The Online New England Camp Community is Live: Welcome to Tradewing
January 1, 2024
For folks looking for the Tradewing login, go to acanewengland.tradewing.com.
For folks new to the platform or curious about what’s happening, read on
The connections we make, resources we share, and knowledge we exchange throughout our community have helped summer camp in New England thrive for over 160 years.
A few years ago, a global pandemic interrupted the usually reliable and healthy heartbeat of the camp season. Throughout this period, ACA, New England was privileged to sit with, support, and connect folks from varying camp backgrounds to help each other. One of the main takeaways from this experience was the need for more opportunities to talk, collaborate, and share whatever’s necessary to continue the camp mission.
So, what is Tradewing?
Tradewing is the host platform for our online New England Camp Community. Open to all ACA, New England members, this space yours. We encourage you to ask questions, suggest answers, seek resources, and/or share anything you feel is pertinent and helpful to the future success of camp. From policies and procedures to Ted Talks or Ted Lasso videos, the New England Camp Community on Tradewing is your online member clubhouse.
What’s inside?
Your Feed: Like Facebook or other platforms, when you login, you’ll see your main feed. This is populated by information and posts from groups you’re in, tags you follow, and events that are open to you.
Groups: Groups are just what they sound like. Everyone is a member of the General group upon joining. From there, you can see what groups are open to you under the “Groups” label on the left side of your screen. Some groups, like General, Day Camps, Residential Camps, Non-profit Camps, For-profit Camps and EPIC, New England are open to the entire membership. If you’re interested in the conversation around and/or resources shared in these groups, you’re welcome to join. Other groups such as the Board of Directors and some committees are set to private. Again, this is your platform, so if there’s a group you’d like to see created, reach out to bud@acanewengland.org.
Tags: Like hashtags in social media, Tags refer to topics. People can add tags to a post or question to give more specificity or context. Same as with Groups, members can see what Tags exist under the “Tags” label and follow Tags that interest them. Once again, don’t see a Tag you think is pertinent to the conversation, reach out to bud@acanewengland.org.
Events: While most of our educational and professional development events will continue to take place live or on the platform most comfortable to presenters, Tradewing will begin to host more social, networking, and peer-driven engagement opportunities such as Coffee & Camp Chat.
Resources: Within the various groups on Tradewing (including the General Group), there exists a tab/option for uploading resources. For documents or other downloadable resources, this is a place to upload and share.
Posts: The heartbeat of the conversation online is posting. Whether it’s sharing videos, asking/answering questions, proposing polls, or authoring blogs, all are integral to helping one another continue to provide the best camping experience for all.
Sounds great! But how do I get in?
ACA, New England members should have received an email invitation from notif@necamps.tradewing.com . There’s a link in that email to get you started. If you missed that message or can’t find it, reach out to bud@acanewengland.org.
If you’re not a member of ACA, New England, you are still welcome to join any event open to the public that’s hosted on Tradewing and/or as a guest of other members for certain events. ACA members from another region or folks who aren’t ACA members should reach out to bud@acanewengland.org for access.
How do I join an event? (Video instructions with narration)
Once again, we look forward to engaging with you more consistently through Tradewing, and as always, should you have questions, information, requests, etc. regarding Tradewing, ACA, or anything else camp, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.