Managing Your Health Centre - CampHacker #16

Keeping your summer camp infirmary in shape for community health care

I like to give campers back to their parents in (at least) as good shape as when they were handed into my care.

On this week's CampHacker podcast we talk about how we take care of the medical needs of campers and staff.   The key person for this is our health care professional: nurse, doctor, medic.   Take a listen and find out how we set up the staffing of our health centres and how we work with our local community health organizations.

How do you look after the staff of your Health Centre?

Tool of the Week – make yourself a better Camp Director

• Gab - Pinterest
• Joe - Leopold bench
• Paul - Ustream (here's Paul's Welcome to Camp Ustream video - skip to minute 7:00 for the actual presentation)
• Travis - Mail Chimp

(please note: Amazon products are affiliate links)

Your Hosts:

• Gabrielle Raill, Director at Camp Ouareau
• Joe Richards, Executive Director at Pearce Williams Christian Centre
• Travis Allison, Summer Camp Leadership and Marketing Consultant at Walking Maverick
• Paul Sheridan, Director at Four Winds * Westward Ho camp

Thanks for the evening, friends.

Being A Great Neighbour at Summer Camp - CampHacker #15

Living and working in harmony with your local community

Teaching the value of community is one of our biggest privileges.  Do we extend that teaching beyond our boarders?

Each one of us had some great idea of things we can do to build great relationships with the people that we share our locales and lakes with.

Andy mentioned some of the things that they do at Liberty Lake: Liberty Lake Picnics and New Jersey Renaissance Faire.

How do you make nice with your neighbours?

Tool of the Week – make yourself a better Camp Director

• Dan - Moleskine Square Notebook Pocket
• Andy - Rabaska War Canoe
• Joe - Kee Klamp Systems
• Travis - Notational Velocity Alt

(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
• Dan Weir, Director of Camping Services at Frost Valley YMCA.
• Andy Pritikin, Director at Liberty Lake

Thanks for the evening, friends.

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.