In Good Hands: Caring for Campers (and Staff) with Special Diets + Bonus Recipe

photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/elanaspantry/2631765638/

Before I let you in on my system of dietary care, I’d like to get a little story off my chest. I once had a counsellor on staff that was allergic to sulfates and sulfites. This was my first year as kitchen head-honcho and while I totally had the headscarf down pat, I had no idea what those were. The counsellor explained casually that they were ingredients in some processed foods. Well, I thought, you’re in luck! I’m banning processed foods!

I did not end up banning processed foods. Professionals, kind grandmothers, and angels may be capable of avoiding processed foods altogether, but I was none of these. I eliminated where I could, and humbly accepted that the occasional chicken nugget was a-ok if everyone had full bellies.

At some point, sulfates (or was it sulfites?) made their way to the table. I will never forget the moment our director came into the kitchen and asked “Were sulfates served at dinner?”. In the end, the counsellor was fine but I learned my lesson: I was responsible for people’s health, and I did not want to be responsible for anyone’s ill-health.

Now. You may ask “Why am I taking advice from a near-MURDERER!?”. While I ask you to recall she was fine, I should also tell you that this incident helped shape my fool-proof ‘keep people alive and let their parents know it’ system. The tricks are as follows:

Opening Day

Make yourself available opening day to meet with parents of campers with special diets. Be prepared to listen attentively and write things down, even if mama bear is describing to you in detail (with actions) the digestive disaster a slip-up might cause. If possible, it’s best to have the camper there, too. This helps you remember who’s who, and might make the camper a little more comfortable with you.

During this meeting ask:

•  What their restrictions/allergies are, and how they usually manage them at home. Knowing how they manage them at home might give you a good indicator of how to manage them at camp.
•  How the camper wants to interact with the kitchen. Are they willing and able to check in with the kitchen at meal times and get their special food if required?
•  Did they bring their own replacement foods? If so, USE THEM. Nothing worries a parent more than picking their kid up at the end of the week and getting all their replacement foods back. (“Did little Phoebe eat cheese all week?!”). Keep this food separate and labeled.
•  Be prepared to show them your menu for the week and answer a vast array of questions.

During the Week 

Have a whiteboard that you update each week with camper food needs, and include their name, cabin, and a counsellor from that cabin. Unless you have a rotating staff, you can usually make a staff needs list at the beginning of the season and keep it posted as well. While preparing every meal, go through the lists and make sure everyone has something safe and satisfying to eat. Don’t wait until just before the meal, you don’t want to draw attention to a camper because their meal wasn’t ready on time.

Depending on your staff and the number of special diets to account for, sometimes the easiest thing is to designate a competent staff member to be on top of special diet needs. Don’t forget that sometimes you can create one alternative meal that covers a variety of needs – rice pasta with a rich tomato sauce full of veggies can replace mac n’ cheese for vegans and those with a lactose or gluten intolerance.

Finally, check in with both the camper and their counsellor during the week to make sure your system is working and that the camper is being well-fed.

Closing Day

Have all leftover replacement foods and the containers they came in together and labeled. When you see parents, unless you are absolutely sure you know who their child is and what cabin they’re in, do not wing it.  There’s no harm in asking for a reminder, but you can’t take back mixing up Dairy-Free-Alana with Gluten-Free-Maxine.

Finally, and I cannot stress this enough: thank them for their children! Parents and campers alike are aware of the potential burden of special diets. Even if little Phoebe had ferocious feedback about your homemade (undeniably delicious) sorbet, sincerely ensure each parent that it was no problem to accommodate their child and that you were honoured to make their experience at camp special.

Bonus Recipe: Homemade Sorbet

Forget ferocious Phoebe. This easy, refreshing recipe can be rapidly accommodated to serve any group size. Just remember to double the ingredients in this order:  sugar, water, fruit.  For citrus sorbet, double the sugar.  In the non-processed spirit, I’ve used turbinado, which can be replaced 1-1 with white sugar.

Ingredients:

• 2 C Turbinado
• 4 C Boiling Water
• 8 C Peeled, Chopped, Seeded Fruit – any variety.

Directions:

1.  Completely dissolve turbinado in the water, remove from heat and stir in fruit.
2. Ladle mixture into several baking dishes filled no more than 1 inch. Freeze.
3.  Cut frozen mixture into chunks and puree thoroughly in food processor. Serve immediately. 

[Note from Travis: If you like Meghan's summer camp recipes you'll LOVE her 3 Week Summer Camp Menu! Purchase it from our site right now.]

