• recreation	• spirituality
• community building	• leadership skills
• social justice	• ethical discussions
• outdoor adventure	• free time
• work projects	• ecology/environment
• sustainability	• families at play
• visioning workshops	• book discussions

Boards and committees often find that they get more work done at Mountain retreats — they can concentrate completely on their work and let The Mountain staff support them.

The Mountain will work with organizers to set up the desired kind of retreat.

Things to think about BEFORE your initial contact with The Mountain

• Plan FAR ahead (many groups book more than a year in advance).
• The most successful retreats are likely to have:
  • the Minister, RE Director, and/or lay leadership in attendance
  • the retreat listed in the church calendar as an official event and without significant competition
  • the retreat not conflict with school breaks
  • been publicized widely as much as 6 months ahead of time — newsletter, Sunday announcements, bulletin board, individual presentations to social groups/committees, etc.
  • lots of individual invitations — "come join our family..."
• Consider date options, range of numbers of people that might attend (adults, children/youth, families), other questions you might have for The Mountain to answer. Do run your ideas by the Minister, RE Director and appropriate lay leadership. Also, check with the person that manages the congregation's calendar. What you're trying to do at this stage is gain the support and commitment of as many key people as possible and know when NOT to schedule the retreat.
• Your goals for the retreat. Deciding what you want to achieve with the retreat will help you decide on the programming you want to include.

Initial Contact with The Mountain

• Contact The Mountain and ask for our sales manager
• You may reach the sales manager as follows:
  • Phone: 828-526-5838
  • FAX: 781-846-1295
  • e-mail
• What will happen in this discussion
  • Estimate the number of people
  • Establish date options or actual date
  • Discuss programming options you might want to include which utilize Mountain staff
  • Determine price ranges
  • Understand how group guarantee works
  • Discuss available space/other groups that will be here
  • Agree on next steps

Finalize your plans/gain approval from the congregation

• If there were date options, quickly establish the firm date within the congregation and firm up any other issues raised in your discussion with The Mountain.
• Refer to the Retreat Planning Timeline to help organize your retreat.
• Recruit a co-coordinator or retreat planning team. Retreat planning can be a lot of fun with multiple people involved. The creative juices get flowing and responsibilities get shared. Do designate just one person to be the main contact with The Mountain.

Finalize your contract with The Mountain
Quickly re-contact The Mountain to secure your space. Confirm any additional details about your retreat and arrange the group guarantee.

Your space is secured with a signed contract on file at The Mountain and with the group guarantee advance payment.
With your contract packet The Mountain will provide you with registration forms.

Promote the Retreat

• You can NEVER begin promotion too early. Often, the toughest job is getting the retreat on calendars — the congregation's, the staff's, group's and individual's. Recruit others to help you with this initial phase, e.g., people from the various interest groups AND have them register at the same time. Then they can go to others and say, " I'm going — come join me — it's going to be a great weekend."
• If the program isn't finalized yet, do that with both the congregation and The Mountain. If other congregations are going to be at The Mountain with you, consider having joint programming with them. Also, The Mountain staff may be available to do programming for you; however, make this request early in the process. Your Mountain contact can help you with all of this. Typically, this results in less work for all of the retreat coordinators.
• Good avenues for promotion include:
  • newsletters
  • flyers with registration forms
  • Mountain/Highlands videos
  • testimonials
  • speaking at group meetings
  • Sunday service announcements
  • booth at social hour
  • bulletin board with pictures
  • Minister/RE Director promotions
  • youth promoting the event
• Update the congregation/groups regularly about number of people already registered — encouraging others to register by your established deadlines — want as many of you to go as possible.
• Make sure all understand the planned programming and sell it.
• Sell the beauty and special nature of The Mountain and the surrounding area.
• Mention good food and fellowship, meeting new people, a time "away from it all," special activities for the children and youth, etc.
• Remember that we are very willing to make scholarships available to any that need them (youth, families, adults). We never want cost to be the reason that someone can't be here. The organizer can be helpful in promoting this aspect — even approaching people who you think might be hesitating for this reason.

Stay in touch with your Mountain contact

• Periodically e-mail or call your Mountain contact with updates on where you are. Don't be afraid to ask for help if you have questions or concerns. Again, the earlier you get going on this the better.
• As the retreat approaches you can talk with your Mountain contact about specific questions you might have, talk about specific people needs, etc.

At the Retreat

• A nice touch is if you or someone you designate can arrive at The Mountain early in the check-in process and help with welcoming your people. They will feel that much more "at home."
• Encourage people to arrive in time for the opening event (usually dinner) so that the group feels together from the beginning.
• Stay close in touch with your Mountain contact about how things are going — especially if there are things The Mountain can do to either correct problems or make things go that much better. Don't wait until the end of the stay to talk about such things.
• Finally, relax and enjoy — you've put together an experience for your congregation, or some part of it, that will help increase the feeling of community. Thank you!