How the Heck Are Ya? - Camp Code #91

Hello from the other side!

With summer coming to an end, we are checking in with all of you to just see how you are doing. For us, we are doing just okay. It turns out that many of the camp directors we’ve spoken to are feeling like us, tired; tired of COVID; tired from having to constantly adjust camp programming to meet public health guidelines; tired of being understaffed. As summer camp leaders, now is the time for all of us to recharge and start focusing on ourselves. 

For Gabrielle, that is taking the month of September off to recharge. For Beth, it’s focusing on mental health, stepping away from social media and getting outside into nature. For Ruby, getting out on the river for a paddle or being outdoors is what brings her joy. In this episode, our hosts focus on checking in with our listeners, prompting all of you to take the time to rest, recharge and focus on next year.

We hope you love this episode of Camp Code! If you do, please consider subscribing to the show, and leaving us a rating in your Podcast app. It’s SO easy, just head to https://ratethispodcast.com/campcode

Best Practice for Leadership Training

From Ruby Compton

Don’t just do something, sit there! The sit spot routine is where camp staff members find a spot at camp to sit, relax, reflect or journal about their time at camp. When you use the same spot from spring to fall, you can take in the beauty of nature as it transforms throughout the seasons.

Your Hosts:

Our Hopes for Camp Pros This Summer - Camp Code #90

Our hopes for you as you go into the summer of 2021.

In this season finale, we are not going to give you last-minute tips and tricks for summer camp training because chances are, if your camp is able to run this summer, you already have the tools to make this unique summer camp training memorable. Instead, our hosts Beth, Gabz and Ruby are here to remind you of some of the training we’ve taught this summer and the theme for this episode is hope. 

To parents and campers, summer camp is an oasis where parents get relief in the daily hustle of life and campers get to play, learn and grow. Although camp is perceived to be an oasis for kids and parents, for you as a leader, camp is your real world. Being a summer camp leader is a real job with real stress, anxiety, laughter, sadness, smiles and songs. Camp is a magical place for children and you never know when you may spark a memorable moment for a child which they will remember forever. As the camp pro, you got this! Our hope is that your staff understand that everything they do this summer may be magical, but in fact is very real this summer. 

Camp is also full of emotions that can be seen through people in the form of laughter, smiles and songs. However, there are also negative emotions such as sadness, fear or confusion. Our hope for you this summer is that you will continue to practice examining your capacity to hold boundaries to help control the stress and anxiety that can bring you down. Positive emotions always burst out in laughter or song however, negative emotions tend to build up, pushing us to our edges. Daily reflections, mindfulness and gratitude journals are great ways to keep your boundaries intact and helps to ensure that our negative emotions are controlled, processed and digested out of our systems. 

As always, our hosts have a lot more to say throughout the episode, so have a listen to be inspired to do great things. Another season of Camp Code is coming to an end so as always, thanks for the listening friends.

We hope you love this episode of Camp Code! If you do, please consider subscribing to the show, and leaving us a rating in your Podcast app. It’s SO easy, just head to https://ratethispodcast.com/campcode

Best Practice for Leadership Training

From Beth Allison

To close off the season, in this episode we’re doing something a little different. Beth takes us down a journey that she calls “Here’s to you”. It starts at the 17:18 mark in the episode and I encourage you to share this segment with your camp staff.

Your Hosts:

9 Top Tips for Camp Pros to Make it Through Summer - Camp Code #89

And we don’t mean “just make it through”, we mean “make it through with style!”

The weather is finally getting warmer here in Canada, the gardens are full of tulips and the cherry blossom trees are in full bloom. As a camp leader, as we watch nature grow this spring, anxiety and stress can build within ourselves. When spring arrives, it means summer camp is around the corner. We started this season aiming to help the leader come back from a summer that either prevented your camp from running or having to put new safety measures in place that were new to everyone.  As we navigate our way back to summer camp, it is once again time to focus on you. 

A lot of these make sense at the surface, but actually practicing these tips are harder than you think. We’ve listed them below, but encourage you to have a listen to understand the reasoning behind each step. 

  1. Go to bed! 

  2. Get the support you need, outside of your organization

  3. Take care of yourself

  4. Set up an email routine

  5. Embrace the knowledge of your leadership team

  6. Watch and listen and sit still and see (find out more by listening!)

  7. Don’t mistake someone’s free time as availability

  8. Camp is fun, enjoy it

  9. Be kind to yourself

We hope you love this episode of Camp Code! If you do, please consider subscribing to the show, and leaving us a rating in your Podcast app. It’s SO easy, just head to https://ratethispodcast.com/campcode

Best Practice for Leadership Training

From Ruby Compton

Establish a communication routine with friends and peers. Set up a time each week to respond to texts to friends. Message folks to let them know you are thinking about them. This will allow you to not feel guilty if you are not responding to things immediately and give you space to touch base with friends and connect with the world outside of your camp.