Information that Your Campers Need, and How to Get it to Them

There are several ways to think about camp, and most of them are exciting. The lure of the wild, becoming one with nature, participating in fun activities, making new friends and becoming a part of a close-knit community are usually what come to mind. But for camp directors, administrators, and staff (not to mention parents) with great adventure comes a little risk. That’s why making smart decisions about your camp programs is important, along with implementing the right policies and measures to ensure that health and safety regulations are met. But the most essential tool is common sense, and getting the right info out to your campers and their family in an accessible, friendly way.

Optimizing the Use of Technology

While most camps gear themselves away from technology (with the exception of technical or arts related ones, of course) that doesn’t mean that you can’t use it to your advantage. Brochures, pamphlets, and catalogues are still great ways to advertize and inform potential campers, but most people consult the internet to find out the core information they need. Businesses have learned to merge different mediums and work them together rather than in contrast, and putting QR codes on paper sources is one great way to do this. Don Cooper recommends giving extra incentives to scan codes such as getting to play games, watch videos, and other freebies. Although most people actively seek out campsites out of their own interest and will most likely look on a website for more info anyway, advertising goes a long way.

Hand in hand with QR codes are smartphones, and not only does this mean providing a site which is compatible with smartphones and tablets but offering an app is a great way to go the extra mile as well. These apps should provide basic information about your campsite such as location, major activities or main purpose of the campsite, facilities, and tips and tricks for weather and any other useful guides. Even better, you can promote your site by getting on a top camping app (there are loads of them available on the market) as well as featured in online articles and other mediums. This will generate traffic towards your main site, and added pressure to make sure that you satisfy your viewers. Don’t convolute it with tons of info, but try to cover in simple terms everything that prospective campers and their families need to know.

Social Media and Blogging

Many sites will have tips and tricks under their main menus, but blogs are also fantastic ways to share additional information. They can even function as equivalent testimonials when written by people who have stayed at your campsite, and share a perspective which is more personable for readers. Social media is a great way to draw attention and navigate traffic towards these posts as well as news announcements, competitions and other events on the site. “Every time someone creates a social expression, more data is generated and shared” states Scott Hebner, Social Solutions Vice President of IBM, and this is true – just having a social media account to begin with reflects an interest in the community, and shows people that it likes to stay connected provided that posts are still informative or at least relevant when making a shoutout.

Including Additional Info

Campsites that receive international visitors will be expected to cover just about every topic, not only to live up to its reputation but to give visitors reassurance and confidence in their choice. Even when not detailing every aspect of information, providing links which take viewers to the right place will help. This can cover everything from travel visas to health care, which both travel agents and advisors agree is a vital part of preparing for a trip abroad. Though many travelers will be doing their own research, discussing the potential risks associated with the campsite is a must – and this goes beyond the immediate activities. Preet Banerjee covers the ins and outs of what to look for when acquiring coverage, and while this may be seen as surplus for a camp website, adding a few details about your location can be important (for instance, different insurance policies are required for elevations above a certain height or specific activities that take a certain risk) as well letting campers know what specialists are on site (and that staff are first-aid trained). Aspiringbackpaper.com suggests taking vaccinations for visiting certain regions of North America, and taking the right precautions to avoid accident and injury, and you might want to list this too.

This won’t deter people from visiting, but rather let them know what they need to know ahead of time and communicate a certain responsibility towards visitors. They can even be made fun by interactive games and survival guides, or informative videos featuring camp staff giving advice. Provided it is concise, accurate, accessible, and with a degree of interest, the more you can give to your viewers the better. This will help you to reflect and communicate your ethos effectively as well, and help to provide a satisfactory camp experience for everyone.

~ Eve Pearce

This post was written by a Site Contributor

Occasionally CampHacker will have companies approach us asking to write for the website.  If the content suits our readership we will post articles from them in exchange for a link to their website (in the article).

Switch by Chip & Dan Heath - Camp Leaders MBA

Making Changes Big and Small at Your Summer Camp

I remember a speaker at a camp conference who talked to us about Habits vs Traditions.   He (I think it was a he... anyone remember who this was?) encouraged all of his participants to look at the day-to-day things of camp and make sure that they were Traditions (carried on because they fit the camp mission and were integral to what made thecamp successful) and not Habits.  Habits are the things that we do at camp that, when we ask ourselves "why?", we can't come up with a better answer than "because we always do it that way."

