Revolutionary Team Building! |
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Does Your Company Have
A Living History Team-Building Experience Introduction - The Townships of New England
In 18th Century Colonial NewEngland, not everyone owned a horse, or a mill, or a grinding stone. You had to trade goods with your neighbors, get along with them, fight alongside them, trade labor with them.With very little of their own currency, colonial John Trowbridge owes you two sacks of barley, and you owe him three days of labor. Christiana Morgan gave you two barrels of hard cider and you owe her three yards of your wife’s homemade linen. When you need to plow your field, you need to be on good terms with your neighbors, because you may need to borrow their oxen, and they need to be on good terms with you, since you’re the only one in the township who knows how to make a decent pair of shoes. Is it any wonder, on the evening of Paul Revere’s ride , that when more than 1400 of Team work! Nobody can teach team work like the forefathers of this country! You think the odds are against your little company are fearful? Try staring down 3,000 British bayonets! You think your morale is bad? Try boiling your shoe-leather for something to eat at Valley Forge! Are you frightened of a little old thing called a recession or off shore competition? Try staring down a British admiralty court judge who takes your entire ship for crown revenue and then pockets a commission for his trouble! Start Building your team—and do it in the very heart of history.
Revolutionary Team Building takes place on Riley’s Farm in Oak Glen, California—approximately ninety minutes from Los Angeles, nine miles north of the I-10 Freeway, on the road to Palm Springs. For over twenty years, Riley’s Farm has been host to millions of students who see, first hand, the American Revolution and Civil War played out right before their eyes. The beautiful 760 acre apple and raspberry farm has also been the site for numerous History Channel productions, as well as Steven Spielberg’s feature film, Aamistad. In the summer, at 5,000 feet above sea level, Oak Glen is usually 10-15 degrees cooler than the valleys below. When you arrive at Riley’s Farm you will be introduced to the team building challenge inside the Hawk’s Head Public House, our version of an 18th century public house or tavern, where you will also take your meals and make your headquarters. We aim to conduct your challenge during the summer of 1777 in Chesterfield New Hampshire, where rumors have been flying of a vast British expedition, under General John Burgoyne, marching down through the New England frontier from Canada, in company with Hessian infantry and a huge compliment of Huron warriors. Your little town of Chesterfield, like other small townships, along the Connecticut River Valley has been called upon to assist in the raising of troops and the supplying of the army. To do that your group will engage in a series of living history challenges.
Depending on the season, you may be herding sheep, milking goats, making “ship’s bread” for the troops, or even practicing the dance and song common to the camp of a Revolutionary soldier. Those challenges are met collectively by your township of at least 15 to 40 people. In order to participate you must have a group of at least 30 people, divided into at least two townships. Large companies, churches, groups, and other leadership teams can have as many as 200 people participate in this challenge, but the basic team-building unit consists of a “township” of between 15 and 40 people. Your first task will be to pick a moderator of a town meeting, and then elect three selectmen. The moderator’s job is solely to direct and focus a fairly rapid election of the selectmen. The selectmen may, or may not, reflect your own group’s leadership, but their majority vote will settle any dispute over challenge rules. Any appeal for a vote of the selectmen must be seconded. As in the colonial era, selectmen do not put themselves forward. They should be drafted and nominated by others. After choosing selectmen for each township, each phase of the itinerary starts with at least two challenges per township. Briefly, a few of those challenges are described as follows:
These challenges may vary, in order to provide for surprise, and to take advantage of the seasons and time of day. After a brief introduction to the skills involved, and a meeting of your township, and a practice round where appropriate, your selectmen will pick the members of your group best suited for the challenges and they will be judged by the speed with which they are completed and, in cases of subjective challenges, a 3 judge panel of Riley’s Farm living historians will pick the winner. Townships that win a challenge will have their choice of a collection of colonial clothing items and soldier’s equipment (frock coats, shirts, hats, wigs, muskets, canteens etc.) and the township that most successfully outfits one of its members, as judged by the Riley’s Farm 3 historian panel, by the end of the day wins a five pound take home apple pie for all of its members.
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the best trained infantry in the world marched towards Lexington, the farmers of New England responded? More than 10,000 of the colonial militia gathered within the space of eighteen hours, and according to some estimates, the colonies of New England had fielded 20,000 men to surround the British army in Boston within two days. So what does all that have to do with your company? 
