https://www.acacamps.org/article/camping-magazine/decoding-camper-behavior

Many years ago, before social media, electric cars, and the smartphone, a little boy went to camp. He had overcome tremendous hurdles before ever stepping foot on a campground. In fact, at the...

https://www.acacamps.org/article/camping-magazine/camps-transformation-economy

What do hibachi restaurants and summer camps have in common? Before I answer that, let me provide some context. Earlier this year, I dined at a hibachi restaurant for the first time. I sat up at...

https://www.acacamps.org/article/camping-magazine/spoiler-alert-you-wont-be-around-forever

Whether you plan to be at your camp for another 2, 5, 10, or 20 years, it’s not too early to start your camp’s succession planning. Camps are unique businesses that closely reflect their owners or...

https://www.acacamps.org/article/camping-magazine/fumble-or-fiasco-ensuring-leaders-staff-campers-learn-failure

We need to fail before we achieve success. In our personal and professional lives, we generally try to succeed, which is perfectly sensible. To reach our potential, however, we must stop fearing...

https://www.acacamps.org/article/camping-magazine/make-strategic-decisions-not-guesses

Enjoy one of camp’s sweetest sounds as you walk up on a dining hall or an evening campfire and hear a chorus of voices singing a favorite camp song — 100 campers, 250 campers, 500 campers — can you...

https://www.acacamps.org/article/camping-magazine/foster-feeling-cross-generational-divide

As leaders interacting with the next generation we have a choice. We can spin our wheels trying to understand why they aren’t where we are, where we believe they “should be,” or we can consider the...

https://www.acacamps.org/article/camping-magazine/personal-finance-camp-pros

My story as a camp professional is classic. I spent a summer after college as a canoe trip leader at a camp in northern Wisconsin, expecting that it was going to be a no-big-deal, fun summer — but it...

https://www.acacamps.org/article/camping-magazine/yes-improvising-your-revenue-stream

As industry and societal expectations push for updated facilities, in-depth programming, equitably paid summer staff, and larger year-round teams to make it all happen, camps face the challenge of...

https://www.acacamps.org/article/camping-magazine/lost-boys-finding-their-way-summer-camp

Are boys in crisis? Popular literature (Raising Cain, Lost Boys, Boys and Sex) and theater (Dear Evan Hansen) seem to suggest so. Terms such as “boy code” and “toxic masculinity” further paint a path...

https://www.acacamps.org/article/camping-magazine/behavior-management-steroids-how-turbocharge-reinforcements-consequences-change-kids-behavior

All of your campers want to behave well. It’s just that some of them haven’t learned how to behave well, in certain ways. That’s where you come in.