This Camp Leader's MBA book is called Switch by Chip & Dan Heath. Subtitled "How to Change Things When Change is Hard", this book works for Camp Leaders on many levels.

Since the fall is our time of reflection and planning for summer camp, now is a perfect time to curl up with this book.

In the book, they talk about ways to implement change - Direct the Rider, Motivate The Elephant, and Shape the Path.  It's a pretty simple metaphor that we could use at our summer camps for making differences, large and small. 

• Direct the Rider = provide crystal clear direction
• Motivate The Elephant = remember that we are emotional beings - we need to believe in the "why" of this change
• Shape the Path = change the system so that changing the behaviour is easy

One of my favourite lessons of this book is the BHAG - the Big, Hairy, Ambitious Goal.   Sometimes, when you need to make big differences, you need a BHAG to motivate everyone.    

Can you paint a picture of what life at camp will be like when you have reached your BHAG?  

Imagine telling this story to your office people and summer staff: 

We are going to be full next summer.  

We are going to be so full that by next May we are going to have parents crying at the office that their child "just has to" be at camp this summer because every other kid in her class is coming.  

We are going to be so full that everyone in the office will get to take home a weekly basket of fresh-cut flowers and home-made chocolate chip cookies dropped off by moms who "just dropped by to see if Petey has moved off the Waiting List".  

We are going to be so full that the line-up outside our office to get one of two rumoured open spaces in Teen Camp will make the iPhone launch look like our dining room salad bar on Tuesday at lunch.

We are going to be full next summer. 

That is Motivating the Elephant.

What are you going to change at your camp this year?

Bringing Camp into the Kitchen: Making the Kitchen a Programming Area

Cooking at Summer Camp Can Be Fun!

#98841247 / gettyimages.com

Food brings people together - we celebrate birthdays with cake, we reconnect with old friends over coffee, we teach children precision and patience while baking cookies. None of this is new, we’ve been breaking bread together since, well, since before sliced bread!

I have always loved cooking and baking. I love making a perfect meal or treat, visually appealing, delicious and creative. But let’s face it - when you are making meals for a hundred or so folks in a sweltering, bustling kitchen, 3 times a day, every day, some of the joy ebbs. On some days, there is no joy at all. There are aprons that used to have clever puns on them before they became battered and buttered, there is a pressing sense of urgency, and sweat. Unimaginable, I-didn’t-know-I-could-sweat-that-much amounts of sweat. Hot yoga amounts of sweat.

I think it can be hard for non-kitchen staff to understand how separate the kitchen can sometimes feel from the rest of camp. We get all the exhaustion without the rewards of seeing campers grow and giggle. On those days, we have to remember that we are a part of camp - we are a part of life-changing and magic-making. One way to remind ourselves of this is to bring programming to the kitchen.

The camp kitchen presents an untapped oasis of all the good things camp stands for - connection, learning, whole-person nourishment, wonder, and joy. Not only do camp kitchens offer a programming area that already exists, but bringing camp into the kitchen has all kinds of benefits for kitchen staff, too.

Programming in the kitchen takes a little planning and maybe even menu-tweaking, but if done well, it can help camp staff connect with campers, and can even reduce the workload. Not only does kitchen programming benefit staff, but all of camp. Campers gain a sense of pride and responsibility as they help feed camp, get to interact with the mysterious kitchen staff, and foster life-skills that will benefit them into adulthood. Below is a guide to developing the kitchen as a programming area, adaptable to any kitchen.

Time, Space, and Staff
Before developing your program, you’ll have to seriously consider these three things: time, space, and staff involvement. How much time can you dedicate, what kind of space is there to accommodate campers, and who will be running the programming?

First, you’ll need to consider how much time you can dedicate to kitchen programming. Maybe you’ll decide to open up to programming as a rainy-day backup plan, or maybe you’ll strive to get campers in the kitchen every day! Be realistic with your time - ease into programming with a few trial runs to get a grasp of time commitment.

Next, you’ll need to think about space. Is there enough space in your kitchen to accommodate a group of campers? Is there space for campers to work without interrupting other meal preparation? If your kitchen is too small, is there a clean space close-by to work in, such as a dining hall? Mixing bowls and ingredients can always be portable, even if the oven isn’t.

Finally, think about staff involvement. You may want low-involvement programming, like providing a recipe and instructions to a counselor and making yourself available for questions. Or, you may want higher involvement, working side-by-side with campers and counsellors.

Considering these factors will help you get a firm idea of how much you are able and willing to dedicate to programming - your schedule may seem full, but with planning, programming is possible in most kitchens.