Your Hosts:

Embracing the Uniqueness of This Summer - Camp Code #88

It’s not, “it is what it is”, it’s, “it will be what we make it”

Noone asked for all of the challenges and uniqueness that are ahead of us in Summer 2021. This episode, we challenge you to look at the positive side and focus on the unique opportunities that are ahead of us this summer.

Whether it’s reestablishing expectations with staff, or taking the opportunity to get rid of that program area you’ve always wanted to - this is your year.

We hope you love this episode of Camp Code! If you do, please consider subscribing to the show, and leaving us a rating in your Podcast app. It’s SO easy, just head to https://ratethispodcast.com/campcode

Bonus Link: 

Ruby's staff appreciation video for her team: https://youtu.be/Y5_hFMFu5no

Best Practice for Leadership Training

From Beth Allison

Plan now for a fantastic end-of-summer celebration for the end of the summer. Figuring out a plan now will help you gather a ton of people to help make this happen. Think big and don’t forget to ask for help from your board, parents and alumni to compile gratitude for the last night of camp.

Please share your most memorable moments!

Your Hosts:

11 Quick-Fire Videos for Camp Training - Camp Code #87

Use these videos to dial your staff training up to 11!

For some people, they have a favourite pair of comfortable slippers, perhaps a warm sweater or favourite comfort food. For our hosts, their idea of comfort is scouring the internet to help build new ways to develop camp leaders. In this week’s episode, we go back to a fan favourite feature where our hosts discuss quick-fire videos to help facilitate staff training.

Ruby’s Favourites:

Title: First Thing and Last Thing

Title: How to go From Small Talk to Deep Coversation

Author: Chad Littlefield

Title: How to Have a Good Conversation

Author: Celeste Headlee

BONUS (a fun one)

Title: Ducks Annihilate a bowl of peas

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Beth’s Favourites:

Title: Grit:  The Power of Passion & Perseverance

Author: Angela Lee Duckworth

Title: For the Love of Fangirls 

Author: Yve Blake

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Gabrielle’s Favourites: 

Title: How to Avoid Death by Powerpoint

Author: David JP Phillips

Title: Thanks to Camp - Léa's Story

Author: International Camping Fellowship

Title: Thanks to Camp - Kadi’s Story

Author: International Camping Fellowship

The links above are the highlights of another great episode. To learn more from our hosts, have a listen today!

We hope you love this episode of Camp Code! If you do, please consider subscribing to the show, and leaving us a rating in your Podcast app. It’s SO easy, just head to https://ratethispodcast.com/campcode

Best Practice for Leadership Training

From Gabrielle Raill

Soloing a canoe and training from the dock - This is going to be a different summer, meaning your camp staff will need to lead differently. As leaders, we need to pay attention to how we are right now. Are we reacting to things differently, both positive and negative? Take the time and understand that this summer, you’re going to be leading from a distance. So, take the time to reflect on your own expectations and be kind to yourself. This summer is different for everyone, not just you.

Your Hosts:

Training in Pods & Bubbles - Camp Code #86

Make training memorable, no matter what your groupings look like.

It’s finally April which means summer camp training is right around the corner and summer camp is in sight! We also know that across the world, vaccination campaigns are occurring, giving us hope that one day, our world will return to some sort of normalcy. Unfortunately, vaccination campaigns just cannot happen quick enough, meaning that summer camp training will be different this year, most likely using pods or bubbles to ensure the safety of everyone involved. 

Bruce Tuckman is famously known for educational psychology and group dynamics and developed a model to help develop teams into high performers using four simple steps, Forming, Storming, Norming and Performing. Beth goes into detail about how you apply Tuckman’s methodology to help you prepare your team to achieve greatness, while also being pathfinders in your alternative way for staff training. To learn more about Tuckman’s model, click here.

Ruby reminds us to use technology to strengthen your training. You can record your training sessions to be a podcast, or other alternative media for your staff. The best part about this - you can do a review of your material afterward and figure out what worked and what didn’t work when facilitating pod or bubble training. 

If you choose to segregate into bubbles, one of the largest anxieties your staff will have is wondering who they will be sharing a bubble with. To help them out, frontload! Communicate with your staff as early as possible to help alleviate some of their stresses.

We hope you love this episode of Camp Code! If you do, please consider subscribing to the show, and leaving us a rating in your Podcast app. It’s SO easy, just head to https://ratethispodcast.com/campcode

Best Practice for Leadership Training

From Beth Allison

Spin training in bubbles to something more positive. We know that working with a smaller group gives the opportunity to create unique memories. Have your staff create pages to their “bubble book” (think high school yearbook style) where your staff can take selfies, use journal entries or identify their favourite parts of training each week.

Your Hosts:

Tools & Hacks for Engaging Virtual Staff Training - Camp Code #85

Staff training is a brave new world. Let’s explore it together.

We did it! We are a year into physically distancing ourselves from one another and interacting mostly virtually! Although this is not something I would normally celebrate, it has given our hosts plenty to think about, specifically when it comes to facilitating training for your staff. We’ve been there, enjoying a school lecture or perhaps engaged in a positive work session and then the meeting ends abruptly due to time constraints.

