Don't Forget Yourself...

Travis Allison October 21, 2012

A Self-Evaluation for Camp Directors

As Camp Directors, we are quite intentional about evaluations. We evaluate everything from people to program, food to finance, and policies to procedures. Like many things at camp, however, we often forget to put ourselves on 'the list'.

At this time of year, when, for many, the last of the rental groups has finished and the docks are coming out, it's important to take the time to self-evaluate. If you have a Co-Director or a Leadership Team who works full-time with you, it can be beneficial to share some of your answers as part of the process.

CampHacker's Director Eval:

Everybody's Got Skills

Why do you think you were chosen you to fill this role at this time in your camp's history?

What skills do you bring to the role of ____________ which make it a successful partnership with your organization?

On which skills would you like to see yourself improve?

On The Job

What 3 things are your favourite parts of this job?

What 3 responsibilities give you the most stress about your job? Please be specific.

Whatdaya Need?

What do you need from your (Board, Governing Body, Camp Community) in order the do the best job possible? (we are assuming here that you are not already receiving these things)

What outside resources do you need to access to be better at your job?

Looking Back...

What 5 words would you use to describe this year's season at camp?

List 3 things you did very well this camping season and of which you are most proud.

What was your biggest mistake -- one you will never make again?

What advice would the “You” of today give the “You of last spring/summer?

Working Well with Others

How would you describe your working relationship with your Leadership Team this camping season?

If anything, what would you like to improve in your relationship?

What 3 things would you like to have told your Team at the end of the summer?

How can you be a better support to your Leadership Team next spring/summer?

Looking Ahead...

What do you fear most for next summer?

What are you looking forward to most next summer?

What projects should you be doing this Fall so they are out of the way come next Spring? (list with realistic dates by which to be finished each project)

How will Leadership Training next summer be different from this year’s?

What is your most exciting idea for next season?

We would love to hear the questions you ask yourself at the end of every year. Reviewing and evaluating ourselves on a regular basis helps us to be more intentional in our roles as Camping Professionals.

Hello from the Head Counsellor - Head Counsellor - #1

Matt Wilfrid October 12, 2012

The Job Description(ish)

Hello, friends! Once again, I am very excited to be writing this blog and I hope that you (whomever you may be!) will find some value in these words.

So as I mentioned in my first article , I had the privilege of being the Head Counsellor at Cairn this past summer. Now, before I continue, I’ll give some context. Cairn is a fairly small residential camp so the position of Head Counsellor at Cairn would be synonymous of the Section Head of larger camps that require multiple Head Counsellors. At Cairn, the position of the Head Counsellor is a part of the senior leadership team (along with the Asst. Director, Integration Co-ordinatior, Program Director and LIT Directors) and answers directly to the Co-Directors. I realize that camps have a myriad of different structural nuances so I hope that all makes sense.

The Job Description.

Based on my experience, the role of the Head Counsellor covers most of these general aspects:

Supervising the Counselling staff and ensuring that they are a) providing the campers with an extraordinary experience and b) fostering a staff community of learning, cohesion and growth.

Ensuring the safety and inclusion of every camper through direct interactions and being a support system/resource for the Counselling staff.

Acting as a liaison between the resource staff (program/facility and leadership staff) and the counselling staff for the transfer camper information, individual needs and performance feedback.

Along with the general responsibilities of a senior staff, the above is an umbrella job description for a Head Counsellor. For some more specific ones, check out the links below for some from different camps in North America.

Now, for everything else.

Ish.

One of my favorite things about being the Head Counsellor this past summer was the room for my own flare to shine in the position. After two summers of having a very specific role as the LIT director, I was thrilled to have a job where I was able to assess what parts of my job I wanted to focus on and when. For me, that meant while I followed my job description to the letter, how I followed it was a bit more lucid. My “Ish”.

My “Ish” this summer was building up the counselling staff to ensure that the care that they were giving the campers was exemplary. So even though I was still a resource and was ready to jump into a bullying or “cabin-clashing” situation when needed, my focus was on building the community and skills of the counsellors, so that they would in-turn, be able to be more independent in taking excellent care of the campers.

Now, at this point, you may be thinking that I was a giant slacker and just let my “Ish” develop as the summer went on or used it to avoid a part of my description. To set the record straight (also, to keep my employment for next summer), I had a plan.

Here are a few things that I thought about when developing my strategy for achieving my “Ish”:

What have I learned about the staff and their skills so far?
- be careful not to develop any presumptions about the staff, before you actually see them in action. Aka. Get to know them a bit first before you start creating a vision.