Coordination
Another factor to consider is coordinating with the rest of camp. How can the kitchen fit into the existing camp schedule? This is a great time to get creative, as camp doesn’t often run on the same schedule as the kitchen. Many camps have schedules that they strongly adhere to and have done so for ages. A new program area may challenge this schedule, but be sure to vocalize the benefits to campers and staff when pitching the idea.

Safety
The kitchen may be the only place at your camp that could truly pass as ‘clean’. Its important to plan to keep the kitchen clean for food safety, but there are other risks in the kitchen to consider, as well. Knives, meat slicers, and even an industrial mixer can be a real risk to camper safety.

Think about how you can protect campers from safety risks. Perhaps consider a staff-only zone where dangerous equipment is kept, and tailor your activities to the ages of campers. A teen camper can probably handle a knife with supervision, but a pre-schooler is probably better suited to a wooden spoon. Diligent supervision and encouraging risk awareness are two great ways to ensure kitchen safety.

Activities
The programming activities in the kitchen can encompass any part of your job you wish to share with campers. Keep in mind that what may seem mundane to you can be exciting for campers - even an industrial dishwasher can be fun with a great playlist and timed challenges. How many plates can you effectively fit on a rack? How fast can you conquer this dish mountain?

Below are a few ways you can involve campers in the kitchen - but don’t let it limit you. Get creative!

• Setting Tables
• Preparing/Cooking a Meal- instructions, recipes, and guidance provided
• Baking/Preparing a part of a meal - i.e. baking cornbread to go with chili
• Baking/Preparing Snack for all of camp
• Baking/Preparing Dessert for all of camp
• Baking/Preparing a treat for their own cabin - think cookies and story-time
• Birthday Baking - preparing a treat for someone with a birthday
• Surprise baked goods for other cabins - have campers prepare a batch of cookies for another cabin and make a secret mission out of anonymously delivering them
• Preparing the Salad Bar
• Costumed Menu Announcements - picture campers dressed as chickens and corn on the cob
• Illustrated Menus (Reusable Whiteboard)
• Dish Duties
• Garbage and Recycling Duties
• Serving - either delivering food to tables or dishing out refills if appropriate
• Meal cleanup

Feedback
Like any new program area, its important to set up avenues for feedback and be prepared to use it. Find ways of communicating with campers and staff about their kitchen experiences or open yourself to suggestions for new activities.

[Note from Travis: If you like Meghan's summer camp recipes you'll LOVE her 3 Week Summer Camp Menu! Purchase it right now]

How getting out of the office during camp changed everything

James Davis writes for CampHacker courtesy of Summer Camp Revolution, and because he loves you.

Summer is here, baby. All those months of planning have been leading up to this single moment. Preparation stops, counting camper weeks stops, staff training prep stops, and people arrive. The people we were put on this planet to serve.
Bliss.

But there’s one problem, right? 6 weeks from now, many of us are going to be sitting at home with our families, saying something like, “There’s only a couple of weeks left. I can do this.”

Burn out.

It’s something every camp director has faced at some point or another. Amidst all of the laughing, smiling faces bouncing around camp, there’s a director who is trying to figure out what to do about some staff member who doesn’t seem to get it, or how to break through with an incredibly homesick camper.

I still feel this way, on occasion. I used to feel it a lot more. I’d love to share the one thing I’ve changed about my approach to camp directing in the last 3 years that has changed, well, everything.

I got out of the damn office

My first summer at Vanderkamp was a humbling one. I had come from a camp where we were doing 250 or so kids per week, and our first week of summer camp here had 17 campers. Not a typo. We had 17 kids, and 15 summer staff members.

Feeling self-conscious, I grinned nervously at every kid who came through the door that Sunday, wondering what I had gotten myself into.

But that night at the camp fire just felt like camp as usual, to me. Just a little smaller.

Feeling a new sense of resolve, I woke up the next day ready to make it the best week of camp ever. I gave my staff a few atta-boys and atta-girls and we sent kids off to their first activity periods. I reflexively went to my office. An hour came and went, and they began a new activity period. About halfway through the next hour, I gave a start.

What was I doing in my office!? Camp was happening right outside my window, and I was sitting around responding to emails and checking Facebook.

 I realized something – in my previous camp-directing, I had taken a totally reactionary approach to the actual day to day of summer camp.  Problems would come up, and I would go solve them. I was a fireman, waiting by my radio for a call, but playing dominoes in the meantime. The size of the camp didn’t allow for a lot of time sitting around, and it certainly felt like I was staying pretty busy.

