If you've ever taken the wrong fork on a trail, you know how one small step can lead you miles off course.

Office work is like orienteering — a tiny error in a spreadsheet in the form of a camp schedule or attendance list, a misnamed file, or a missed payroll deadline compounds into a big problem that can bring an entire camp to a screeching halt.

That's why training your admin team matters just as much as counselor development. Often, the people behind the screens got promoted because of their dedication to camp, their way with campers, and their enthusiasm — not because they're Excel wizards. We hand them the keys to complex systems and hope for the best.

The Right Path for Office Success

Behind the scenes is where order — and sometimes chaos — lives:

• Schedules and rosters that keep activities flowing
• Payroll systems that ensure staff get paid on time
• Marketing emails that reassure parents
• Check-in systems that create smooth arrival experiences

When your office team has the right skills, everyone wins. Staff trust they'll be paid correctly. Parents feel confident in your communication. Counselors can focus on kids instead of chasing paperwork. And campers get the seamless experience they deserve.

Skills Worth the Investment

Here's what your office staff should master:

• File Organization: Naming conventions, year-over-year records, and search strategies that actually work when you need to find last summer's bus list at 9:00 p.m.
• Spreadsheets and Databases: Not generic corporate formulas, but camp-specific magic— tracking enrollment, creating cabin assignments, managing dietary restrictions, and building activity schedules that don't double-book your waterfront.
• Communication Tools: Email automation, parent portals, and staff communication systems that keep everyone in the loop.
• Problem-Solving: The critical thinking skills to piece together data puzzles and troubleshoot when systems don't talk to each other. Encouraging brainstorming sessions and group collaboration can help get the creative juices flowing.
• Project Management: Task tracking, deadline awareness, and workflow planning so all the little projects that contribute to camp opening and operating on time don’t slip through the cracks.

Why Project Management Matters

Camps juggle hundreds of moving parts: bus routes, vendor orders, staff onboarding, activity prep, special events, and parent communication — all layered on top of each other. Project management skills give your office team the tools to plan, prioritize, and deliver.

Some certifications that help with this are CAPM® (Certified Associate in Project Management) and PMP® (Project Management Professional), offered through the Project Management Institute (PMI). These credentials are widely respected across industries and signal to future employers (or even your board!) that your staff know how to keep complex projects on track.

Even if staff don’t pursue the full certification, exposure to project management principles — like building timelines, Gantt charts, mapping dependencies, and identifying risks — can transform how smoothly your camp operates behind the scenes.

Growing Your Own Talent

Many camps promote counselors into office roles — a smart move that keeps great people in the camp family. Consider formalizing this with internships or structured training programs. You'll develop loyal staff while giving them résumé-worthy experience they can showcase to schools and future employers.

Making Training Camp-Relevant

Online courses exist everywhere, but here's the catch: most examples are built for retail or corporate settings. At one of my earlier camp jobs, I watched my director pull off spreadsheet magic that opened my eyes. I signed up for a generic online class, learned some tricks, but had no clue how to apply them to enrollment rosters and transportation logistics.

The solution? Adapt existing training to camp needs, or work with a camp-experienced vendor to create your own. When you invest in camp-specific professional development, your staff get immediately applicable skills instead of wondering how "quarterly sales projections" relate to color war planning.

The Bottom Line

Camps already invest deeply in training counselors because we know it matters. It's time we give the same attention to our office staff. The "degrees of change" in administrative work add up—because when your behind-the-scenes team thrives, your whole camp community benefits.

Photo courtesy of Camp John Marc in Dallas, Texas.

This blog was written on behalf of ACA's Project Real Job, whose goal is to support camps in their efforts to recruit, hire, and retain staff.

Marcie Glad is a camp director turned spreadsheet consultant and the founder of Help My Spreadsheets. A self-proclaimed certification collector, she’s a Lifeguard Instructor (LGI), CPR Instructor, and Level 2 Archery Instructor, and she regularly runs staff training and certification courses for camps.

When she’s not streamlining camp operations with Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets, you can find her gardening, hammocking, cooking, or snowboarding. Marcie helps camps spend less time on logistics and more time changing kids’ lives, and she shares her expertise at ACA conferences nationwide. She can be reached at [email protected].