In The Gloaming: Planning the Perfect Campfire - CampHacker #79

Making The Last Part Of The Day, The Best Part Of The Day

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   Podcast: Subscribe in iTunes | Stitcher App

"Fire's burning, fire's burning, draw nearer, draw nearer, in the gloaming, in the gloaming, come sing and be merry." 

That's right. It's GLOAMING - but glowing works too.

I love the picture that this old Girl Guide song paints. Huddled friends, a warm fire, the twilight after a great day and singing in harmony. The campfire is a special time where we get to reflect, sing, dance, and act all together. It is one of the pinnacle moments of the day where the entire camp (directors included!) can be together. It's powerful it has the potential to shape the camp experience for both campers and staff.

This episode, CampHackers Gab, Joe and Dan get together to share not only some awesome ideas that can be included in your campfires, but how the philosophy of your campfires can, and should, reflect the culture of your camp.

BONUS MATERIAL!

Dan's notes from his Tri-State campfire presentation - Here

Dan Weir's incredible campfire performance - Here

Thanks, Dan!

Tool of the Week – Make Yourself a Better Camp Director

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(Thank you!)

Thanks for the evening, friends.

 

Helping All Camps Get Better - CampHacker #74

Helping the Industry Succeed - How can we use our resources and our knowledge to help all camps get better?

                         Podcast: Subscribe in iTunes | Stitcher App

                         Podcast: Subscribe in iTunes | Stitcher App

Summer camps need to be collaborative. Now, it's not that they aren't already - look no farther than the incredible Camp Pros Group on Facebook, and you'll see a ton of fantastic people sharing their best practices with each other.

It goes a bit farther though. We need to look into how we are serving our nearby neighbours in the summer camp world before they even need it. Some camps do it via staff exchanges, mini-conferences, "mastermind groups" or even by joining policy committees to support the industry in their area. This kind of face-to-face support not only helps each other out, but it builds relationships and extends our personal support networks. 

Even more, we have to look at our no-so-best practices, and be willing to share the times when we've fell on our faces, and thereby learned the most. It takes guts to trust those people with our vulnerable stories and it takes integrity for us to receive those stories empathically, take the learning, and maintain confidentiality. 

We hope you enjoy this podcast and that it inspires you to look at how well you are sharing with your summer camp neighbours. 

Have a thought? Let us know in the comments below!

Tool of the Week – Make Yourself a Better Camp Director

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Rate and Review the CampHacker Show in iTunes 

(Thank you!)

Thanks for the evening, friends.

Changing Culture at Camp - CampHacker #52

Making culture changes with your staff and campers

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As a camp director one of the big career challenges in our job is changing the culture of our camps.     I know, as a first year director, there were more things that I wanted to change than I could ever do effectively in 2 months.  I had to prioritize.   For my first summer I just needed our staff to focus on keeping the campers safe.

Every year after that we worked to make our camp the best possible program we could.   The big change was when we first implemented Beth’s 4 S Test 

Paul and Joe have some great ideas from their many years of camp.  Each has their own stories of making change as big as the whole camp culture.

Have you made big culture changes at your camp? Please let us know how you made it work in the comments

Tool of the Week – Make yourself a better Camp Director

Travis: Swift Player for iOS
Joe: - Magic Plan - Floor Plan Creator
Paul: EDC (Every Day Carry) Blog

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Thanks for the evening, friends.