Ruby recommends that we all focus on building a routine into our training, and have a phase-out process that allows participants to know the meeting is ending by helping them transition from training session to individual reflection. Perhaps a google doc, a slack or something supplemental to allow excited camp leaders to be involved event after the meeting has ended. 

We’re all going to be sitting in front of a computer for long periods of time during camp training this summer, so Gabz recommends investing into a nice camera and microphone. Nothing is worse than holding your face close to the screen so others can hear you in that sub-par laptop microphone, so invest in tech to make your camp training a success. Below are some of Gabrielle’s favourites from the tech she’s tested out. 

  • Canon M50 click here

  • Sigma 16mm f/1.4 lens click here

  • Thronmax Mdrill One Pro mic click here

Beth reminds us that we live in a 3D world where camp training usually consists of using the space and objects around you to facilitate training. In a virtual world, training can quickly become repetitive, so get creative! Hook your iPad to the meeting as a whiteboard, have an activity that and instructions set up on the screen for when participants arrive. Turn that 2D video into a greater depth of knowledge!

So, if you’ve made it here, you’re obviously interested in what tips and tricks our pros have, so for more info, listen to the podcast today!

We hope you love this episode of Camp Code! If you do, please consider subscribing to the show, and leaving us a rating in your Podcast app. It’s SO easy, just head to https://ratethispodcast.com/campcode

Best Practice for Leadership Training

From Ruby Compton

Camp is going to be different this year and taking care of yourself is just as important as always. In a world where regular temperature readings are normal, let’s use the technology literally at our fingertips to help us track our temperature, heart rate and anything else that could be useful. Absolutely there is an app for it, making tracking easier than ever. Ruby also recommends a glass of lemon water in the morning to kick start your day and ignite your metabolism.

Your Hosts:

Virtual Staff Training - pt 1 - Camp Code #84

Staff training is a brave new world. Let’s explore it together.

Over the last year, virtual sessions have become way too familiar. We know that camp staff have already spent a lot more time meeting virtually regardless as businesses have switched to virtual work and educators have shifted learning to online. Unfortunately, this is not going away yet as most camp leaders are most likely learning how to facilitate virtual training. 

We’ve got your back

Our hosts Beth, Ruby and Gabrielle are here to help you plan the inevitable conundrum of virtual training. We’re already spending countless hours in front of screens, so as leaders we need to find new interactive ways to train our staff. Ruby brings up a great point, go asynchronous! Provide the content for your staff to consume on their time. We obviously know the importance of podcasts, you could use these to provide brief learning sessions! Get creative, use videos, Tik Tok or even traditional presentations with perhaps your audio recordings built-in! 

Gabrielle reminds us to focus on what’s important for our staff to be able to deliver a fun, safe summer for our campers. As leaders, the content we learn online to prepare for summer may not necessarily be the same content we want to provide to our staff. Remind yourself, your role is to create a foundation of why your staff and campers go to camp. Create connections with yourself, your staff and your campers. 

Beth reminds us that as we being to train online, we cannot forget to play online. Find ways to build in collaboration. The editor recommends virtual escape rooms and imagination. Even Alexa (yep, that AI speaker in your home) can do free, virtual escape rooms. Have a team work together to solve the puzzle and put in a rule that only one person can click through the virtual room or give the audible commands to alexa to get your team out.  

Remember, this blog is just a highlight reel, to get the full benefit from our experts, listen in today! 

We hope you love this episode of Camp Code! If you do, please consider subscribing to the show, and leaving us a rating in your Podcast app. It’s SO easy, just head to https://ratethispodcast.com/campcode

Best Practice for Leadership Training

From Gabrielle Raill

We’re used to being pulled in every direction at the same time, yet we struggle to say no. Rather than saying YES right away, ask three questions that could either apply to mental or financial wellness. You need to find ways to take care of yourself. Summer is coming and we all know as camp leaders that when summer comes, the moments to take care of yourself can be few and far in-between.

Your Hosts:

Training Staff to Work With Parents - pt 2 - Camp Code #83

It’s too important for just one episode.

Remember last episode when our special guest Travis, fed all of us the knowledge of a lifetime at camp? At CampCode HQ, it was certainly a memorable episode, but without Gabrielle there, we all knew we could squeeze a little bit of greatness out of her. For that reason, we are back with round two, where we focus on the great ideas on how to train our staff to talk to parents. Remember the acronym episode (Camp Code #81) - well Gabrielle didn’t get the chance to slide in another great one: V.I.F

  • Validate - Find the person who can help

  • Investigate - allows some time for problem solving

  • Find someone who can help. When we are talking to parents one of the most important things is to get them connected to the right person who can help with whatever the situation was. 

Ruby tells us the importance about names. Learning the names of the parents and the campers *hint - write them down* and using those names brings a sense that you are there to help their child have a memorable week at camp.

Beth describes that transparency and messaging is just as important as knowing the camper names before they arrive. As leaders, you would have been in communication with parents up until the day they arrive at camp. Take the time to teach your staff the message they want to get across with parents. 

