https://www.acacamps.org/article/camping-magazine/staff-retention-recruiting-revving-season

By this point in the year, you've processed your staff evaluations, and you've been thinking about those difficult decisions: "Should I hire her back?" or "This person just didn't cut it; is it time...

https://www.acacamps.org/article/camping-magazine/aquatic-safety-staff

It's a bright, sunny, warm day and you and your friends have the next twenty-four hours off. Not far from camp, about an hour away, is a remote yet popular swimming area where you can hang out, swim...

https://www.acacamps.org/article/camping-magazine/place-share-investing-professional-development

For my camp, the ACA national conference (this year in Dallas, Texas) is always the highlight of our winter. Those of us who are experienced (please note that I am avoiding the word “old”) can get...

https://www.acacamps.org/article/camping-magazine/because-i-worked-camp

Now that the summer has come to a close, camp directors are inevitably thinking about the staff they want to invite back next season. If we as directors have created a strong camp community, one that...

https://www.acacamps.org/article/camping-magazine/turning-camp-counselors-nature-specialists-pemi-nature-instruction-clinic

Introduction Richard Louv, in his book Last Child in the Woods, “links the absence of nature in the lives of today’s wired generation to some of the most disturbing childhood trends: the...

https://www.acacamps.org/article/camping-magazine/determining-competency-essentials-interviewing

"What you have to do is get them talking in such a way that they are unguarded. It could be anything they happen to be into, like their favorite baseball team or a dream they have about doing...

https://www.acacamps.org/article/camping-magazine/putting-nature-perspective-interview-scott-sampson-phd

Scott Sampson, PhD, is a dinosaur paleontologist, science communicator, and passionate advocate for connecting people with nature. He currently serves as vice president of research and collections...

https://www.acacamps.org/article/camping-magazine/pranks-or-projects-how-make-last-weeks-camp-your-best

In late July 2014, I sat on my bed, alone for the first time all day, reeking of garbage and motor oil, and listening to rain pummel the tin roof. Satisfied I’d done my duties for the night, I had...

https://www.acacamps.org/article/camping-magazine/noticing-deficit-disorder-how-camp-can-restore-art-seeing-world

We are in the midst of an epidemic of visual impairment no medical doctor can fix — but which camps might cure. Back in the `60s, artist, researcher, and psychologist Rudolf Arnheim (1969) lamented...

https://www.acacamps.org/article/camping-magazine/meet-staff-where-they-are-not-where-you-wish-them-be

Unanswered emails. Requests (demands) for time off. Over-involved parents. What's the matter with young people today? Most likely nothing! We have more in common with this cohort of staff than one...