Camp Director Experience Debrief Recap
So many of you joined us last week to debrief the camp director experience! It was GREAT to see you and AMAZING to hear all the conversations. Camp people helping camp people and building community - it’s what we love to do!
So everyone can feel safe sharing their experiences, we are not recording the debriefs. Instead, I’ll recap each one with a quick blog post. We hope these help!
BIG THEMES
It was a challenging and exhausting year, but we made it!
This year felt more difficult.
Burnout is something most of us feel at least at some point in the summer.
Some people are struggling with disconnected bosses/boards.
Most camp directors feel like they do not get enough time off during the summer.
Most camp directors feel like they do not get enough time off AFTER the summer.
Time off doesn’t necessarily feel like time off.
Lack of staff negatively impacted director experience (put more work/pressure/problems on directors).
OTHER STUFF
Debrief Questions (use them with your team!)
SOME QUICK IDEAS I HAVE
In all honesty, I don’t think there are any quick fixes for these. Instead, I’d:
Look for other summer camp professionals to build community with (like we do with our members and at our retreats)
Look for policies around time off and draft an ideal time off policy to present to my boss
Start hiring now (and get help from Jack and Nelson)
Do some research on managing up
LOVE THE COMMUNITY, CONNECTION, & CONVERSATION AT OUR DEBRIEFS?
We have similar conversations every week with our TSCS members.
Want to start working on some of this in person?
We’ll be talking about a lot of it at our retreat!
RECAP COMPILED BY
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