For more great tips about the value of communication, have a listen to this episode!

We hope you love this episode of Camp Code! If you do, please consider subscribing to the show, and leaving us a rating in your Podcast app. It’s SO easy, just head to https://ratethispodcast.com/campcode

Best Practice for Leadership Training

From Ruby Compton:

Every family is unique. Every family has their stories, their traditions and their own hardships. Have staff reflect on their own relationship with their folks at home. Recognize those  relationships may be different from campers relationships with their own families. 

Bonus - Feed your staff with information to help parents on drop-off and pick-up day. Provide staff a couple of specific pieces of information to communicate any time they are interacting with parents. Things like where the bathroom is, where the coffee/snacks are, where they are headed next.

Your Hosts:

Training Staff to Work With Parents - Camp Code #82

Because you aren’t the only one that needs to wow your camp families!

Beth and Ruby are joined by Travis Allison to breakdown the importance of your staff being calm, cool and collected when interacting with their camper’s parents.

Do you remember your 16-20 year old self? Talking to adults is scary enough, without the fact that you are looking after the most important thing in their world.

Great parent interactions (especially on opening day!) is a critical part of your camp forming trusting relationships with families. Trust us, a parent is going to tell their friends what camp their child attends - and good or bad, they will share their first impressions - so it’s our job to help our staff make the best ones!

We hope you love this episode of Camp Code! If you do, please consider subscribing to the show, and leaving us a rating in your Podcast app. It’s SO easy, just head to https://ratethispodcast.com/campcode

Leadership Training Best Practice

From Beth Allison

Get lots of large chart paper and markers and have pairs of staff create their own “child”. This exercise helps them to understand the care that goes into parenting and really put them into their camper’s parent’s shoes.

Your Hosts:

The Acronym Episode - Camp Code #81

We L.O.V.E Acronyms! Here are Beth’s, Ruby’s & Gabz’s favourites!

We L.O.V.E them - Nope, that’s not an acronym, simply our way to show how much we enjoy them. We engrave acronyms into the lexicon of camp to ensure that the important things that you want your staff to memorize, are memorable. For Beth, with over 25 years of camp acronym experience, this was one of the hardest episodes for her to record as each host share their three favourite acronyms, and dive into why they are important to them. 

Go Camp Pro is here to support you with everything Covid-19 and there is no stopping in sight. The volunteer editorial board at Go Camp Pro scans editorials across the Covid-19+Camp Slack, the Summer Camp Professionals Facebook group and other sources to take the best stories, and put them in an easy-to-read newsletter that we call “The Brief”. You can sign up for The Brief by clicking here

Below is a list of the acronyms shared throughout the episode, so that you can make notes of your favourites and incorporate them in your staff training.

Our Favourite Acronyms!

Ruby - O F N R - nonviolent communication

  • Observations

  • Feelings

  • Needs

  • Requests

Gabz - S A S - user for camper behaviour management

  • Stop what you are doing

  • Approach appropriately

  • Speak kindly

Beth - S T A N D - help campers have great discussions on important topics--focus efforts on being the person they want to be

  • Social graces

  • Take responsibility for your own actions

  • Ask intelligent questions

  • Never miss an opportunity to be kind

  • Do all things with integrity

Ruby - O Z A P - Things you need to state when you are delegating something

  • Objective

  • Zoom out 

  • Authority 

  • Priority

Gabz - W O R P - for returning staff during staff training. This can work for staff welcoming campers on opening day.

  • Welcome

  • Observe

  • Role Model

  • Problem solve - ask new staff members to ask new folks for ideas/their thoughts. If they can’t come up with anything, then they can offer their ideas.

Beth  - E D G E (leadership skills) &

  • Equip themselves & others

  • Dare to be different

  • Go Above and Beyond

  • Envision the future

H E R O (responding to camper/staff needs)

  • Have everything you need

  • Engage others (camper or staffer)

  • Read all the signs

  • Offer a memory or teachable moment

Ruby - T R A U M A - for tough convos/sensitive issues

  • Their work

  • Rapport

  • Ask questions

  • U(you) Listen

  • Mention help

  • Ask “What’s next?”

Gabz - A S K - To fill in those awkward moments & walks with new friends

  • Ask something specific 

  • Show them something

  • Know - Tell them something you know. “Did you know…?”

Beth- T I M E - A way to divide the first 2 hours of staff training to help them sort out their why, discover the mission, build community

  • Tell your stories

  • Invest in yourself

  • Make time for others

  • Envision the ending

Bonus Resources!

As described in the episode, Beth developed a session around Time

It’s About Time Script

It’s About Time Slideshow

We hope you love this episode of Camp Code! If you do, please consider subscribing to the show, and leaving us a rating in your Podcast app. It’s SO easy, just head to https://ratethispodcast.com/campcode

Leadership Training Best Practice

From Gabrielle Raill

When returning staff members return to camp, they each bring emotional tags with them, holding onto memories from the year before. The role of your staff is to create the best week of camp for their campers; but to do that, you have to help your staff let go of last year. Take the time to validate their experiences, dissect the good and then engage in conversation with staff to identify on how to build from previous experiences to incorporate the things that worked well, to create an unforgettable summer for campers. When you're done planning, celebrate the past and bring in the new camp year with your staff. 

