Camps across the country have gone into high gear over the last few weeks. I’ve been at camp, too, in the rhythm of a new summer.

But recently I was also on a Zoom call, joining from a camp bus headed north out of Connecticut, laptop on the tray table, excited kids all around making the journey to their summer home.

On the line: a great group of J-1 sponsor organizations placing camp counselors from all over the world at America’s summer camps and supporting them throughout the summer.

While on that call, one of them, Matt Buczek from IENA, pinged K&E’s new owner/director, Jack, with the obvious tease: “I thought Scott was supposed to be living the easy life. You had him on a bus.”

Of course, there’s no place that I’d rather be than with our campers on the way to their favorite place in the world outside of home.

Someone in the Room

Things come up. That’s a polite phrase for what actually happens in Washington. Every so often, a regulation runs into reality in a way nobody saw coming, and the people whose livelihoods depend on the answer need somebody in the room fast.

For the organizations that place and support J-1 camp staff, ACA is always ready to help. We have standing relationships inside the State Department and across the agencies that touch this part of the camp ecosystem.

This kind of work is about building and sustaining trust and mutually beneficial relationships. Lobbying is a different activity: asking a member of Congress to take a specific position on a specific bill. ACA does that at times. But when sponsors or the State Department reach out with a regulatory issue, we are there to help in any way we can.

These programs matter, and we are eager to support our partners and the programs that are so vital to camps.

Who’s on the Line

The sponsor organizations on that bus-ride Zoom included CCUSA, IENA, Camp America, CIEE, Camp Leaders, and several others.

They are the companies recruiting, vetting, placing, and supporting the international exchange visitors who work at America’s camps.

On paper, you could argue that sponsors compete with each other, but that is an oversimplification. When a problem emerges, it is a shared problem, and they work together — and sometimes with us — to find the right solutions.

One of ACA’s most important partnerships is with this group of sponsors. We have regular calls together, problem solve together, and even do some joint visits in DC when circumstances demand it.

The same is true beyond J-1. ACA works with insurers thinking about how to help camps operate safely and how to keep the market for insurance within reach of every camp. We sit in rooms with emergency-preparedness partners. We work with youth development organizations, researchers, and policymakers of every stripe who are engaged in our field or focused on the outcomes from high-quality camp experiences.

These organizations are all stakeholders in the camp experience. ACA works diligently to be a convener, occasional thought leader, and constant supporter.

What J-1 Holds Up

Imagine the J-1 program goes away tomorrow. The hit lands mostly on overnight camps in rural areas.

With a million staff at camps, replacing 35,000 J-1 camp counselors might seem like an easy task. It wouldn’t be. Camps would struggle to fill niche roles that require specialized training: working with kids on the autism spectrum, running specific arts or sports programs, or covering critical lifeguarding roles. Support staff would be impossible. Camps couldn’t run their kitchens. They couldn’t run housekeeping. The local labor pools in rural areas simply cannot absorb the 100s of jobs that pop up at a single camp for a summer season.

And then there’s the cultural impact. International camp counselors and support staff bring the world into US summer camps. This is soft diplomacy at its finest.

The math is the same across most overnight camps in the country. Without J-1, the camp world loses something that has been quietly running on a workforce that flies in from dozens of different countries every May or June and flies out every August. The pipeline is fragile. It is also vital.

That’s why this kind of relationship matters most before the moment you actually need it. By the time you need it, it’s too late to build.

Things come up. They always will. The job of an organization like ACA is to make sure that when they do, the camp world has a phone number to call and a relationship on the other end of the line.

The rooms we earn now are the rooms we will need next time something lands. The relationships we tend now are the calls that will get answered the day a regulation changes shape.

We will keep building. Summer is here. The line stays open whether it’s in DC, at camps, or on the bus rides in between.

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Scott Brody is ACA’s Government Affairs co-chair and leads the association’s advocacy efforts in Washington, DC. He served as ACA National Board Chair during the COVID-19 crisis, helping guide camps nationwide through safe reopening while securing unprecedented federal support. A camp director for more than 30 years, Scott is Director Emeritus of Camps Kenwood & Evergreen and owner of Everwood Day Camp and Camp Sewataro. He has dedicated his career to advancing the life-changing impact of camp and championing its value on a national stage.