https://www.acacamps.org/article/camping-magazine/first-contact-end-contract

We know that staff can be a challenge to find, attract, hire, engage, and retain. What makes the staff journey result in forward progress from start to completion of their camp experience? Current...

https://www.acacamps.org/article/camping-magazine/games-activities-strengthen-positive-mental-health

“Remember this — every member of your staff and every camper in your program has been through a traumatic experience!” One of my absolute favorite ACA National Conference moments came a few years...

https://www.acacamps.org/article/camping-magazine/preventing-burnout-caring-your-staffs-mental-health-while-camp-session

A camp job is hard work. Camp is so worth it, as evidenced by all the positive outcomes research has shown campers achieve. But that does not make the job any easier — especially for the teenagers...

https://www.acacamps.org/article/camping-magazine/whats-wrong-song-we-love-it-have-been-singing-it-forever

Here you are, catching up, maybe relaxing now that camp is over. You’re reflecting on the joy of having experienced another successful season; the sadness of saying goodbye to...

https://www.acacamps.org/article/camping-magazine/staff-culture-skipping-season-without-skipping-beat

Summer 2020 impacted every aspect of camp, and regardless of how things played out — with various scenarios of camp running in some form or not at all — building next summer’s staff team weighs...

https://www.acacamps.org/article/camping-magazine/posterity-using-time-capsules-capture-camp

It was the spring of 2016 when I received a call from the current director of Many Point Camp in Minnesota. Having been the director of Many Point for 25 years, I was used to a call inviting me to...

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...

https://www.acacamps.org/article/camping-magazine/biting%E2%80%85my%E2%80%85nails-revisiting-staff-anxiety

It was three years ago when I first wrote about the increasing levels of anxiety that camp directors were seeing in their staff (Ditter, 2016). At the time, the Centers for Disease Control and...

https://www.acacamps.org/article/camping-magazine/make-copies-or-make-difference-camp-real-job

There has never been a better time to work at camp!

https://www.acacamps.org/article/camping-magazine/camp-staffing-we-can-avoid-crisis

Over the past few years, directors all over the country have reported struggling with the fact that good staff are harder to find. They also indicate that it is much more difficult to convince...