Your Hosts:

The Silent Summer - Training after a Gap in Operation - Camp Code #80

This will be the most important staff training you’ll ever prepare.

We made it! It’s 2021, but that doesn’t mean that camps are without adversity with this summer quickly approaching. With a global vaccine rollout for COVID-19 and differentiating public health policies and guidelines depending on your province, state, municipality or county, there are too many permutations and combinations circling to really understand what this year is going to look like. To make things more complicated, many camps didn’t run last year, meaning the identified “improvements” noted during a camp season are a full season behind. Take this one step further, your staff are all older and some senior staff might no longer be in a position to return to camp. We are just as happy as most of you where 2020 is finally behind us; as we turn the chapter to 2021, our hosts are here to help you succeed with summer camp training after a gap in operation. 

Our take on it - this is the most important staff training you have ever prepared. It’s important that as camp professionals, you reflect, take stock and set goals for this year. Your goals will have to include new training material, focusing on mental health during a pandemic. For us, that means two lists of goals. The first list is about what people will need from you, including COVID-19 safety, what’s changed at camp, the importance of feeling safe and perhaps your leadership style this summer leans more on being empathetic or more vulnerable to your staff. The second list is what YOU want to from this year. Define your goals, but being flexible to staff ideas is a key step to the foundation of a successful summer. 

We hope you love this episode of Camp Code! If you do, please consider subscribing to the show, and leaving us a rating in your Podcast app. It’s SO easy, just head to https://ratethispodcast.com/campcode

Leadership Training Best Practice

From Beth Allison

We are in the midst of a mental health awakening. Role model types of behaviors and actions. 

  • Start every single day of training with personal check-ins. Ask a different question each day and offer everyone an opportunity to answer those questions. Continue at every check-in. Their well-being is paramount to you.

  • Encourage peer-based support. Facilitate groups that work in support of each other. Weekly “Islands of Sanity” calls--are you willing to use whatever power and influence you have hold islands of sanity to invoke and create, produce, and persevere?

  • Make time to share your own challenges and mistakes and vulnerabilities. 

Your Hosts:

What We Learned at the Women in Camp Summit Live Virtual Event - Camp Code #79

We ran a traditionally in-person conference 100% online. And it was AWESOME. Here’s what we learned!

This week’s episode falls during the holiday season of 2020. From all of us at Camp Code, happy holidays and we wish all of you a happy new year.

2020 has been quite the year, with a global pandemic affecting lives worldwide and to camp professionals, has created an unprecedented camp season where many camps simply did not have the opportunity to run. Furthermore, as camp Directors are well underway throughout their planning phases for next summer unbeknownst to anyone if camps will even run. It is easy for people to look at the history of 2020 and refer to some of the negative connotations surrounding it that lead us to believe that in the fog of 2020, there was nothing else but more fog.

Although that may not be exactly true, as Camp Code looks to close the chapter in 2020, we aim for new goals and aspirations in 2021. As heard in the teaser of this episode, “positive change requires an effort of togetherness (Women in Camping Summit, 2020)” and we believe as a camp community we can continue to achieve our camp milestones collectively. 

In this episode, Beth, Gabz and Ruby reflect on their experience at the Women in Camp Summit Live Virtual Event where over 200 women from around the world contributed to some extremely memorable moments.

Ruby starts us off with talking about a fantastic speaker from the summit, Leslie Keller, owner of Live Love Equity. Leslie teaches us about the importance of equity and inclusion and how it needs to be a foundational element to any organization. Leslie did hint about the power of social media and how tools like Instagram can influence some of the content you learn and teach to your followers. 

You can find Leslie and all the great work she does here: 

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/liveloveequity/

Website - https://www.liveloveequity.com/

Gabz dives in to talk about two of her leaders who develop a session that focuses on creating conversation about race with your staff. There needs to be a process of consent and consult from the people of colour on your staff to ensure that they are comfortable with the situation. White privilege is something that needs to be talked about and that to create change, there is a process you need to develop.

At the core, the four steps of the process created by the presenters Mel and Ania are Awareness, Assessment, Prioritizing and Action. A copy of the presentation can be found RIGHT HERE. Beth reminds us about the importance of resilience and refers to our Camp Code friend Dr. G who developed a seven-step cycle for resilience https://askdoctorg.com/drg-resilience-cycle/.

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Bonus Resources!

