I love VBS and had been looking forward to directing. I am not sure if I will ever do it again. It seemed like there was one problem after another. Except for Thursady night, I went home almost every night feeling worse after VBS than before it started. The problem that I had was with some of the adults and their attitudes. I also had trouble with some adults not helping like they promised too.

One of my Station Leaders was the Director last year. During the entire week, she was always making "suggestions" on how I needed to do things. If I forgot to do or say something, she was the first to remind me. Last year, I let her run everything like she wanted to and never said anything to her about how she did things. She even switched some kids in a crew that I had set up so that her daughter could have all of her friends with her. I was running three other stations and had so much going on that I didn't realize this until the last night. I then felt bad about it because I told other kids that they couldn't be with all of their friends and then she goes and arranges a special crew for her child. She also yelled at me in front of others about the sound effects on the CD. Two days before VBS, I told her in an email that the files were MP3's and would not play on a CD player. She said no problem, she would bring her laptop and use it to play the MP3's. Well, that night at VBS, she told me that she didn't know about the files being MP3's and started blaming me for everything. She had to get someone to go home and get her laptop to play the sound effects. I finally just walked away and decided not to argue with her, even though she did know ahead of time about everything and kept blaming me.

I also had some adults that kept telling my husband that I was "Bossy" and talking mean to others. They wanted to do things their way and when I tried to follow the book, I was then being "Bossy". The adults acted more like children than the children did. It was unbelievable! I never realized directing would be like this. I had a lot of adults that wanted to tell me how to do my job but they didn't sign up to do it.

I had no crew leaders before VBS started. I had to draft all of them on the spot Monday night. Half of the crew leaders were not members and had never helped with VBS before. I didn't have time to explain their job to them before we started. Some of them didn't even stay with their crews each night. They just left them with the station leaders, who had about 35 kids and only about 2 Crew Leaders who stayed to help. When I told the Leaders to stay with their crews, they acted like they got mad. I guess I was being "Bossy" again, even though I was only doing as Group suggested I do.

The lady who said that she would do the Bayou Bash book with the Teens didn't even do the class for them. She just decided that since she wasn't going to be there Thursday and Friday, that she would just let the Teen boys go with all of the other kids. They needed their own class but since I had no one to teach them and VBS had already started, I had to let them follow along with the younger kids. Then she didn't even get anyone to cover for her crew the nights that she was gone, so the Teens then had to be merged with the Elementary kids.

To top it all off, the same lady who didn't teach the Teens like she had said she would and who left the kids without a Crew Leader two nights, decided to take her son with her who was my sound guy and was also doing the Spotlight Drama. He was going to get someone to cover for him the last two nights and let them use his laptop which worked with the projector, so that the kids could watch the Drama for those two nights. Well, he decided Thursday morning to go with his family out of town and take his laptop with him. They didn't even call me and let me know. They had the Spotlight Drama CD and all of the photos for the week with them, so I couldn't even show the kids the Drama for the last two nights. I had new kids who were looking forward to watching themselves on the screen and then I had to tell them that I couldn't play the Drama. They were so disappointed and so was I. This was our first year using the Drama and the kids LOVED it and looked forward to it each night. I was left to deal with all of the problems created by others.

When I finally got the Spotlight Drama CD back, we realized that we didn't have a cable to use to work with a different laptop. So we still didn't get to show the Drama. We had our VBS closing Program Sunday night. The guy finally came back with his laptop that we had used earlier in the week. He loaded all of the photos in the Spotlight Drama and right before our VBS Closing Program started, the Spotlight Drama program crashed and he lost the entire week of work. So, the kids and all of their parents who had been waiting to watch the Drama at the Closing program, still didn't get to watch it. I am still trying to get the photos from him so that I can burn a copy of the program using my computer at home.

I don't know if I will ever Direct another VBS again. I was so excited before VBS started but it was so stressful during the actual VBS that I am not sure if I will do anything next year. Despite all of the problems that we had, the kids had a good time and we did have some get saved, which makes it worth all of the problems that I went through.

I jsut wish that the adults would act like adults and that everyone would work together for the sake of the kids. I did have some great helpers this week, but I also had some that were not reliable and tended to have an attitude about every little thing.

How do you handle working with so many different personalities and not give up VBS altogether? I did VBS for the kids, not to please the adults. I just wish everyone would go along with the way that Group sets up the program and then my job would have been easier to do. Unfortunately, we have several who like to try to run everything and we also don't have enough help to do everything like Group suggests, which makes having a successful VBs harder.

I am sorry for the long post and for complaining about everything. I just wanted a place to share with others who may understand what I went through and who may have some advice for next year, in case I decide to do it again.

This year was my first year as director, and it was amazing.  I was almost embarassed about the amount of hugs and thanks I got throughout the week.  It was very fullfilling.  I can't wait until next year!

However, my easy peasy experience went with a LOT of pre-planning.  Our crew leaders and station leaders were ready to go about 2 months before VBS.  We had 2 meetings for both types of leaders beforehand.  Planning is a HUGE part of your VBS running smoothly.  Group has a whole section on planning and it is SPOT on.

Also, it sounds like your ex-director needs to leave her ex-director status at the door.  I do have one person in our church that reminds me of what you described, and thank GOD she didn't want to help with VBS.  She tries to overtake everything in the church.  It drives everyone crazy, LOL.  I try to just go with the flow with her, however if she steps over the line and starts trying to do my job, I have no problem telling her she needs to back off a little bit, in the nicest way possible.

