The work in Washington, DC, has only been ramping up of late, with some exciting announcements coming soon and a Hill Day around the corner. Through it all, I’ve noticed a similar set of questions running through my head anytime I talk to someone on the Hill about the Camp Caucus.

What is this staffer worried about?

What do their constituents care about?

What’s their boss’s political reality right now?

What are they not saying out loud that I need to understand before I can say anything useful?

This might sound like some politically savvy DC skill. It’s not. It’s a camp skill.

The Superpower Camp People Have

Any seasoned camp pro who has spent time with a homesick 10-year-old, a teenage counselor who needed advice, or a worried parent on opening day knows how to read subtext.

You know about adjusting your message to the person in front of you.

You know that what someone says and what they mean are not always the same thing.

Turns out, that this is just the kind of thing that works when it comes to advocacy.

In a congressional office, you are not always delivering a structured memo.

Most times, you’re having a human conversation with someone who has pressures, priorities, and concerns that have nothing to do with camp at all. It’s the furthest thing from their mind, obviously.

Your job is to understand those things well enough to frame your argument in terms that connect with this particular person in this particular moment.

“We’re framing our arguments with all of these things in mind,” I tell the camp professionals who come to Hill Days, “just as we would if we were working with a camper or a staff member.”

Camp directors have been doing this for years. Most just haven’t thought to call it advocacy.

How Washington Actually Works

The caucus is a medium to long-term strategy — not a short one.

Short-term wins in Washington come through direct advocacy, not caucuses. You get something done quietly, making your case, convincing the right folks, maybe embedded in a must-pass piece of legislation. That’s almost always the most effective path to an immediate result.

The caucus is building something different. It’s elevating the conversation. Creating relationships that exist before anything like a crisis hits. It’s making sure that when the big policy questions about education, childcare, and the future of work come to the floor, there are people in that building who already understand what camp does and why it matters.

That work is slow by design. The gears in Washington grind at their own pace, and almost nothing accelerates them. Patience is the whole strategy.

Even I Had to Learn This

I’ll be honest about something. I didn’t always realize it was this way.

There was a time when I was waiting on a response from the Treasury Department about a regulatory issue that matters to camps. When the communication came back, I read it as a signal that we’d made no progress. I was ready to push harder.

Our lobbyist helped me slow down. What I read as a dead end was actually standard treasury language. These are professionals. They can’t telegraph what they are going to do. They have to follow a legal process. Be patient.

I didn’t speak treasury.

Which is exactly the lesson I try to give every camp professional who comes to Hill Days or engages with local offices. Keep your passion in check — that isn’t a moral compromise. That is balance and efficacy in practice. Listen more than you talk. Understand who’s in front of you before you decide what to say.

Camps aren’t going to pound the table about the rightness of our positions. Our beliefs and our passion drive us. But we will be strategic enough to actually move things forward.

Hill Days Around the Corner

Hill Days are coming up, and the energy around this year’s event is at a higher level than I can remember. These are exciting times.

The conversations we’re walking into carry a different tenor than even two years ago. Offices used to need a full briefing on the benefits of camp. Now, they’re asking us what they can do to help.

Camp professionals belong in those rooms. Advocacy isn’t simple, but camp people already have the skills needed, because we use them every summer.

You read people. You listen well. You know how to find the right version of the message that lands for this particular person, not just the message that feels right to you.

Washington rewards exactly that.

 

Join the movement. Get updates on the Camp Caucus and learn how you can support camp advocacy in DC.

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.