The body is not an apology - https://thebodyisnotanapology.com/

Using Black Vernacular English (BVE) as a Non-Black Person Isn’t “Woke” if You Don’t Understand the History - https://www.feminuity.org/blog/using-bve-as-a-non-black-person-is-appropriation

How to be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40265832-how-to-be-an-antiracist

We hope you love this episode of Camp Code! If you do, please consider subscribing to the show, and leaving us a rating in your Podcast app. It’s SO easy, just head to https://ratethispodcast.com/campcode

Leadership Training Best Practice

From Ruby Compton

At the end of the Women in Camping summit, there was a discussion related to Becoming Allies - Supporting Women in Camp that generated meaningful conversation and one of the tools that was mentioned was “The Man Box”. The idea was to talk about what does society or culture say about being manly and then have the same conversation around topics that are perceived to be unmanly and comparing the phrases between the two boxes and seeing how sometimes terms we use as unmanly can be linked associate with women, creating negative connotations. It’s important to write these down, discuss them and understand how we can break down gender-based barriers.

Your Hosts:

9 Quick-Fire Ways to Surprise and Delight Your Staff - Camp Code #78

One of the most important things we can do for youth is to show them that we’re thinking of them.

♫ The weather outside is frightful, but Beth, Ruby and Gabrielle continue to be delightful ♫

In this episode as they look to give you ways to show your appreciation towards staff.  At the core of this episode, being a leader is really understanding those around you and what motivates them. For some, motivation can come in the form of extrinsic rewards, Beth recommends small trinkets for staff or stickers that reminds them they are a part of a great team at camp. Others prefer intrinsic rewards, such as personalized videos to camp staff during stressful times, such as exams that are used to remind staff just how awesome they are. Sometimes people just need a bit of motivation to remind them of what their impact is to camp. Ruby recommends trying something other than email, and shares with us some ideas including Bonjoro, Marco Polo, Voxer, and Yac. 

Working at camp is a unique experience, and it deserves to be celebrated! Gabrielle gives us the genius idea of celebrating a new hire on a live social media platform such as Instagram or Facebook. Social media continues to be a tool for camp and if campers see that their favourite staff member is returning, it generates excitement for the staff and for the campers. 

We’ve listed a few of the ideas above, but to learn from our hosts and their fantastic ideas, you will have to listen to this week’s episode.

For more great tips, have a listen and don’t forget to leave a review, our hosts read every single one!

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Bonus:

If you listened to the episode, you learned about 5-minute Fridays. Click HERE for a quick peek into all the fun that we have, making 5-minute Fridays THE spot for bite-sized professional development. 

We hope you love this episode of Camp Code! If you do, please consider subscribing to the show, and leaving us a rating in your Podcast app. It’s SO easy, just head to https://ratethispodcast.com/campcode

Leadership Training Best Practice

From Gabrielle Raill

Good note-taking can translate information into a new way of learning something. So during staff training, why don’t you enable your great note-takers on staff and ask them to take notes for the majority of the sessions during a session. Take it one step further, make photocopies or email these notes to your staff so that everyone can learn from the same information.

Your Hosts:

Training Staff to Disagree and Discuss with Care - Camp Code #77

To disagree is not to destroy, it’s to dream about new possibilities. Here’s how to teach your staff that.

Our hosts, Ruby, Gabrielle and Beth have been working together for many years through podcasting, summer camp training development and presentations and conferences, yet according to Gabz, they disagree all of the time! Conflict is among all of us, and that’s okay because we are all unique in the way that we learn, understand and translate new ideas or challenges. 

In this episode our hosts are here to help listeners to understand that conflict can be good, it can create new ideas, decisions or avenues for new exploration. As Beth says, the goal of conflict resolution is to have all parties involved mutually agree and to do that, she reminds listeners of the 4 S’s:

  • Is it SAFE?

  • Does it SERVE the community?

  • Does it promote SELF-ESTEEM?

  • Is it good STEWARDSHIP

The S for stewardship really encompasses the individual’s being entrusted with any given scenario, so it’s important to remember that although you may have conflict with your peer at camp, you both are working towards the common goal of making camp a better place to be. 

Ruby reminds us that at times as a camp Director, you will have disagreements with your staff. Furthermore, sometimes since you are the camp Director, it ultimately is your decision regardless of any influence your team may have on you. If you stick to your original idea, you will have frustrated staff. It is important to create avenues for your staff and peers to have conversations about how that decision made them feel. Emotions are part of any conflict or decision-making process, so we need to listen to our staff and most importantly, we need to admit when we are wrong.

Speaking of emotions, Gabrielle reminds us that conflict builds in our minds. The longer we put off dealing with conflict, the worse it becomes. Gabz reminds us of another acronym she uses, ACT.

  • Awareness 

  • Communicate

  • Together Problem Solve

For more great tips, have a listen and don’t forget to leave a review, our hosts read every single one!

We hope you love this episode of Camp Code! If you do, please consider subscribing to the show, and leaving us a rating in your Podcast app. It’s SO easy, just head to https://ratethispodcast.com/campcode

Leadership Training Best Practice

From Beth Allison

Two more quick exercises for staff training focusing on how to disagree, with care.

First is a game of Wind in the Willows.

Have camp staff to stand in a circle and ask six questions. if the question implies to the individual, they step into the circle. 

