Staff Experience/Management Debrief Recap
Friends! Close to ONE HUNDRED of you joined us yesterday for the first of our Summer 2022 Debrief Series. IT. WAS. AWESOME. So many cool people shared so many cool/hard things, so many connections were made, and so many conversations were had. It was truly amazing to see.
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
Most camps had a mix of great, meh, and not good staff.
Mental health was a big factor at MANY camps this year.
A lot of camps had to rely on younger/less experienced staff, which was challenging.
Staff being out for COVID/mental health/burnout/other reasons really hurt already small staffs.
Around half of camps found staff engagement more challenging than usual.
Staff need social-emotional training.
There’s still a long way to go to make camps inclusive, but young staff get it and get on board with it a lot more than previous staffs have.
Staff seemed to lose focus, energy, and motivation pretty drastically after the middle of the summer.
OTHER STUFF
Debrief Questions (use them with your team!)
SOME QUICK IDEAS I HAVE
These are not comprehensive and will not solve all your problems, but they’re a start. We’ll work on more ideas for you throughout the year!
Start hiring NOW, but start by focusing on the hiring process. Make sure the job is really explained and not oversold.
Look at the different staff incentives you can offer (Nelson has some genius ones here).
If you don’t already have mental health support on staff, find the money for it and make it happen. This looks different at different camps, so figure out what works best for you.
But DEFINITELY budget for them to start during staff training - maybe even a week or two before to reach out to staff?
Think about different ways you can support staff mental health (I have some ideas here).
Get counseling interns (and pay them). My sister is in grad school for counseling, and she has to get a TON of internship hours. There’s nowhere she can do that more quickly than at camp. Most of the people in her program have summers free, and I’m sure others are the same. Try reaching out!
Shameless plug for my sister: Central Mississippi/Northeast Louisiana Camps: Hit me up for her contact info!
Start illuminating the Hidden Curriculum for staff as soon as you can — like WAY before they get to camp. Run through time off policies, pay schedules, daily schedules, anything that may throw people off.
Build relationships as soon as you can.
Plan staff morale boosters and in-service trainings as early as you can. Make them simple enough that you’ll have no problem pulling them off in the busy-ness of summer.
LOVE THE COMMUNITY, CONNECTION, & CONVERSATION AT OUR DEBRIEFS?
We have similar conversations every week with our TSCS members. Join by Sept. 20 to be added to a FREE peer group in addition to all of our other membership benefits.
