Planning Great Programs - CampHacker #50

Making everyday at summer camp special

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Last fall I received a great email from a listener.  Ange wanted to ask us about ways to organize summer camp programs and activities.

In this episode (joined by Ange!) we talked about ways to set expectations and be able to pass on the “lesson plans” at each activity area.

Here’s Ange’s original email:

Hi Travis,

Thank you for all the work you do with CampHacker! I love listening to the podcast and reading your blog.  I have a question I'd love to pose to the CampHacker world:

Do you provide your staff with written material to run an activity? Do you use written lesson plan? Do staff write their own lesson plans?

Currently I provide staff with what I call 'Activity Guides', which provide them with a general structure of the activity for each day, must have content, and flexibility for the staff to mold it to their own teaching style.  We encourage our staff to take ownership and be flexible with their activities, so we provide them time during staff training to plan their activities based off the provided guides.  The two main challenges from this summer for our staff were time management and actually using their Activity Guide.  I would love to hear what other camps provide their staff with in regards to lesson plans.

Thank you and Happy Trails!

If you have questions please email them to travis@socialcatalyst.ca - I’m happy to focus on the topics that you need the most!

Ange was kind enough to give us a sample of her program - download it here. 

What do you do to help your staff plan amazing summer camp programs?

Tool of the Week – Make yourself a better Camp Director

Travis: Visual Teams book by David Sibbet
Joe: - https://www.cloudkafe.com/home - Bring the cloud under control
Laura: Creativity in Play Podcast http://www.blogtalkradio.com/creativityinplay
Ruby: Google+ Hangout!
Ange: Training Terrific Staff by Michael Brandwein

Your Hosts:

Thanks for the evening, friends.

 

CIT/LIT Programs at Summer Camp - CampHacker #49

Building a Strong Leadership Program for Senior Campers

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A Counsellor-in-Training (CIT) or Leader-in-Training (LIT) program is a great way for camps to gain confidence in their first year counsellors.   By providing a camp session for senior campers that focuses on teaching the hard and soft skills needed to lead, camps also make themselves more attractive to campers who are ready to move beyond the regular activity areas of camp and gain some training and hands-on experience.   

What is your best memory of your CIT program?

Tool of the Week – Make yourself a better Camp Director

Travis: ProvideSupport.com
Dan: Creating Magic by Lee Cockerell

Your Hosts:

Thanks for the evening, friends.

Ask Me Anything! - CampHacker #48

Lessons for Leaders in the Summer Camp Industry

Welcome to the first ever Camphacker Ask Me Anything About Summer Camp show. We gathered many of our past co-hosts to tackle as list of questions that had come in to us via Twitter and the Summer Camp Professionals Group on Facebook. The questions were wide-ranging from hiring to firing, program to staffing and beyond.

Do you have any questions for the CampHackers? Leave them in the comments below.

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Marketing to Moms - CampHacker #47

Marketing summer camp to the decision makers: Moms

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As summer camp leaders we need to market to moms in order to reach the person in the house who has the greatest influence on purchasing decisions.

In this CampHacker Podcast we talk about ways that camps can be as effective as possible at reaching out to mothers of camp-aged children.    We addressed online tools such as Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest and discussed some basic camp marketing strategies that have worked well for other camps.

Thank you to Jessica Smith from CampEasy.com for joining us and adding so much to the discussion today.

Jessica was kind enough to send us along some Google Alert recipes for you to try:

  • "sleepaway camp" -camping  (to get Google alerts around news, blogs, and conversations for sleepaway camp but not camping)
  • "homesick at camp" (this will search for the phrase in quotes)
  • "packing for camp"
  • summer + camp (results will include both keywords)
  • sleepaway OR "day camp" (will search for either/or)

What do you know about who does the “buying” with your camp families?
Please leave us a note in the comments below or tweet us @CampHacker with your suggestion.

Tool of the Week – Make yourself a better Camp Director

Your Hosts:

Thanks for the evening, friends.