Protecting Yourself and Your Staff - CampHacker #14

Training camp staff to be mindful of potential false abuse allegations

It was a great discussion last week and a pleasure to have Jennifer Selke back on the show.    I was also thrilled to welcome "Brother Bill" Stevens, Camp Director of Camp Big Canoe in Muskoka, Ontario.

As Camp Directors we face many challenges.  Such a big part of our job involves protection: protecting our campers and even protecting the camp.   But we must also be conscious of protecting the young adults that work for us.

This podcast we talked about teaching our staff to protect themselves from false allegations of abuse.  It is so important that they have a solid understanding of the risk that they take on and that they are constantly cautious.

What do you do to protect your staff from false allegations of abuse?

Tool of the Week – make yourself a better Camp Director

• Jen - Screenflow and Prfessor.com
• Gab - Convectair heater
• Bill -The Last Lecture
• Travis - Canon EOS 7D

(please note: Amazon products are affiliate links)

Your Hosts:

• Travis Allison, Summer Camp Leadership and Marketing Consultant at Walking Maverick
• Gabrielle Raill, Director at Camp Ouareau
• Jennifer Selke, Director at Strawberry Canyon Youth Programs, host of TheCampDirector.com
• Bill Stevens, Director at Camp Big Canoe

Thanks for the evening, friends.

Work-Life Balance at Summer Camp- CampHacker #13

Finding Time for Family and Yourself

This week we talked about how we look after ourselves at summer camp.   Each of us has our own tips and tricks to balance out the stress and long hours of the camp job.

It's also important that we take the time to talk with our staff about managing their own wellness.

How do you take care yourself when you're at camp?

Tool of the Week – make yourself a better Camp Director

• Dan - slide:ology: The Art and Science of Creating Great Presentations
• Gab - Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity
• Joe - Kronum: The Unholy Basketball/Quidditch/Soccer Mashup
• Travis - Frank's Red Hot

(please note: Amazon products are affiliate links)

Your Hosts:

• Joe Richards, Executive Director at Pearce Williams Christian Centre
• Travis Allison, Summer Camp Leadership and Marketing Consultant at Walking Maverick
• Gabrielle Raill, Director at Camp Ouareau
• Dan Weir, Director of Camping Services at Frost Valley YMCA.

Thanks for the evening, friends.

Making Big Changes at Camp - CampHacker #12

What works and what doesn't for Big Hairy Ambitious plans?

Gab, Joe, Travis and special guest-hosts Andy Pritikin and Jennifer Selke talk about times when we have had to implement a change at camp that we know would be met with some resistance.

This episode is a long one but really worth your time - you'll hear some great strategies and stories about camps doing it right... and wrong.

How do you make big changes at your camp?

Tool of the Week – make yourself a better Camp Director

• Andy - John Deere 110 Utility Tractor - don't forget to ask for the ACA discount
• Gab - Dragon dictation application for iPhone
• Jennifer - Time Trade online meeting scheduling
• Joe - Common.is - finding a way to do business differently
• Travis - Intellitouch rechargeable instrument tuner (Joe also likes this Intelli IMT-600 Guitar, Violin and Chromatic Clip-on Tuner - it's a bit cheaper)

(please note: Amazon products are affiliate links)

Your Hosts:

• Joe Richards, Executive Director at Pearce Williams Christian Centre
• Travis Allison, Summer Camp Leadership and Marketing Consultant at Walking Maverick
• Gabrielle Raill, Director at Camp Ouareau
• Andy Pritikin, Director at Liberty Lake
• Jennifer Selke, Director at Strawberry Canyon Youth Programs, host of TheCampDirector.com

Thanks for the evening, friends.

Leadership Training if I Ruled The World - CampHacker #11

What would you change for your summer camp staff training?

Dan & Travis welcome their guests to this week's podcast: Scott Arizala, Kam Kobeissi, and CampHacker co-owner, Beth Allison.

Our idea behind this discussion was to be as creative as possible about Leadership Training (Pre-Camp training to some camps) and see what each of us would do with unlimited time and and unlimited budget.  I think that you'll be surprised at some of the great ideas!

What would you do with an unlimited training budget and unlimited time?

Tool of the Week – Something that you use to make yourself a better Camp Director

• Dan - Zoom H2 Handy Portable Stereo Recorder
• Kam - Adobe Acrobat 8.0 Standard
• Scott - Expert Online Training
• Beth - Fidget basket (silly putty, koosh balls, stress balls, etc.)
• Travis - Invisible Sheild by Zagg - LCD and body covers for cameras, computers, phones, etc.

(please note: Amazon products are affiliate links)

Your Hosts:

• Travis Allison, Summer Camp Leadership and Marketing Consultant at Walking Maverick
• Dan Weir, Director of Camping Services at Frost Valley YMCA
• Kam Kobeissi, Director of Camping Services at Frost Valley YMCA
• Scott Arizala, Summer Camp Trainer and Consultant at The Camp Counselor
• Beth Allison, Summer Camp Leadership and Marketing Consultant at Walking Maverick

Thanks for the evening, friends.