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Welcome
to the May 2009 Edition of 20/20 News,
our e-newsletter about the American Camp
Association’s vision for the future. ACA’s
20/20 Vision: 20 million campers and
20,000 participants engaged in ACA by
the year 2020.
This
e-newsletter is intended to keep you
informed about your association’s
plans and actions toward reaching this
vision and to update you on how we’re
doing. In this issue, we will present
to you specific ideas to the work
of the Accreditation and Education Task
Force:
In the Beginning
In the spring of 2007, the ACA National
Board approved the formation of a task
force to explore opportunities for ACA
surrounding the larger framework of accreditation
systems.
The Accreditation & Education (A&E)
Task Force is employing a phased approach.
Phase I is an exploratory phase intended
to study opportunities, challenges, best
practices, models, and the interrelations
between our efforts, and those of other
task forces and groups working on timely
issues, including the 20/20 Vision. An
exploratory phase is also an educating
phase. We recognize that many in the organization
use accreditation and standards in interchangeable
ways; however, in most accreditation systems,
standards serve as one key component, rather
than the sole focus. We are balancing a
sense of urgency with exercising due diligence
in each phase. The exploratory or study
phase was expected to span six to twelve
months and was completed in the fall of
2008.
The subsequent phases include: Concept
and Design; Program Development; and Implementation
and Roll Out (includes field testing, retooling
and training). The completion of all phases
is anticipated to take 36-48 months.
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Guiding
Principles of the A&E Task Force:
- Accreditation systems are comprehensive
and are comprised of various components,
including Standards, Professional Development,
and are complementary to other programs.
- Our process will benefit from internal
and external expertise throughout.
- Health, safety, and risk management
provide one important focus to standards.
- Core competencies, leadership development,
and progression are keys to professional
development.
- Our process is inclusive versus exclusive. It
is healthy to invite individuals and
groups across the profession discussing
opportunities, challenges, and our shared
future.
- We inform in some cases, and are informed
in others.
- We honor our past and allow the past
to appropriately inform our future.
- Our current Standards program is operational
and will continue to function throughout
this process.
- We address the financial issues tied
to accreditation systems from all perspectives.
- Participation by other ACA entities
will expand and contract throughout in
practical ways.
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Phase-I
Goals and Questions for Exploration:
- What is the purpose of Accreditation?
- What are the barriers to becoming accredited
by ACA and how might these constraints
be removed?
- What would a comprehensive accreditation
system look like?
- Can we become comprehensive in scope
yet simple in process?
- What is required of ACA to become nimble?
- How is technology changing accreditation
models in related professions?
- How can we address accreditation systems
as a means to an end? What is our public
obligation and opportunity?
- Can we envision a streamlined system
that invites vs. excludes, while ensuring
a path to excellence?
- Can we free up resources to build other
components of accreditation systems,
including professional development, while
maintaining sound and defendable standards?
- How can we ensure that any new ACA
accreditation model will benefit from
ongoing, external review that includes
parents, policy makers, child and youth
development professionals, and other
stakeholders?
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SWOT
and Feedback From Other Groups:
The task force reviewed the feedback from
a number of sources. Each member relayed
to the task force the feedback from section
leadership, camp directors, and Standards
volunteers based. The staff relayed feedback
from the National Standards Commissions,
Field Service Committee, outside organizations
requesting accreditation, and numerous
national and section staff.
While much was discussed the following
were the recurring themes:
- Strength:
- Tremendous volunteer system to support
the accreditation process.
- Weakness
- Entry into the program is very difficult
- Threat
- Accreditation is seen as a requirement
for membership in good standing
- Opportunity
- Increasing number of outside
authoritative sources reaching out
to partner with ACA
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Concepts:
The key elements of a camp accreditation
program are health and safety, risk
management, and staff and leadership core
competencies. The task force determined
that health and safety and risk management
formed the base for the program. The individual
camp staff is the key to a child’s
camp experience. The task force determined
more emphasis, beyond skills certification,
needed to be placed on the individual competencies
of the camp staff to help assure that the
best practices researched by youth development
professional organizations are being implemented
in the camp environment.
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Online
Based:
In reviewing other programs it was found
that some used online methods to publish
the standards and process, and to submit
as well as review documents. In our current
system, we spend a great deal of time
publishing our Accreditation
Process Guide,
and once published, changes must be made
manually through supplements. By publishing
online, the program becomes much more dynamic
and easier to update as our environment
changes.