What skills do I have that can best supplement a certain aspect of my job?
- you know what you are best at, make the best part of you into the best part of your job!

What does camp need from me...
...as a voice of leadership?
...as a person who has been around camp for awhile?
...as a member of the staff community?
And is my “Ish” going to interfere with any of that?

What will be the ripple effect of my Ish...
...for camp
...for me
...for the campers
...for the counsellors
ex. By spending time to develop the counsellors hard skills as a group, would it be possible to have them leave rest hour for a bit for a short development time?

What are my goals for this Ish?
- similar to above but focusing on what results I was hoping to see

What is my back-up plan?
- never leave home without one!

So there you have it!

Something that I hope you take away from this is that your “Ish” is one way for you to make your summer about more than just the job description.

I’d like to know, did you have an “Ish” this summer? How did you take your job description and add your personal touch to it? Please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below. I would love to hear them!

Until next time!

Matt “Iscus” Honsberger
@Iscus

CampHacker #41 - Setting the Tone for Next Summer

Travis Allison October 5, 2012

CampHacker Podcast #41 available now.

Set The Tone for a Great 2013 - starting NOW: listen online.

Or Watch It Here:

Uploaded by CampHackerTV on 2012-09-12.

Show camp parents to whom they are trusting their child

Travis Allison October 3, 2012

Summer camp staff portraits

In our business we NEED to work hard to establish trust with our parents. It must be terrifying to send a child away to summer camp when you've only read about it online, or the only person you've met is the camp director. They, no doubt, seem really nice but you know that the director won't be the one who makes your child feel comfortable at camp or makes sure that they get enough to eat.

It's important that parents get to know the staff of your camp. You can do this in many ways:

Have them each fill in a 3 question form and post the results online
host a Google Plus Hangout monthly where your staff can introduce themselves to the camp community. One of the great things about Hangouts is that they are automatically posted to your YouTube page.
Take pictures of each of them to be posted on a "staff board" that will be mounted where parents can see it on Opening and Closing Days. Include the staff members' names and where they are from.

I have been shooting staff portraits at Cairn for the past 5 years (here's another example) the feedback had been amazing.

What do you do at your camp to help parents get to know, like and trust your staff?

Hello from the Head Counsellor - Head Counsellor - #0

Matt Wilfrid September 28, 2012

Ideas for your summer camp Head Counsellor!

Hello everyone! My name is Matt Honsberger, at camp they call me Iscus. I play a bit of a behind the scenes role here at CampHacker, but Travis was kind enough to have me write a little bit for the site about my thoughts on something that I am very passionate about, summer camp.

Summer camp started for me at the age of 8 at small residential camp in Paris Ontario called Ganadoweh. My parents registered me for the “Wilderness Experience” trip. So I went, and for the first time, paddled a canoe, pitched a tent, sang campfire songs and experienced what missing home was really all about!

From there, I guess you could say that I really became a “child of the North”. My best friend connected me to Cairn (at the time, Glen Mhor Camp) and for 6 years, I would spend the best week of my year up there. Then, I took the fairly typical camp leadership journey from the month long LIT program in 2006, to counselling in ’07 and ’08, to being the Assistant Maintenance Director (I like to add the -Director for resumes) in 2009, then co-directed the LIT program for two years and this past summer, had the honour of being Cairn’s Head Counsellor.

I can honestly say that my 13 summers at camp have left the biggest impressions on my life and have shaped me into the leader that I am today. By no means do they make me an expert or a camp visionary, but I have definitely had some life-altering experiences and learned some lessons that I think can only really be learned at camp. In that time, this past year at camp was particularly impactful for me. I can’t think of another time in my life where I was so stressed out, so frustrated and so challenged yet so content and driven.

That confusing inequality of emotions is exactly the type of thing that I am excited to share on this blog. Below, you’ll find out some of my insights on being a head counsellor based around the kind of experiences and encounters that I had. Once again, I don’t claim to be a visionary but I hope that my thoughts will spark some of your own and that together, we can come out with something visionary-ish.

Enjoy!

[Travis' edit: You can connect with Matt on Twitter @Iscus

Next article - The Job Description(ish.)

A Toy Train in Space

Travis Allison September 22, 2012

We sent my son's favorite train "Stanley" to space in a weather balloon with a HD camera and an old cell phone for GPS. He was recovered 27 miles away in a corn field and we got some great footage of the trip. This video documents the journey from liftoff to landing.