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Staff Training at Its Best!
Imagine being able to have the best camp trainers and consultants available for
your staff orientation.
 Now you can…With the May/June issue
of Camping Magazine!
Bob Ditter, Stephen Wallace, Christopher
Thurber, Michael Shelton, Jeffrey Leiken,
Gwynn Powell, and many more offer their expertise and professional strategies
in this special staff training issue created
exclusively for staff and for trainers.
Your premier industry resource is now
available at a special low bulk rate, so
affordable that you can order this issue
for each member of your staff.
Special Discount for the May/June Staff
Training Issue
$1 per copy in multiples of 10. Share Camping Magazine with
your staff!
10 copies -- $10
20 copies -- $20
30 copies -- $30
40 copies -- $40
50 copies -- $50
This price does not include shipping and
handling.
Reserve your copies today online at www.ACAcamps.org/campmag.
The May/June Staff Training issue of Camping
Magazine—a must have for staff
orientation and training!
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Intelligent Staff
Recruitment—ACA's
Online Employment Center
ACA's online employment
center offers
online resources to help you find, recruit,
and retain staff.
- Summer Jobs at Camp – Camps can
post seasonal job openings and reach
thousands of camp professionals.
- Year-Round
Jobs at Camp – E-mail
listings of your camp's year-round
job postings are distributed to job seekers
twice a month.
- Job Fairs – Comprehensive
lists of job fairs and organizations
that specialize in international staffing.
Visit www.ACAcamps.org/jobs for
more information.
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Got Campshots?
A photo kiosk will be displayed during
the 2008 ACA National Conference, Nashville,
Tennessee, in the Communicamp area. Here,
you will be able to drop off CDs of your
camp's photos. ACA is collecting
historical and contemporary photos from
all ACA-accredited camps for use in Camping
Magazine, promotional materials for ACA's
100th Anniversary celebration and the 150th
Anniversary of the camp experience, and
other ACA marketing and communications
print and electronic publications.
In order for any photos to be considered
for publication, the camp, camp location,
and photographer if applicable must be
identified. An approximate date must be
indicated on all historical photos. For
current photos, include a statement indicating
your camp has model releases on file for
all identifiable subjects in the photo.
Submit
the ACA online photo submission form so
that we have your information on file and
place your photos in the kiosk. Be sure
to label the photo with your name and camp
name.
Remember to bring your camp's photos
to conference!
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Join ACA's Media Resource Team!
Do you speak passionately about the value
of camp in the lives of children and youth?
Does your camp have a unique program to
share? Do you offer specialty activities
that are cutting-edge? Are you willing
to help ACA be the voice of the camp experience?
ACA gets hundreds of media requests each
year, and we look forward to expanding
our media resource list to include more
camps and more voices who can share with
the media the depth, breadth, and importance
of the camp experience. With your
help, ACA can influence print and broadcast
stories that appear throughout the country.
Please join Harriet Lowe, director of
communications,
in Nashville at the ACA National Conference
on Tuesday, February 12, from 1:00-2:30
p.m. in Cheekwood A/B in the Magnolia Section
of the Gaylord Opryland Hotel for a mini-media
training session and the opportunity to
sign up as a member of ACA's Media
Resource Team. If you can't attend,
but want to participate—or if you
have any questions—please submit
our online form or contact Public
Relations at 765-349-3317.
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ACA's National Camp Research Collaborations
Summit a Success!
What would happen if you gathered twenty-eight
researchers from national youth development
agencies (including Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts,
Campfire, 4-H, and the Association for
Experiential Education) and from universities
and colleges (from Arizona, California,
Georgia, Indiana, Ohio, North Carolina,
New Hampshire, New York, Texas, and Utah)
leading the way in camping and outdoor
education research in the same room and
asked them what they thought the important
questions were to advance our understanding
about the camp experience?
The ACA Camp Research Collaboration Summit (PDF), held on
January 10, 2008, at ACA's national
office in Indiana, did exactly that, and
was further supported by an inspirational
charge from Peg Smith who shared her vision
of the role of research and collaboration
for the association.
ACA's staff Research Team and volunteer
"Committee for the Advancement of Research
and Evaluation" (CARE) hosted a one day
meeting to build relationships among colleagues
with similar interests, responsibilities,
and goals around our understanding of the
camp experience and related phenomenon.
Participants discussed future opportunities
for collaboration and intersection across
organizations and academic communities
and structures for supporting collaborative
camp research.
Research questions were identified in
the areas of
- Youth development outcomes;
- Best practices for business operations;
- Staff development and training;
- Communicating with and understanding
parents; and
- The "Big Picture" of camp
as it relates to development.
In addition, the ideas that began percolating
at the Camp Research Collaborations Summit
were discussed at the Coalition for Education
in the Outdoors Biennial Research Symposium
held at Bradford Woods the same weekend.
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ACA's E-Institute—Coming
Soon!
American Camp Association's (ACA's) E-Institute will debut with Web-based
courses for camps and other youth development programs.
Featuring:
- Program Improvement (based on the new
ACA book, Designing Quality Youth Programs)
- ACA Camp Standards
- Camp Is for the Camper
- More to come!
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ACA, Southeastern Hosts Delegation From
Russia
Special thanks to ACA, Southeastern, Camp
Counselors USA, and The University of Georgia
for hosting a delegation of camp directors
and teachers from Russia for two weeks.
The excursion was a way to deepen the collaboration
between participants in the Camp Counselors
Russia program (where internationals serve
as counselors in Russian summer camps)
and members of the Russian Camp Association.
The two-week experience ended with deeper
bonds formed with these bright, gregarious
people. By hosting visitors with
limited English skills (and one fluent
teacher of English), participants gained
a unique view of the "world" and
developed an even stronger conviction that
camp is a powerful tool for building bridges
across oceans and words.
The generosity of people who welcomed
guests in Georgia and Florida was overwhelming.
There was predictable outreach from good
friends and family, but the happiest surprise
was the spirit of strangers who repeatedly
rolled out a 'red carpet',
often because we were "camp" family.
The conversations, experiences, meals,
activities, and glimpses into day-to-day
worlds that were offered to strangers from
another country were uplifting. For example,
the Russian delegation learned about the
"normalness" of
people with disabilities by playing kickball
and riding in paddleboats at Camp Twin
Lakes. They saw the pride of a 10-year-old
who gave them each a first archery lesson
at Camp TimberRidge. This young
"teacher" talked
with them afterwards and even shyly asked
if they really were from Russia!
Each time a question was posed by the
visitors, it was of sincere interest. Also,
they exuded a confidence that the knowledge
gained would be put to use in their home
programs. Visits to local newspapers
generated particularly interesting discussions,
and the answers to their questions reinforced
a sense of disbelief that freedom of speech
exists in the United States as an all-encompassing
fact. The Russian guests spoke in recreation
and leisure classes, held study abroad
information sessions, and toured camps
and youth programs in the southeast.
Contributed by Gwynn Powell, Associate
Professor, University of Georgia, and International
Camp Counselor, Lesnaya Skazka.
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