But with 17 kids? The problems hadn’t started yet.

Then, one of those “ah-ha” moments. And it might not seem like one to you, at all, but it was to me at the time. With 17 kids, my presence among them might delay the problems, or even make some not happen at all.

So I got out of the damned office, and I never went back.

This is NOT the view from my office.

Why getting out of the office helped both camp AND me

So, the benefits of getting out of the office were more than I ever could have expected.

First of all, as I suspected, me being around the kids who were at camp had a profound impact on them. They didn’t try a lot of the stuff they may have tried when it was just other much younger adults around. When the camp director is around, you’re pretty unlikely to swear, or bully others, or whatever.

And staff? They’re pretty unlikely to sit and chat with each other while ignoring the kids when the director is around, too. They’ll also get to see a living, breathing example of all that stuff you were teaching them during staff training.

What was more? I became a real human being.

I mean from the camper’s perspective. Now, I wasn’t just “the director.” I was James. The guy who was out playing soccer, or taking you on a hike, or swimming with you during swimming time.

If a camper had a problem, I didn’t have to ask her name before we started talking.
There was HUGE power in this. The kids who I needed to talk to about behavior-related issues had already had a positive experience with me at some point. The kids who were homesick knew I wasn’t just trying to game them into staying – they knew I ACTUALLY cared about them.

So, sure, this change really helped camp. But the person it helped the most was me.

I don’t know about you, but I didn’t get into camping to sit in an office and wait for problems to arise. I feel fulfillment when solving problems, but I could solve problems anywhere.

I work at camp because I care about kids. I loved being a counselor so much that at some point someone asked me if I wanted to be an area group director. And then a summer program director. And now an Executive Director. And I love the business of camp. I love running numbers, and doing marketing, and raising funds. But what I really love is kids.

Being out there with the kids feels like camp, again. Not only are there fewer problems to deal with since I am a more active presence, I don’t mind dealing with the problems as much because I’ve spent my days filling myself up with the parts of camp I love. I’ve returned to the times where I leave summer with a sense of loss instead of a sense of relief. It means everything to me.

So how do I get my work done?

Ah, yes - I'm the director. I can sign for that.

Right, so you’re thinking – “That’s awesome that you like to go out and play in the mud and all, but who handles the grown-up work that needs to get done?”

I do! I just do it differently. I can have the office lines forwarded to my cell phone if someone needs me NOW (people rarely need me NOW), and I carve out 2 hours a day (when the counselors are facilitating free time, changing, cleaning up the lodges, etc) to do office work. I take that time very seriously, and I plow through all of my office work then.

And when problems do inevitably arise, I handle them. Sometimes I’m wrapped in a towel when this happens instead of dressed professionally, but since people are used to me this way, they don’t even seem to notice.

I also take great pains during this time of the year to get done everything I’d otherwise need to do to prepare for the fall right now. Retreat correspondences, budget work, etc. It’s all done before camp begins.

Does it scale?

Now, our camp is not as big as some out there to be sure. But we’re doing a lot more than 17 kids per week at this point. We’ve had weeks with 100-110 kids, and our leadership team is still dedicated to not sitting around waiting for problems to come up. That’s what walky-talkies and cell-phones are for. Have a problem? I’ll be playing soccer. Hit me on the radio and I’ll come help.

As camp as grown, I’ve also done my best to keep that precious ratio of leadership staff in tact that we found to be optimal that first summer. We did about 35 kids a week then, and there were 2 of us. That kind of felt like overkill. Now that we’ll do about 90-100 kids a week this summer, there are 4 of us. 1 person who totally gets our vision and can execute on it for every 25 kids. When something is going on around camp, one of us will be there. Not to supervise, or control, or lead – to be fully present in the moment.

I’d like to be clear about one thing: what works for us here may not work in this exact way for everyone, and that’s okay. Even if you need to take the exact opposite schedule that I do (in the office most of the day, out of it for 2 hours), I think there could be huge benefits. Chances are good that you were one of the best camp counselors at your camp growing up, and that’s what kept you in camping until now. Give the kids who come to the camp you direct a taste of what you have to offer.

Camp as a Business - Bringing Staff on Board as Decision Makers

This article comes from James Davis of CampHacker and Summer Camp Revolution. Enjoy!

