Don't Join the Summer Camp Society

Sep 15

Super click-baiting title, Jack. BUT for real there are plenty of really great reasons not to be a member of The Summer Camp Society.

CAMPER OPT IN POLICY AT STOMPING GROUND

At Stomping Ground, the camp I helped start, we had a camper opt in policy and three agreements that everyone agreed to. The camper opt in policy is basically this: if kids didn’t want to come to Stomping Ground then they didn’t come. This gets complicated when parents want their kids to come, but the kids don’t want to. In that situation we were adamant that the kids didn’t come to camp.

We might have lost out on some impact and definitely lost out on some short term revenue, but it was the cornerstone of everything we did. It gave us a shared vision with every camper. They wanted to be at camp and we wanted them to be there.

The other three agreements are

Not to jeopardize the future of camp (Framed in the negative and we can talk about that later)
Respect yourself and others
Work through conflict when it arises

WHY YOU SHOULDN’T JOIN THE SUMMER CAMP SOCIETY

It’s Not About The Experts

As camp directors, we say all the time that we are “community first.” At TSCS, we couldn’t believe more that investing in your professional community is the single best professional development you can do. It is great for your camp and it is great for your career.

For TSCS, that means some of the meetings have more laughter and crying than bulleted takeaways. You know how some camps invest more in their toys than their staff? We don’t. Those camps are awesome. I love fancy rock walls and cool keynotes, but that isn’t us. We are the camp swimming in the lake, dancing to Kanye or screaming to Taylor Swift (thoughts on music at camp), while the counselors get covered in paint to lead the campers on a magical journey. We aren’t anti-cool toys, but they are far from the front of our brochure.

This sounds like I am anti-cool toys or in the professional development world, anti-experts. That isn’t true – it just isn’t our focus. ACA brings in awesome experts, you can get amazing experts from MasterClass, SkillShare, or just by googling. I love learning from the best and have gotten connected to career-changing information from fellow Summer Camp Society Members.

But, it takes effort to become part of a community…are you ready to put in that time?

If not, don’t join The Summer Camp Society.

Real Vulnerability

We get real. Our members talk about their families. We sometimes share hard shit. We ask folks to come correct about what they are working on. Don’t posture or be know-it-alls. We are exploring what camp can be like in the future, not the way it has always been done.

Reading that, sorta sounds great, but it is fucking hard sometimes (oh yeah, some of us curse). It means sharing the floor and checking ourselves. It means sometimes sharing with people you don’t know that well and being an active participant, not a fly on the wall.

It’s not the norm to be pretty open about all of the personal and professional challenges that come along with this job and lifestyle…are you ready to be pretty honest and share about your life with others?

If not, don’t join The Summer Camp Society.

Inclusion.

We are actively working to make camp more inclusive, accessible, and welcoming for more kids (and adults) across the world. We are not a JEDI organization, and at the same time, we do stand for justice work. We are honored to partner with and support some awesome camp JEDI org like OAAARS, Transplaining, S’more Melanin and BLACC.

Our members give a shit about this work and we all are on a learning journey to build equity into to fabric of our organizations… Are you in?

If not, don’t join The Summer Camp Society.

Support > Competition

I love winning. I have been accused over and over at camp of rigging teams to make sure my team wins (Slander!). Members of The Summer Camp Society don’t hate competition, and we play games with winners and losers, but it all comes way second to lifting each other up and helping support each other.

We make jokes, clown with each other, but if you are the kinda person looking for yelling this isn’t the place. If we were activity areas at camp, we would be more arts and crafts and pick up basketball than music lessons and tennis class.

The key really is we ask everyone to just be kind to each other… are you ready to work toward raising up our industry, instead of focusing on just the success of your career and your camp?

If not, don’t join The Summer Camp Society.

Growth Over Status Quo

Sometimes we dig into some wild, outside-the-box ideas. We certainly approach each new idea from the perspective of how might that work instead of that’s a terrible idea and I’m going to tell you why.

If you have everything figured out, that’s awesome for you. But don’t join The Summer Camp Society.

Be Nice, Learn, Contribute

Don’t join The Summer Camp Society if you are looking for experts in the front of the room, think you know everything, or have a hard time being kind.

Alright, Jack, weird marketing gimmick over. The truth is, I hope you join The Summer Camp Society, because I hope we can build a camp industry that is more full of laughter, growth, and support. That is what we are working on and it’s hecking awesome!