Planning Staff Training is Hard

Staff TrainingLeadership & Staff Development

Apr 12

Staff training is THE BEST–but planning staff training is really hard. It’s actually always been hard — but this year seems in some way different. I tried to put my finger on what’s going on:

So much has changed since you really had time to plan it.

I’m guessing the last time you really gave a good look at your overall staff training plan was 2019. For most of us, 2020 didn’t happen. Last year, 2021 was consumed by covid-related preparations as camps began to open again for the first time in two years.

In talking with dozens of camp directors from all over the country, I learned that camps were extraordinarily ready for physical health-related response caused by the pandemic (yes — go us!!), but wholly underprepared for social-emotional health needs that emerged because of the pandemic and racial reckonings that occurred between Summer 2019 and Spring 2021. Heck, when camp started last summer, we weren’t even so sure what their needs were!

And yes — we learned so much more last summer about what kids needed, but these new learnings made so much of what we had planned in 2019 and before completely moot. Add the Russian-Ukraine war on top of that, and our national and global climates are completely different than the last time we planned. It’s overwhelming to think about what kids (and staff) need now and how we can change what we have to create new, impactful trainings that make a difference for the summer ahead. This planning is taking some serious brainpower and some serious compassion.

Your 1-hour “Diversity” session is not enough.

Perhaps ten or fifteen years ago, it seems like camps started having a session on diversity or inclusion during their staff training weeks. Camps skated by on this for a while. Folks like myself who were part of the dominant culture (see: white, cis) at our camps felt like it was enough. But, through listening and learning over the past few years, I have learned that it absolutely was not enough. Having designated time to focus on Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice (DEI-J) topics is critical — AND it’s time to incorporate DEI-J lessons into almost every aspect of camp programming. As my friend Chris Rehs-Dupin likes to say, DEI-J issues are safety issues. And just like we talk about safety in almost every aspect of our training, we need to incorporate DEI-J issues in almost every aspect of our training. But this is new, and this is hard. Doing it right takes deep thought and time. You might be able to skate by on what you did in 2019 for diversity-related topics, but at whose expense? This new lens means that we should be taking a critical look at absolutely everything that we do for staff training.

So much else is going on right now.

We’re guessing that you’re searching tirelessly for those last few staff members to fill final positions; you’re chasing down parents for camper information forms; you’re communicating with the fire inspector; you’re scheduling your ACA visit; you’re managing your waitlist and you’re filling out the paperwork to get your well tested— and that was all before lunch. Sometimes, things that seem more urgent than planning staff training, but that are equally important, jump the line. We wait to plan staff training sessions until it’s incredibly urgent — this is when we’re up until 2 a.m. on the third day of staff training or we’re running copies 5 minutes after our session was supposed to begin. This has always been the case, but the increased attention you need to pay to staffing issues and covid preparations means that you have even less time than you did before.

What’s A Camp Director to Do??

Here are three things I think that all camp directors can do now to take some of the last-minute pressure off of planning staff training:

Calendar staff training planning time NOW: If you’re like me, you might want to block out a few mornings where you can crush getting a LOT done, kind of like a writer’s retreat. Or, you might want to reserve a one-hour or two-hour session each day for several days. Just like you would schedule an interview or another non-negotiable, hold this time sacred and chip away at your staff training plan before you’re forced to do it all at once.
Work with others: I love staff training, so I get it if you want to do it all yourself. It is SO FUN! It’s also impossible to do it all yourself and do it well. Can you invite others into your planning process? Join our staff incubator groups? Delegate some of the planning to seasonal staff who can work on it remotely? Host a daylong retreat with staff (or with contacts from similar camps?) where you plan the whole thing? Try not to take it on alone.
Use free resources: We are constantly updating our website with staff training sessions and ideas that you can use. Check out a few of them here.