As a camp director for over 25 years, I can say with absolute certainty that every year two consistent challenges rise above all the rest. One, did I hyphenate Ga-Ga in the activities description, and two, how am I going to find enough staff to make camp function properly? 

Finding staff — and finding the right staff on top of that — is paramount to making camp successful. There are never enough applicants to choose from, and the applicant pool tends to run on the shallow side. Some years staffing has felt like a full-time job in and of itself. We know that amazing people are out there. We also know the benefits that await those amazing people should they choose to devote their hearts to camp and kids. Yet dentists don’t seem to pull teeth as hard as we do to get a staff on board that will help us to sleep well at night on our two-and-a-half-inch camp cot mattresses. There must be a better way than blanket marketing nationwide and then hoping the applications roll in.

You can use social media and other techniques effectively to reach a wider audience and connect creatively with those you have yet to find. And these methods really can open up new candidate pools to choose from. Yet, without putting much effort into such modern approaches, over the past five years or so, staffing my camp program has nonetheless become easier.

Why?

Three reasons. First, because good people usually know other good people. This has been true for the majority of my life. I have found so many of the friends I cherish through other friends that I cherish. Most of the time, a true-hearted, kind, reliable soul won’t hang out with individuals who pull them in the wrong direction. So often I sit down with my staff (almost always good people) and chat about their friends, families, and coworkers at home. I ask them to talk to their networks. I remind them of things they can say to pique their peers’ interests. And I send them home from camp with the assignment to find two amazing candidates for staff next summer. 

I always follow up with them a few weeks after camp, when they are rested but camp is still fresh in their minds. And I reach out again right after I launch camper registration at the beginning of January. I remind them how crucial it is to find other folks who they think would be awesome staff and ask to be connected with anyone they believe is interested. While this method seems obvious, the more attention I give to it, the more it has paid off.

Second: every year during staff training, I always ask those who were once campers to stand up and be recognized. The number standing grows every year. There is no better sign of a healthy camp program than one which fosters their strongest campers into future staff. This, of course, comes with the challenge of having to say no to many campers who want to be counselors to remain a part of camp, but who clearly do not have the makings of a dependable counselor. These individuals require direct, honest, and loving explanation. I am unapologetic about the bar that I set for those wishing to become counselors at camp. A camp stands on the shoulders of its staff, and our campers deserve the very best we can hire.

Third (and most important): we started a concept at Camp Footprint about five years ago to both honor and retain veteran staff. We noticed after the first three years of our new camp program that we had a core group of unwavering veteran staff. They were a range of ages and personalities, and they had one crucial thing in common: they loved Camp Footprint with their entire hearts. As a casual decision one summer after camp was over, we started a text chain to keep everyone connected in the off-season and foster the group friendships that camp had shaped. The only challenge was we needed a name for this group that  encapsulated the magic that seemed to be in the air whenever its members were in the same place. To honor all they had given to our blossoming camp program, and to label the value they brought to every aspect of camp, the name had to be solid.

On March 3, 1969, the United States Navy established an elite school for the top 1 percent of its pilots. The school’s purpose was to teach the lost art of aerial combat and to ensure that the handful of men and women who graduated were the best fighter pilots in the world.

They succeeded.

Today, the Navy calls it “Fighter Weapons School.” The flyers call it “Top Gun.”

There was no doubt about it; Top Gun was the only fitting label for this best-of-the-best group of camp staff. Five years on, our Top Gun concept has gone from a never-ending text chain to a method of revolutionizing our programming as well as our staff acquisition and retention. 

This is no overstatement. Year by year, we have built upon the momentum our amazing camp veterans created. We have seen their potential and found every way possible to honor it. It began by using Top Gun to create social media posts for staff and camper recruitment. Their popularity and enthusiasm were key in getting our message out there. 

In the summer of 2022, we instituted the new annual tradition of a Top Gun Planning Retreat. We brought the crew together for a weekend in March, and we literally planned out the camp program together. The work I used to do mostly solo in my office became a true team effort. The Top Gun crew was so insightful and innovative in their thinking that it became easy to share the dream. And having a stake in the game further empowered our veterans. Allowing them to participate in the planning increased their buy-in and their devotion to the program. 

The creation of Top Gun’s happy side benefit was staff retention. New staff felt the familial presence of our veterans, who coached them into the Footprint culture. With every new solid counselor, we gained an individual we could encourage to reach out to their friends and family. And the wheel goes round and round.

Are there veteran staff who you would say are the best of the best for your programs? Then I encourage you to celebrate them as much as possible. Show them what they mean to you and your camp. And find ways to give them a seat at your planning table. The positive results will take time, but they will come. Remember, amazing camp warriors, “You never know what you can do until you get it up as high as you can go” (Whitlock, 1986)!

Camp Footprint

The Charcot-Marie-Tooth Association (CMTA)’s Camp Footprint is the only camp in the US just for kids with Charcot-Marie-Tooth (CMT), a disease of the peripheral nerves that control muscles that can cause progressive loss of function and sensation in hands, arms, legs, and feet. Camp Footprint is a free, annual, six-day sleepaway camp that “envisions a world where children with CMT are empowered with the courage, hope, skills, and community for a lifelong journey of realizing potential and developing strengths” (CMTA, n.d.).

References

• Charcot-Marie-Tooth Association. (n.d.). CMTA. cmtausa.org/
• Whitlock, T. (1986). Danger Zone [Recorded by Kenny Loggins]. On Top Gun Soundtrack, Vinyl. Columbia Records.

Jonah Berger, MS Ed, is the national youth programs manager for the Charcot-Marie-Tooth Association (CMTA) and director of CMTA Camp Footprint, serving youth with CMT. He is the author of He Walks Like a Cowboy and The Strangest of Places and a national motivational speaker, father, husband, drummer, and community creator. Jonah grew up in camp and also met his wife at camp.