PREVIEW: Beyond Camp: Exploring the Intersection of Camp and Our Lives

A Camp Podcast, in the Summer!?

Coming July 9th, 2020: Beyond Camp: Exploring the Intersection of Camp and Our Lives
As much as people like to talk about camp and ‘the real world’ as two separate entities, camp professionals know that this simply isn’t true. Beyond Camp dives into how different aspects of our lives affect our camp experience, effectively bursting the camp bubble and welcoming all parts of our lives into the conversation.

For the summer, stay tuned to the CampHacker Podcast feed. We're releasing a new show every week!

We hope you enjoy this preview! Episode one drops July 9th at 6 am.

If you have any feedback or ideas for future topics please get in touch! - matt@gocamp.pro.

Go well and safely friends, see you next week.

Unplug at Camp - CampHacker #104

The reason behind your no-cell phone policy

Audio Podcast logo.jpeg

Camp is counter-culture.

Camps (for the most part) don't care about fashion, we encourage people to embrace what makes them quirky, and we don't have cell-phones at camp.

Now, policies differ, and some camps are even experimenting with plugged-in weeks at camp, but we can all agree on is that there is indeed a benefit that we give to our campers when we ask them to unplug from tech while they are at camp.

What? You don't believe this un-named, rogue blogger? Well fine. How about Dan Weir?

Yeah. THE CampHacker Dan Weir.

Dan was the keynote speaker at the Society of Camp Director's dinner this year where he shared his findings on the importance of unplugging both at home and at camp. Dan has done some pretty extensive research, not only in terms of the clinical benefits, but has been actively experimenting with how the unplugged culture at Frost Valley has given campers (and their parents) a much needed tech-free space. 

On this episode of the podcast, you'll find the audio of his talk.

Dan was even gracious enough to share his slide deck for all of you. Click or tap here. Hey. Thanks, Dan! 

No tool of the week this episode, but if you missed it last week, Dan references Bored and Brilliant by Manoush Zomorodi. Definitely worth a read or listen!

Enjoy!

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What's on your mind? - CampHacker #97

Uncertainty is a Killer of Good Work...and Other Debatable Statements

What's on your mind right now?

It's fair to say that it's getting into "crunch time", but it's also probably fair to say that there's still some time to think.

And when there's time to think, there's sometimes a space created in a section of our brains that is reserved for vulnerability. Whatever that is to you - uncertainty, concern, doubt, worry - thoughts like these have a way of floating in and settling in the spaces in-between your day to day. These thoughts don't exactly impede our progress, but if left un-dusted, the can certainly prevent us from moving forward on potentially critical aspects of our upcoming season.

This episode is for some of those thoughts. It's also for the thoughts that are on the minds of our CampHackers and Camp Pros in the community. Travis and Joe are joined by good friend of the show, Paul Sheridan from Four Winds, Westward Ho to share not only what's on their minds in February of 2017, but to comment on some other Camp Pro's thoughts from around the camping community. 

Tune in to hear thoughts on:

  • Uncertainty
  • Embracing change (both for yourself and for your staff/organization)
  • Best advice for a new Director or management in your organization
  • How to deal with the feeling of loneliness after a season of camp is over

What's on your mind?

We would love to hear it and if you have any big burning thoughts, please do throw them down in the comments below. We would be happy to hear them and maybe feature it as a topic of discussion for future episodes!

Thanks!

Tool of the Week – Make Yourself a Better Camp Director

Travis: Book - How To Shoot Video That Doesn’t Suck - Steve Stockman

Joe: Tervis - Mug/Cups that keeps things the temperature that you intend them to be

Paul: Delorme InReach - Global satellite technology useful for tripping programs

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Rate and Review the CampHacker Show in iTunes 

(Thank you!)

The Hard Truth About Staff Evaluations - CampHacker #83

Help your staff grow with meaningful evaluations

Your leaders at camp need feedback. In the busyness of the summer, it’s tempting to add evaluations to the bottom of your to-do list and never get to it. Before you do that though, take a second to think back to your first few years on staff. How much of your growth would you attribute to the formal or informal evaluations that you got from your staff and peers?

On this episode of the CampHacker podcast, CampHackers Travis, Joe, Gab and Dan break down the ins and outs of all things staff evaluations. You will find excellent discussions on why evaluations are important, how to teach your staff to evaluate each other and some awesome best evaluation practices from four different veteran director perspectives. If you aren’t evaluating, or want to get better at it, then this episode was made especially for you.

How do evaluations work at your camp? We would love to hear your best practices in the comment section below.

Bonus Content!

15five Questions - #HR weekly questions that take 15 min to answer, 5 minutes to read

http://www.15five.com/

  • What's going well? Any wins (big or little) this week?

  • What challenges are you facing? Where are you stuck?

  • How are you feeling?  What's the morale you see around you?

  • One suggestion to improve your role, team or organization?

  • What are your top three priorities for the coming week?

http://99u.com/workbook/39129/2-emails-that-can-shrink-your-workload-by-20

The Office - Teaching Staff Evaluation Ice-Breaker Videos

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkYUDQCYGHA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vMDVzoxu7I

Joe’s 10 point scale:

  1. Initiative - does the individual show the ability to start task on their own, lead things on their own etc.

  2. Independence - can they work by themselves and be successful?    

  3. Problem Solving - are they able to solve problems when they arise?    

  4. Communication - do they communicate well with campers, other staff members and supervisors?    

  5. Ability to work in a team - when needed can they work in a team and be a positive contribution to camps success    

  6. Adaptability - can they go with the flow as things change and different needs arise?    

  7. Compassion - do they show the ability to feel others emotions and help with any issues?    

  8. Leadership - can they lead? Do they lead? Are they a good leader?    

  9. Passion for what camp is - Do they have passion and show that passion in their actions and words    

  10. Willingness to do that needs to be done

Tool of the Week – Make Yourself a Better Camp Director

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Rate and Review the CampHacker Show in iTunes 

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