What Makes You Productive? - CampHacker #116

Matt Wilfrid November 14, 2019

Podcast: Subscribe in iTunes | Stitcher

Not just productive, but effective.

This is an episode for the off-season. It’s an episode that you may need when camp is quiet and you’re in the sweet spot where the summer is still fading and the next one is not yet coming.

As a camp director, your brain is the most important resource you have. It would be an understatement to say that there is a LOT of stuff that fills your brain. It would also be an understatement to say that a full-brain makes for a disorganized brain and a disorganized brain makes for a disorganized camp director.

Your years as a director can sometimes feel like a constant search for clarity, but what it comes down to is that you need a system to both get things out of your brain and into action effectively.

To help you get a system in place and a clear brain, Travis, Dan and Joe share some of their philosophies, ideas and systems that they use to keep their minds free to think, learn and be the best pros they can be.

Some systems and other things we talked about on this episode:

Getting Things Done by David Allen

When by Daniel Pink

The Eisenhauer Decision Matrix

The Productivity Planner and PDF Page

NVALT - Simplenote

TextExpander Snippets

Are there any tools or systems that you love? Please share them in the comments section!

Tool of the Week – Make Yourself a Better Camp Director

Travis: Rode VideoMicro

Joe: Tickler File - create your own:

Dan: “The Five Most Important Questions” by Peter Drucker.

Your Hosts:

Travis Allison, Summer Camp Consultant - CampHacker.TV, Founder at Go Camp Pro
Joe Richards, Executive Director - Pearce Williams Summer Camp & Retreat Facility
Dan Weir, Sr. Director - Youth Development, Summer Camp, & Strategic Initiatives - YMCA of Long Island

Rate and Review the CampHacker Show in iTunes

(Thank you!)

When and How to Introduce Major Change at Camp - CampHacker #115

Matt Wilfrid October 31, 2019

Podcast: Subscribe in iTunes | Stitcher

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes!

TIME TO FACE THE STRANGE

Is it stuck in your head yet? Gotchya!

Change. A 6 letter word that can start a revolution.

Change. The nemesis of the phrase “we’ve always done it like that”.

Change. One of the hardest things about being a full-time camp professional.

Change. Absolutely necessary.

The moment we stop changing as an industry, organization, or camp, is the moment we die. We, as an industry have such a great opportunity to learn, grow and evolve to better serve our campers. Just look at the Summer Camp Professionals group on Facebook, where daily, over 16,000 camp pros are able to ask, answer and interact to help their organizations improve.

Now that we’ve convinced you to change…how do you do it? What if it doesn’t work? What happens if it upsets an alumni or donor? What happens if the staff don’t buy-in, or worse, protests!?

These are all things that we should be on the lookout for when instituting major changes at camp. To help you be the change-maker that you were meant to be, we’ve got the whole CampHacker team on board for this episode.

Join Gab, Dan, Joe and Travis to hear more about:

How to deicide when something needs to change
What are the stakes of not changing?
How to communicate that change to your on- and off-site camp community
Some stories about Joe, Gab and Dan’s biggest lessons learned when it comes to change
Much, much more!

Tool of the Week – Make Yourself a Better Camp Director

Travis: DataStory - by Nancy Duarte

Gabz: Hybride Face Watch

Joe: Adios Email - Imagine, what would happen if you only checked email three times a day?

Dan: DailyCost app

Your Hosts:

Travis Allison, Summer Camp Consultant - CampHacker.TV, Founder at Go Camp Pro
Gabrielle Raill, Camp Director - Camp Ouareau
Joe Richards, Executive Director - Pearce Williams Summer Camp & Retreat Facility
Dan Weir, Sr Director - Youth Development, Summer Camp, & Strategic Initiatives - YMCA of Long Island

Rate and Review the CampHacker Show in iTunes

(Thank you!)

Continuing Education for Experienced Camp Pros - CampHacker #114

Matt Wilfrid October 17, 2019

Podcast: Subscribe in iTunes | Stitcher

Learn outside of camp, to lead at camp.

Following along with our last episode’s theme of learning, we wanted to bring this podcast episode to you at a time where you may be planning your professional development for the year. However, even if you aren’t, it’s never too early or late to start thinking about how to invest in your professional development.

Watch out though! It’s easy to get stuck in the camp body of knowledge when you’re trying to be better for your job and for your camp. It’s good to stay up to date with the latest in all things camp, but it’s important to think about reaching outside the industry as well. The best camp pros take inspiration from many places and if you’re Joe, Gab, and Travis, those places can get VERY cool!

Conferences or opportunities that the hosts talked about on this episode:

Free - Mastermind groups with fellow Camp Directors
Free (ish) Creative Live - Free courses on all things creative
Free - Finding blogs to follow non-camp people
Free - Journaling
Free - Taking up a hobby that can also help camp
$ - CampMavericks.com - Ongoing, for life!
$ - ThinkCamp - Nov 26-28 - London, Ontario
$ - Touring a bunch of summer camps in a region to learn directly from the directors
$ - Online Courses - Skill Share - Especially for creative tasks.
- Possibly free through your local library (https://www.lynda.com/)
$$ - Seth Godin’s Akimbo Workshops
$$ - Your local or regional ACA, OCA, ACQ, Religious denomination or association conferences
$$$ - Seth Godin’s Alt MBA
$$$ - Nonprofit Story Telling Conference - Oct 28-30 - San Diego, California

What do you consider professional development? Any wicked conferences to plug? Let us know in the comments!

Tool of the Week – Make Yourself a Better Camp Director

Travis: Superfans by Pat Flynn https://amzn.to/30aNepx

Gabz: DYI Standing Desk, or Top 5 Standing Desks

Joe: Photo Resize: http://www.rw-designer.com/picture-resize

Your Hosts:

Travis Allison, Summer Camp Consultant - CampHacker.TV, Founder at Go Camp Pro
Gabrielle Raill, Camp Director - Camp Ouareau
Joe Richards, Executive Director - Pearce Williams Summer Camp & Retreat Facility

Rate and Review the CampHacker Show in iTunes

(Thank you!)

Lessons Learned from Summer 2019 - CampHacker #113

Matt Wilfrid October 3, 2019

Podcast: Subscribe in iTunes | Stitcher

We are always learning.

We’re back! After another wonderful summer of camp, Travis, Gab, Dan and Joe are here for Season 9 of the CampHacker Podcast.

To get things started, our hosts share the biggest lessons that they learned from their 2019 camp season. That’s right, even these camp pros with over 50 years of combined experience are still learning. The best pros in the industry are the ones that are hungry for growth and one of the best ways to grow are from the hard-earned lessons that camp has a way of teaching us year after year.

Tune in to this episode hear more about:

Joe’s inspiration to teach people to have hard conversations and his experience touring East Coast United Church camps in Canada
How Gab and her team filled in when they (temporarily) lost 3 of their 4 admin team
Dan’s summer highlighting LGTBQ+ inclusion in the YMCA community and transition into a new role within the YMCA.
Mental health in staff and campers in a new generation
Much, much more!

Podcast Survey

As well: We wanted to share our first ever listener survey. We want to get to know you, the listeners a little bit better! If you can spare 4 minutes, please fill out the survey.

To say thanks, if you fill out the survey before October 15th, 2019, you'll be entered to win One Personal access to CampMavericks.com, for free, for life.

Head to www.gocamp.pro/podsurvey.

Thanks, pros, for helping us be better!