Chores

Morning chores are an integral part of the Kroka curriculum and community life. Morning chores:

• Allow us to frugally and self-sufficiently maintain our campus without using outside contracted labor
• Allow staff to interact with students in a unique one-on-one mentoring and teaching situation.
• Allow students to interact with students from other programs.
• Mirror the big job and camp life routines of expedition travel.
• Provide opportunities for healthy manual labor and exercise for staff who may otherwise be confined to the office
• Build community through the egalitarian distribution of work - that we all share in the dirty and uncomfortable tasks of life.

At the same time, we recognize that:

• Not everyone's physiology is well-adapted to early rising and working
• Everyone needs occasional rest days to sleep in
• Anyone might experience illness or injury that makes it difficult to do chores.

TIMES & DURATION: Morning chore times and duration varies seasonally at the discretion of the facilities manager, program director, and chore coordinator. In general, we avoid doing chores in the darkness, and adjust the chore schedule to match time of sunrise.

COORDINATION: Chores are organized and assigned by a chore coordinator (a volunteer position that rotates amongst year-round and seasonal staff). All staff must communicate with the chore coordinator about planned or unplanned absence from chores. The chore coordinator must announce (or publish on the Linseed calendar) the chore time and location, as well as plan a list of staff and tasks ahead of time. When working with students, staff should receive advance notice by 6:00 PM in the evening about what chores they will be doing the following morning.

BUSY SEASONS: During the ten (10) weeks of the summer season (staff training and summer program weeks).

All full-time residential staff and volunteers (year-round or seasonal) will report for morning chores at the time and place announced by the chore coordinator. All part-time residential staff will report for morning chores on any days that they are scheduled to work. Non-residential staff between the ages of 18 - 60 who live within a five mile radius of campus are asked to attend morning chores on all Saturday mornings and Monday mornings.

SHOULDER SEASONS: May, June, September, October, and when semester students or contracted groups are on campus:

All full-time residential staff and volunteers (year-round or seasonal) will report for morning chores at the time and place announced by the chore coordinator. All part-time residential staff will report for morning chores on any days that they are scheduled to work. The chore coordinator should ensure that all full-time residential staff should have at least two days each week free from morning chore responsibilities.

QUIET SEASONS: (when no students are present on campus)

The chore coordinator and facilities manager will decide on the number of staff people needed for morning chores each day and assign chore duties as necessary. Non-residential staff between the ages of 18 - 60 who live within a five mile radius of campus are asked to do chores a minimum of two days per week. When possible, the chore coordinator will attempt to have full-time staff doing chores only four days per week, and part-time staff only doing chores on days when they are working on campus.

Exceptions:

Seasonal or year-round staff who are enjoying a day-off are usually exempt from chores (with the permisson of the chore coordinator depending upon the number of students on campus). With the exception of the busy summer season, we try to have all staff enjoying days-off on weekends whenever possible.

Staff who have an illness, injury, or evening or late-night work duty may be exempt from morning chores at the discretion of the chore coordinator.

For families with children under the age of 12 years old, one parent may be exempt from morning chores.

Year-round staff working 7 days per week (summer leadership team) may be exempt from chores on days when students are not on campus, or at the discretion of the chore coordinator.