NSP Community Retreat!

What is the schedule? 

Right now our rough schedule is as follows: 

• Friday: Arrive ~4 pm, Shabbat services and dinner
• Saturday: Breakfast, Shabbat morning services, lunch, afternoon workshops and outdoor adventure activities, dinner, singing, evening activities
• Sunday: Breakfast, morning programming, lunch, depart by 1 pm

What kinds of activities will we be doing?

 We’ll have options for fun “camp” activities (e.g., boating, rock wall, swimming pool, arts and crafts), campfire and s’mores time, kids and adult Shabbat services on Friday night and Saturday morning, and Kollel will have a satellite program. We also have an incredible and growing list of workshops led by NSP members including Learn How to Canoe, Drumming & Percussion, Improv, Family Revolution Singing, Yoga/Movement, and Be One with Nature. 

There will be lots of options throughout the days and downtime, as well as a few full community gatherings.

If you’d like to lead a workshop or volunteer to support in some other way, you can fill out this form.

What is the cost?

The per-person, at-cost amount of the retreat is $320.

We encourage those that can to pay $360 to enable us to make this retreat accessible for other participants.

If you need financial assistance in order to be able to attend, we’re asking participants to pay $180 or more. If anyone would like to discuss an alternative to make the retreat financially accessible, please reach out to us at info@newsynagogueproject.org.

For children under 11 years old the costs are as follows:

• Age 3-10: $160 (half price)
• Age 0-2: free

What does this cost include? 

The cost is fully inclusive of everything needed for the weekend including lodging for both nights; Friday night dinner, all meals and snacks on Saturday, and breakfast and lunch on Sunday; bed linens; and access to all our programming.

What if I have to come late or leave early?

We understand that people are juggling various schedules; while we hope participants can attend the entire retreat, we know some people may need to miss bits of the retreat on either end. Note that we are not able to offer prorated amounts/discounts if people attend more or less of the retreat.

Arrivals will begin at 4pm on Friday May 31st; for those coming after work or who need to come later, you’re welcome to join whenever you can that evening. Dinner will be served at 6 pm. On Sunday, we will need to leave the venue by 1pm. If you need to head out a bit earlier, that’s fine, though we hope you will stay so you don’t miss our community closing as a whole group.

What if I don’t have a car or mode of transportation?

We will have a sign up sheet for those that are looking for a ride and those who might be able to offer a ride, and we’ll coordinate carpools from there. We don’t want travel to be an obstacle to participation and feel confident we can support everyone who needs a ride to get one.

What is the lodging like?

The standard housing option is dorm rooms with seven bunk beds (14 beds total), and each one has an adjoining shared bathroom with 2 toilet stalls, 2 showers, and 2 sinks.

We also have a very small number of single and double-occupancy private rooms available. These private rooms have two twin beds and a private bathroom, along with a kitchenette and mini-fridge. These rooms can additionally fit up to two cribs, or a third mattress on the floor. These private rooms are very limited and will be provided only for access needs like families with small children; discomfort with shared spaces due to gender transition or other social concerns; medical or mobility needs requiring private spaces. We’ll do our best to accommodate these needs and you can request one of these rooms in the registration form.

We will have one (or more, depending on demand) dorm(s) set-aside for COVID-cautious participants, who will all agree to set practices collectively in advance of the retreat. We can guarantee this as an option.

Can I room with friends or make other kinds of rooming requests?

We want everyone to be as comfortable as possible. We will try to accommodate specific rooming requests, like with specific people, or general preferences like gender of other bunkmates or presence of children.

What if I don’t know anyone else coming? 

Part of why we designed this retreat was specifically to build deeper connections across our community. We want all of our members who are interested to be part of this experience, whether you already have lots of relationships at NSP or barely know anyone.

Our programming is structured to support making new connections so this is a great way to get to know more people in the community!

How do I know if the retreat will meet my access needs?

We have a section about access needs in our registration form so that we can get all the information needed to make the retreat as accessible as possible to all who want to attend.

What if I have dietary restrictions?

NorthBay is able to accommodate vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free, and dairy-free food restrictions, and potentially others if needed. We will ask you more about your dietary needs in the registration form and plan accordingly.

What will be happening indoors vs. outdoors? How much of the time will I expect to be mask-wearing?

Much of this depends on the weather but we are hoping to maximize our time outdoors if the weather cooperates! We will aim to do Shabbat services outdoors on Friday night and Saturday morning. The workshops will be a mix of indoor and outdoor so if you’re attending a workshop happening inside, this is likely the only time you’ll need to mask. Workshops are an hour long and there are 3 slots for workshops on Saturday and one slot on Sunday – though on Saturday, there will be the option of doing “camp” activities (ie. swimming, boating, rock wall, etc.) during any or all of those activity slots. All in all, if we’ve got nice weather, you’re likely to be masking for no more than 4 hours over the 3 days.