The use of online document review allows
the review to occur prior to the visit
and also allows documents to be reviewed
anywhere in country. This particularly
appealed to the task force as a number
of hours are spent in beautiful camp
settings reading documents, when this time
could be spent talking to the camp staff
and campers. By reviewing documents prior
to a visit, ACA will send visitors only
to camps who have completed document submission
and have met the standards related. The
on-site visit will evolve into something
far more educational for all parties.
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What’s
Our Focus "THE CAMP" or "THE
INDIVIDUAL"?
In ACA, we tend to focus on the camp. We
classify camps as resident, day, independent,
nonprofit, religiously affiliated, agency,
private, etc. All of these
terms define the structure or organization
and don’t recognize the individual.
The foundation of ACA for much of our
history has been the accreditation program,
which recognizes the camp, not the individual.
When we recruit, we look to bring in camps
and expect the members of that camp will
become members of the ACA. We limit
ourselves to the structure of the camp,
rather than finding individuals — regardless
of their affiliation with camp or youth
development.
If ACA shifted the focus to
the individual through professional development
programs, the task force will
have a tremendous potential for growth. ACA's
reach will extend beyond those involved
in camp to professionals in the broader
fields of youth development and education. The
curriculum of the development program must
be based on the values of ACA and the
camp field. ACA should see growth in
membership of professionals, which will
bring in new camps creating growth in
the number of camps affiliated with ACA.
The task force recommends shifting our
paradigm from a camp-based organization
to a professional-based organization.
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Summary
of COD Feedback:
The final input came from the Council
of Delegates in Orlando in February of
2009. Members completed
a card answering two questions "What
is the current value of the Accreditation
Program?" and; "What is the value
of the Accreditation Program you would
like to see in the future?"
The top three responses to the first question
had almost the same number of responses
(in fact, many respondents used both the
terms best practices and risk management
in their response) and aligned with the
anecdotal responses received during discussions
with members. The three responses were:
Accreditation . . . .
- Provides a framework for organizing
and running a camp;
- Delineates the best practices for camp;
and
- Outlines the risk management for camp.
The overwhelming response to the second
question was external recognition of accreditation.
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What
to Expect:
With the changes in the standards approval
process, ACA will now be more nimble in
aligning standards to the current issues. Work
has begun to move a large part of the program
online. Individuals will be able
to enter the camp profile and in turn,
be presented with the standards that apply
to their camp. Currently, we depend
on our applicants to sort through the long
list of standards and attempt to determine
what applies and what doesn’t.
By moving the program online, the standards
requiring documentation may be submitted,
reviewed, and scored prior to the
visit. We envision visitors can review
documentation when their professional workload
permits. This will also allow visitors
to spend their time at camp focused on
the program, leadership, and working with
the director. An online system will relieve
much of the last-minute preparation for
the visit as documentation will be reviewed
prior.
Utilizing online technology ACA will be
able maintain individual professional development
portfolios online to track all the educational
experiences of a camp professional. This
could include everything from degree work
to workshops at a conference as well as
work experience. The portfolios for individuals
will make it easier for professional coaches
(inside ACA or external coaches) to assist
a camp professional in laying out the course
work and experience needed to achieve personal
professional development goals. Today’s
technology will allow each person to customize
their professional development journey
rather than taking a fixed set of courses
to achieve a goal that may or may not exactly
fit the needs of the individual. We
will seek outside expertise to fully develop
this approach.
Th education and standards staff, along
with the NSC, are working on the first
phase of the online approach to the Standards
portion of the program. An update
will be provided in the fall.
The task force has a column "The
Edge" in each edition of Camping
Magazine to
share how accreditation and professional
development provide you with an Edge to
engage more children in the camp experience.
Look for our column in Camping Magazine,
or go back a few issues and read or re-read
our previous columns.
There are a lot of exciting opportunities
for ACA in professional development, and
as these opportunities become more clearly
defined, we will be sharing them with each
of you . . . .
Have a fun filled safe summer!!!!
Questions
or comments? E-mail the task force at 2020@ACAcamps.org.
20/20 Task Force
Peg Smith
Peter Surgenor
Ann Sheets
Scott Brody
Posie Taylor
Rich Garbinsky
Diane Tyrrell
View Past Newsletters
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