You’re getting into the nitty-gritty of planning staff training by now. Perhaps, if you’re one of our  brothers and sisters in camping down south, you’re actually training your staff as I write this.

So, I’m keeping it brief this week. This is nearly impossible for me, so please bear with me :)

Here’s the thing: if you’re like most camps, you don’t retain 100% of your campers. If you’re like most camp directors, you look at the names of the kids who don’t return to camp and wonder, “Why not?” Sometimes we’re blessed with an answer. But other times? We’re left to our own guesses.

I think there’s great power in bringing staff members into this process.

Thinking intentionally

The activity is simple. Staff are divided up into groups of 6, and split evenly into "group 1" groups and "group 2" groups. I just wrote groups more times in fewer words than I ever have in my life. Hope that made sense.

Group 1:

Half of the groups are given the following questions:

Why should kids go to summer camp instead of their other summer options?

Why is our camp so important?

Why shouldn’t kids spend their summer going to another camp?

Why would the world be worse off if our camp closed?

What are the unique takeaways that kids get from our camp that they don’t get elsewhere?

These questions get us discussing the very most important concept for staff to understand: “Why?” Don’t let them get away with generic stuff like “it gets kids outdoors.” Plenty of things get kids outdoors. Soccer. Waiting for the school bus. Getting kids outdoors is how we execute why we are at camp.  Encourage staff to dig deep and really figure out what the whole point of this summer camp thing is.

Group 2:

The other half of the groups are given these questions:

If you were a camper here, what would your least favorite part of the day be?

If you were sending your kid here, what would be your #1 concern?

Some kids that came to camp last summer aren’t coming back this year. Why not?

Both groups should write lists, and be prepared to meet back together.

Why we’re great, how we could be better

When the groups have exhausted their ideas, bring them back together. First, have the representatives from group 1 share what they discussed. Affirm the reasons they share as a way to emphasize just how important your mission is. When the representatives from group 1 are done sharing, the mood in the room should be very positive and uplifting.

Then, it’s group 2’s turn.

Group 2 will come forward and share some not-so-pleasant realities. Perhaps they’ll share specific tough things have happened at camp (a time someone was bullied, perhaps), or a particularly unpopular activity ("We all agreed we would hate going to swim lessons"). They’ll also likely blame some external factors we have no control over – “Kids don’t come back because all they want to do is play video games!”

Write each reason down.

Next – pose an important question to the group: “Which of these reasons [the ones from group 2] can we actually control?”

At this point, staff members will hopefully recognize that we can’t control things like the amount of video games that exist, or that parents are fearful, or that kids’ lives are too preprogrammed.

Cross off all of the reasons that we can’t control. I usually state a hope that this will be the last time we concern ourselves with things that are beyond our control. There’s so much we CAN do about improving the experience we offer, that it seems pointless to waste time worrying about the things that we can’t do.

If we are going to discuss the things we can't control, it's only to figure out how we can learn from them. "One reason kids prefer video games to summer camp because there's always something more to accomplish. How can we bring that to camp?"

Now, we’re hoping to move into a feeling of resolve. The first group shared a number of reasons why our camp is so important. The second group shared a number of ways our camp can improve. This brings us to step 3. If camp is important, and there are ways we can improve camp, we had damned well better get to work improving them.

Time to get to work.

What we’re going to do about it

In visioning with any business, including camp, it’s important to clarify our core values before considering making any additions, changes, or improvements. One solution to the problem of kids leaving camp to play video games is to offer video games at camps, but many camps would agree that this would directly contrast with why camp is so great.

Instead, we’ll look at the things we can control: If we all agree that bullying is the #1 reason kids leave our camp, let’s brainstorm around ways to make this not happen (this could lead into a nice discussion on improving our supervision, for instance). If we agree that swim lessons are the worst activity at our camp, maybe we need to think about our attitudes at swim lessons, or perhaps making swim lessons optional.

You get the idea.

By putting a fine point on exactly why kids leave, we can help staff to understand, specifically, why we need to get to work making camp better. The idea of “change” can upset staff, especially those who do not realize that most effective camps change a number of things every summer.

We’ve found that this activity can be a great one to refer back to later in staff training. “Remember when we all agreed that the #1 reason kids don’t come back is homesickness? This session is going to help us fix that for this year, and ensure that we serve more kids who wouldn’t otherwise come back.”

Your staff is ready to take the reins in addressing where your camp needs to improve – and trusting them to be a part of the decision making process can make a huge difference in helping them to buy in to a camp culture that dynamically meets the needs of children in an ever-changing world.