workshops,” “Bedtime and Cabin Preferences,” etc. If you don’t have internet access, you can call Sarabeth to update your info. (Please don't add a nickname to your information unless it's one you actually use and plan to use at camp, and one your parents will recognize if we call you that when we communicate with them.)
• Printed and filled out order form (for T shirts, etc.), plus payment. (Technically: we don’t require you to purchase any of these items; thus the order form is not required, but if you are purchasing any of these things then your form must be postmarked by July 1. If it’s late, that creates extra work and frustrating delays for us. So, if you mail it late, no rebate, sorry. If you don’t mail it at all, that’s okay.)
• Printed and signed (go to the “forms” tab) Health History Form (make sure you and your parents sign it!). You'll find important additional information about the form here.
• Printed and signed (go to the “forms” tab) Waivers Form.* (There’s a separate waiver form for Oregon 1, Oregon 2, and Vermont. Complete all sections that pertain to you.)
• For Vermont: printed and signed (go to the "forms" tab) Farm and Wilderness waiver. (They have one for under-18s and a different one for 18s-and-over, so please doublecheck that you've filled out the correct one.)

*4/22/2011 Since we don’t yet have updated guidelines from our insurance company, it is possible that campers and parents may need to sign an additional waiver before camp. If so, we’ll let you know. Thanks for your patience and understanding!

 

Must be postmarked by July 1 (Oregon Session 1 campers), August 1 (Oregon Session 2 campers), or September 1 (Vermont campers)

• Completed travel questionnaire (download it by clicking on the “forms” tab when you’ve logged into your account), with your travel plans, train or bus arrival time, etc. (If you want to reserve a Vermont van pickup, or an Oregon hotel/hostel bed, you must pay for these things when you submit your travel questionnaire.)

 

photo by Laura Cox, 2010

 

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