Partnering with Parents - CampHacker #58

Building a Great Relationship with Camper Parents

Podcast: Subscribe in iTunes | Stitcher App  

Sometimes, as a camp staff member, you can see the worst side of parents.  When they are stressed out and they think something could go wrong with their child they can have very intense reactions.   Sometimes that reaction gets aimed at their camp director or their child’s counsellor.

A big part of our discussion today centred around how to build a great relationship with camp parents.   Some of the ideas were for before a child even got to camp (Marty and Camp Chief Ouray have an amazing idea you should steal!), for your staff training period and for during the child’s time at camp.

Thank you to Marty for finding a quiet place to get away to record!

How do you teach your staff to work well with you camp parents?

Tool of the Week – Make yourself a better Camp Director

Travis: Post Planner - Facebook posting app
Dan: Camp Director’s Brian Sense’s TED Talk  “Risk: The four-letter word vital to an inspired, fulfilled and happy life.”
Marty: CAP Time

Your Hosts:

Rate and Review the CampHacker Show in iTunes (It helps! It really, really helps!)

Thanks for the evening, friends.

Tiered Pricing for Summer Camps - CampHacker #57

Affordable Summer Camp for all Families

Podcast: Subscribe in iTunes | Stitcher App  (search for CampHacker)

The CampHacker Podcast for summer camp leaders and directors

Tiered Pricing is a model where camps (usually non-profits but we did discuss how this would work at a private camp) show two or three levels of pricing for each session.  

N.B.: this is not the usual "early bird" prices that camps use to entice their families to pay early and therefore help with the cash flow through out the winter.   As we discussed in the show, Early Bird prices can still work.

Usually camps come up with a 3 tier pricing structure based on some approximation of these calculations. 

Tier 1: Current Price (adjusted for inflation every year) 
Tier 3: (We'll come back to Tier 2 - honest) The true cost of running camp as if it was a for-profit business.   Some of the factors in arriving at this price include: the cost of depreciation on all buildings and vehicles; the cost of maintaining the buildings and land in such away that their value grows at the rate of the local real estate market (I have heard that this means spending as much as 4% of the current value of the property and buildings PER YEAR in maintenance and capital projects); the cost of staff salary if they were being paid by a for-profit business; and the cost of operating without any grants or donations

Once you have these numbers you can split the difference to come up with Tier 2. 

**Please note: to calculate your true cost of camp (Tier 3) we INSIST you consult your accountant.   We profess to be not-accountants. 

 (Did I just set a record for the most use of parentheses in a CampHacker Blog post?  It'll be close)

 

 

Frost Valley Y's Tiered Pricing Explanation for Camp Families

Why 3 Tuition Fees?

Frost Valley serves families with different abilities to pay.

Tuition A and B more accurately account for true costs, including wear and tear and depreciation. This program is voluntary, and in no way influences the experience children receive. 100% of the additional fees from A & B rates fund facility replacements and improvements.

Tuition C is our historically subsidized rate, and does not reflect the true cost of operating.

There’s no difference in the camp experience for your child!

Our goal is to make Frost Valley YMCA Summer Camp affordable to everyone through camperships. Please email info@frostvalley.org for more information.

Last season's registration form: http://www.frostvalley.org/camp/overnight-camps/camp-wawayanda/2013-summer-camp-dates-rates-2/

Would you ever consider Tiered Pricing for your camp? 

 

Combating Communicable Diseases at Summer Camp - CampHacker #56

Preventing Spread of Norwalk and Other Infections at Camp

Podcast: Subscribe in iTunes | Stitcher App  (search for CampHacker)

I have often said that camp would be an amazing place for a public health researcher to take a look at the ways that diseases are spread throughout communities.   I have watched little things like pink eye or head lice (traumatic, but not life-threatening) run through camp in less than a day.

In this episode of the CampHacker Podcast Gab and I were thrilled to bring in Marty Ferguson from YMCA Camp Chief Ouray in Colorado.  Camp Chief Ouray has developed some very smart protocols to protect their camper and staff from diseases that can spread at camp.

We also had John MacDonald, my step-dad, who is a retired Health Inspector from Ontario, Canada.   John has had a long career in the public health field and was always a great resource to Beth and I.     

Thank you to both of them for being on the show! 

Download our Camp Kitchen Compliance Record

We hope you get lots from our discussion.   

If you have any questions about communicable diseases at camp please leave them in the comments below or send us a tweet to @CampHacker using the #CampPros hashtag.

 

Tool of the Week – Make yourself a better Camp Director

Travis: FocusatWill.com
Gab: Twitter for your desktop
Marty: Season of Life by Jeffery Marx
John: HACCP training 

Your Hosts:

Thanks for the evening, friends.

Recruiting Great Staff - CampHacker #55

Find better staff than just those looking for a summer job

Podcast: Subscribe in iTunes|Stitcher App  (search for CampHacker)

Audio Podcast logo.jpeg

Getting great staff can be a VERY long process. As we said in this episode, sometimes it take a lifetime (10 years as a camper and a CIT/LIT program).  

Our most successful methods for finding camp staff:

  • recommendations from current staff

  • posing information with language schools with which you have a relationship (how Ouareau gets some great international staff

  • asking staff who have not applied if they would consider it

  • using camp staffing services

One thing that we all agreed on: just because a person was a good camper does not mean they will be a good staff member.  This seems to be most true for people who skipped the CIT/LIT program and took a couple of summers off.   Of course like any “rule” about people, we all have had some great exceptions to the rule.

Have you ever taught your staff who to look for?  This is what a Your-Camp-Name person acts like?  

Gab was kind enough to share with us the Ouareau Staff Information Package download it with this link: Ouareau's Staff Information Package

What do you do to recognize you staff when they send you good people?

 Please feel free to share your ideas in the comment section, below.

 

Tool of the Week – Make yourself a better Camp Director

Travis: ReadQuick app Joe: Batch Picture Resize app
Dan: Planetary Design French Press Mug
Gab: Custom animated logos for video

 

Your Hosts:

Thanks for the evening, friends.