The six statements / questions are related to the following (taken from Inc.com - 6 Smart Ways to Disagree With Someone Respectfully)

  1. Focus on facts

  2. Don’t get personal 

  3. Recognize the good

  4. Remember to listen

  5. Use I statements

  6. Know when to move on

Find images that look like two different things depending how you look at it and ask your staff to tell you what it is. Then have individuals to partner with someone who saw something different and have them talk about their points.

Sample photos:

Google search - one picture two images

Remember the dress? 

Your Hosts:

Hiring in Uncertain Times - Camp Code #76

Inviting staff into our uncertainty. That’s what hiring for Summer 2021 is all about!

If you haven’t listened to the four-part mini-series devoted to our camp professionals helping YOU, you should go back and have a listen! This is the first episode after the mini-series and the timing of our hosts could not be more on point. In this episode, it is all about preparing for the hectic hiring season that is quickly approaching us, especially in these uncertain times. 

There are still a lot of specifics that our camps, regulators and government need to iron out, given the global pandemic. Now camp leaders have more contingency planning to do than ever before. If you’re struggling to figure out how to start, how to manage the waves of emotions that come with the pandemic, then this episode is absolutely for you. Our hosts, Beth, Gabrielle and Ruby dive into how you can go forward, do the interview process and help navigate your hiring for the 2021 summer. 

Ruby reminds us about the rapidly changing news with new scientific evidence and rumours of a vaccine on the way, we need to adapt. Some suggestions presented are virtual programming to prepare your staff,  developing a safety guide decision tree and as always, over-communicate. The more information you can share the better prepared your recruits will be. 

Speaking about a vaccine, Beth reminds us about the inevitable truth that some camps simply may not be able to run until a vaccine is available and camp staff and campers have received the vaccine. From knowing what considerations to think about and what decisions are needed to run camp successfully in a pandemic world, Beth brings us another great resource the Covid Slack, developed by GoCamp.Pro’s very own Travis Allison. 

Gabrielle brings up a great idea about using the alumni staff on standby to run a life wellness session for potential staff. Look at Alumni and their professions to see how it can develop the competencies of your staff and their core. Gabrielle also reminds us that staffing this year will be harder this year as we tackle the unknown of the pandemic, so how about you gets your returning staff to identify what they love about working at camp, what life lessons kids and learn and what would they like to keep or change at camp. Work smarter, not harder and use this information to help you develop your 2021 summer camp program! 

We hope you love this episode of Camp Code! If you do, please consider subscribing to the show, and leaving us a rating in your Podcast app. It’s SO easy, just head to https://ratethispodcast.com/campcode

Leadership Training Best Practice

From Ruby Compton

The season of giving is approaching, so one thought is to share a 2020 camp swag that you can send to camp staff or alumni to remind them that although this year may not have been great for camps, the work that staff and alumni do throughout the years does not go unrecognized.

Your Hosts:

Taking Care of Your Staff - Camp Code #75

One of the most affordable AND most important things you’ll do at camp this summer.

If you have listened to the three earlier episodes focusing on the COVID-19 pandemic, you’re already prepared with a new set of tools on your belt to help YOU as a camp professional. In the final part of our four-part series, we shift our focus on how you, the camp leaders can help your staff.

If your camp was fortunate enough to run this past summer, things were different as you and your team braced for a camp that encouraged social/physical distancing and potentially lived the summer with a mask on. For those camps who unfortunately were unable to run, your campers and your staff were just as heartbroken as you were when we all learned that camp was not an option this past summer. 

In this episode of Camp Code, Gabrielle, Beth and Ruby break down the fact that camp people are often natural caretakers, which leads us to this question - as camp professionals, how do we take care of our own people at this time?

We know this is a hard time for camp staff whose lives have been turned upside down. Employment may be hard for them to come by at this time, or they have shifted to going to post-secondary school fully online, The stress levels are unprecedented for everyone at this time, so if there is something we can do to help the camp staff we rely on for our summers, we should take action! 

Our hosts are full of ideas, from sending care packages, having “real talks” about the importance of the Black Lives Matter movement or COVID safety to even helping to provide resources to your staff to process grief or stress they are dealing with at this time.

If you want to learn more about how a little bit of effort for camp leaders can be a foundational shift of much-needed mentorship for your staff, then tune in to this episode!

We hope you love this episode of Camp Code! If you do, please consider subscribing to the show, and leaving us a rating in your Podcast app. It’s SO easy, just head to https://ratethispodcast.com/campcode

Leadership Training Best Practice

From Gabrielle Raill

Visual presentation skills are critical to the success of your online training. Visual cues can create an anchor in the minds of your students to exemplify what it is you are talking about. Gabrielle recommends using https://unsplash.com/ to get great FREE images to help accentuate your presentations.

Your Hosts:

Professional Development in 2020 - Camp Code #74

In an off-season like no other, there is still room (and a need) to grow your skills! Get growing with this episode of Camp Code

In part-three of our four-part series focusing on the COVID-19 pandemic, we dive into the importance of professional development. Regardless if your camp was able to run this past summer with restriction, or maybe not at all Ruby, Beth and Gabrielle are here to help. We get it, 2020 has added an additional layer of financial pressure that may limit your professional development, but our Camp Code gurus dive into some ideas to enable your professional development. 