Directing, even with the smoothest of programs, is very high paced and crazy.  I know I got a little snippy with people from time to time, however, for the most part, I think everyone understands.  Maybe people were misunderstanding your stress.  Hang in there if you decide to stick with the job.  I promise, if you can plan a little better, and delegate some jobs to TRUSTFUL people, it will make your job and the program MUCH better!!

Candi
Wife to Ken
Mom to Jacob (8), Sarah (8), and Emma (6)
VBS/camp Director for Lapeer Community Church!!

Lorrie

I have been teaching Children's Church, the Nursery Class and at VBS for 12 years. I just decided to try Directing this year since I love doing VBS so much. I started planning early. I went to a VBS workshop in March and we ordered the kit even before then. I read the entire Director's Manual, including the training section and knew how to recruit leaders. I also watched the recruiting videos. I have read a lot of posts on this forum for years. I tried to do everything the way GROUP recommended. I had a Meeting a month before VBS and only three people showed up and they already knew how to do everything the way GROUP suggests because they were the Station Leaders from last year. Our church has never had training meetings for VBS. Everyone is used to the old way of doing VBS and it is tough to re-train people to do things differently, which is why I had trouble getting Crew Leaders.

The problem with our church is that it is small (about 50-75 attend on Sundays) and that only about 5-7 people do everything. I showed the Recruiting Video in April, explained how a GROUP VBS works and asked for volunteers, including Crew Leaders. I only had three people offer to help that night as Station Leaders. The older members in our church will not help with anything, no matter how much you ask. They feel that they have already done enough so now they don't help at all. (I guess they think there's a retirement plan for the Lord's work.) We also have some who have directed VBS before and went through what my husband and I did and they said that they would never do VBS again. So, we are only left with a handful of people who are willing to help and then only half of them are reliable enough to help all week.

It wasn't that I hadn't planned everything properly. The problem was that no matter how much you ask for help, the same people are always the only ones to offer to help and it is never enough. That is why I had to get Crew Leaders at the last minute. We had 55 kids and no Crew Leaders, except for Pre-School. I asked for months for help and still no one offered to be Crew Leaders.

The only volunteers that I had were already assigned two stations each and they even filled in as Crew Leaders. The other ladies that offered to help were the Pre-School Leader (who was wonderful with helping, including painting the scene and buddies before VBS) and my kitchen workers which are also important.

We just don't have enough help to properly run a GROUP VBS. I love GROUP'S VBS and hope that we will never go back to any other company. Their VBS is the best available. I just wish that I could recruit more people to help and be able to depend on them all week. This is only our second year using GROUP and I believe the problem is that people don't realize the importance of doing everything like the company suggests. They want to do everything their way and when you suggest that they follow the book (since everything fits together like a puzzle) they get upset and think that I am "bossy". They just don't get the importance of Crew Leaders and will not come to a meeting to learn more. One lady suggested that maybe we should announce next year that we are changing VBS to only be for the younger kids and the leader's kids. Then maybe other people will offer to help since this will exclude their kids from VBS.

I love our Church and doing VBS. I never realized that there were any problems, until I started actually directing VBS. I thought that I had reliable people to depend on and that everything would work out fine, but I was wrong. In some areas, everything went fine and in some other areas it didn't.

I know that VBS is over so I am not going to worry about anymore. I know that the most important part of VBS is sharing the good news of Jesus Christ with the kids and we did that. Souls were saved and seeds were planted which makes it worth all of the hard work and problems that we had. The kids had a great time (despite not being able to watch the Spotlight Drama that they posed for) which is all that really matters to me. Some didn't even want to leave each night. It was a blessing to hear about one little girl (a visitor) who told her mom that she didn't want to go on vacation with her because she had to go back to VBS the following night. At our closing program, a lot of members and visitors came up to my husband and me and told us that it was the best VBS program they had ever been to and that we should plan on directing again next year. (They weren't aware of all of the problems during the week because they weren't there.)

We also raised $1000 for the Survivor Bibles to send with our 55 Comfort Critters. My husband and I challenged the adults to give as much as the kids and they did just that. Our church has never raised this much money before at a VBS. I was amazed at how much we raised! God is Good!!

So, I had my own God Sightings depsite all of the problems that occured. I still received wonderful blessings in the midst of all of my frustrations. I know that VBS is about doing what is right for the kids anyway and not worrying about trying to please all of the adults. When I look at their little faces, I realize why I do it. I don't want any glory for myself. I do it for the kids. I just wish that we had more help and that everything would run smoothly, like the way the curriculum is written for. 

Thanks for letting me discuss my frustrations and for your help. I appreciate it. I know that everything will be okay. I just wanted to find out how others handle the problems that occur with being the Director. Maybe, it was just me and I didn't do things right. I tried my best and that was all I could do. I will pray about next year and do what I feel is best when the time comes. I want to do what is best for the Lord and for the kids. I know that no matter what I decide, God is with me and that He will never let me down!

God Bless!!

Blessings to you!

Twyla in Topeka 

Goodluck and keep Faith, Just rememeber you are never on you own.......

Lisa

I think you're very smart to look at ways to scale things down to make it better.

And all in all, FOUR children decided to give their life to Christ.  That is what it's all about.  

Live and learn........if you decide to do this again, focus on finding some good, trustful adults and that should help a lot.  We're having a post-VBS meeting this week to discuss what was good, what we need to improve on, what we need to change for next year, etc.  It makes each years VBS better and better.  Hang in there, you did a great job. ((((hugs))))

Candi
Wife to Ken
Mom to Jacob (8), Sarah (8), and Emma (6)
VBS/camp Director for Lapeer Community Church!!