The most important part about professional development is to know what you want to learn. The first step is to make a list of all of the things you want to learn. 2020 has brought on us an overwhelming amount of online content as organizations adapted to virtual work. Conferences and courses are two things that have gone primarily online and we’ve outlined a few resources to make it easier for you. 

Online Conferences - There are a ton of these around, some to note are as follows: 

As for free online resources, there are podcasts, videos, free university courses, but to get you started...here are a few of our favourties:

The resources listed above are just a sneak peek into some of the ideas that Beth, Ruby and Gabz are happy to share. To hear the rest, have a listen! 

We hope you love this episode of Camp Code! If you do, please consider subscribing to the show, and leaving us a rating in your Podcast app. It’s SO easy, just head to https://ratethispodcast.com/campcode

Leadership Training Best Practice

From Beth Allison

Interview people and not to hire staff. If you know people that you think you can learn from, make that list! Next, send out some invitations to those people asking them for 30 minutes or less of their time and specify what it is you want to discuss. After you meet with them, it is a great idea so write them handwritten thank you cards and send it to them in the mail. 

Your Hosts:

Taking Care of You - Camp Code #73

It’s going to be easy to de-prioritize yourself in the lead up to be 2021, let Camp Code help you move yourself up your to-do list.

In part-two of the four-part series focusing on the COVID-19 pandemic, we want to help you take care of one of the most valuable things in your life, you! To be the most effective camp leader, you cannot forget to stop, take a moment of mindfulness and recharge the batteries. Ruby, Beth and Gabz are here to share what each of them do to recharge and be ready to be the best versions of themselves. 

For Ruby, it’s all about having a day without time. Ruby takes off her watch and puts the phone away. Rather than being caught up in the busyness that life can bring you, taking a day to disconnect and live your day from sunrise to sunset.

Gabz takes a slightly different approach as living at camp during a pandemic has its perks. She takes the morning to do meets, emails and computer work, followed by some “her time” (usually a nap) and then spends the afternoon doing some labor around camp.

For Beth, taking care of herself is all about understanding her emotions and really capturing how she is feeling now. She taps in to an article by Jonathan L. Zecher (source: https://theconversation.com/acedia-the-lost-name-for-the-emotion-were-all-feeling-right-now-144058) where the author reminds us that we are exhausted of zoom meetings, cocktails and parties. Our days of baking bread and other means of distraction during a pandemic is over, now it is time to take care of you. 

Taking care of yourself starts now, not tomorrow. Have a listen for some tips and tricks to get started!

We hope you love this episode of Camp Code! If you do, please consider subscribing to the show, and leaving us a rating in your Podcast app. It’s SO easy, just head to https://ratethispodcast.com/campcode

Leadership Training Best Practice

From Ruby Compton

Singing songs is the perfect way to take time for yourself. It doesn’t matter if you can carry a tune or not, but taking the time to sing; in the shower, in the car or loud and proud for everyone to hear, a song can change your mood.

Your Hosts:

You Know You're a Camp Director in a Global Pandemic When... - Camp Code #72

Welcome to season 8 of Camp Code!

Well, that was a summer that we will all remember for the rest of our lives. To kick off season eight (that’s right folks, eight seasons on Camp Code) we are launching a four-part mini-series to focus on the COVID-19 pandemic and how it affects you, the Camp Director. 

Ruby, Beth and Gabrielle are back after the most memorable summer that didn’t fill the cabins with the laughter of children of the joy that is found in song. In Canada, most provinces were unable to open summer camps, preventing Gabrielle’s camp from opening and Beth found it challenging to do summer camp marketing with Canadian camps closed for the summer. Similarly, Ruby found herself working at a few different restaurants as we all adjust to the normal of today. 

In part one of the mini-series, Ruby, Beth and Gabrielle ask themselves “You know you are a camp pro during a pandemic when: _________________” Ruby dives in to talk about learning to “people” again as we learn to reintroduce ourselves outside of an unfamiliar landscape post quarantine. Gabrielle focuses on moments when your brain misfires, causing her to buy headphones that she had previously done the research on and knew she did not want to purchase. 

The pandemic of 2020 has people coping and reacting to a new world. Listen in to part one of the mini-series to learn that you are not in this alone and now more than ever, camp folk need to stick together. 

We hope you love this episode of Camp Code! If you do, please consider subscribing to the show, and leaving us a rating in your Podcast app. It’s SO easy, just head to https://ratethispodcast.com/campcode

Leadership Training Best Practice

From Gabrielle Raill

  1. Plan and organize as much as you can… or “plan to plan”. Take two hours on Friday afternoon to review your week, validate that you accomplished everything you wanted to complete and focus on developing your goals for the following week. 

  2. The pandemic is the enemy. If you have to break promises caused by the pandemic, keep in mind that we are all in this together, and more understanding than ever. 

Your Hosts: