The Summer Camp Society Blog
Presenting, The Facilitator Elevator: Sharing and Growing in Community
Level up your facilitation skills with the Facilitator Elevator! This game-changing tool helps camp trainers engage their teams, deliver impactful sessions, and build confidence in even the toughest training environments. Elevate your camp staff training with ease and energy.
Smartphone Scrapbook: An Easy Icebreaker for Summer Camp Staff Training
Looking for a simple yet powerful way to kick off your camp staff training? This icebreaker activity gets your team energized, laughing, and connecting within minutes. It's perfect for breaking down barriers and building the trust you need to tackle the summer ahead
5 Types of Snacks to Reenergize Your Staff
5 Instant & Inexpensive Staff Recognition Agenda Items
Photo by Jonny Petty
Resume Walk
Emergency Hiring Strategies
5 Things I Wish I Knew My First Summer as a Camp Director
This post provides personal reflections and lessons learned from a camp director's first summer, with practical advice on documentation, staff management, and handling challenges.
Planning Staff Training is Hard
Level Up Your Facilitation Game
White is the default at camp: Let's work to change that
Black Lives Matter at Camp.
Yes, and: This statement needs to be viewed more as a call to action than as a declaration. Because the work of dismantling white supremacy culture at camp (and in our greater society) can’t simply be “accomplished”. In some spaces, or many spaces, it hasn’t started. This call to action drives members of the camp community to start and continue the process of building an equitable camp community where everyone can thrive. It’s recognizing that it’s a lot easier for white kids to thrive at (or even attend) most camps, because, as Nelson Strickland has noted, white is the default at camp.
Unless we can ensure that each of us is safe at camp, we all have to stay home.
Canceling camp? What about the staff?
Why We Believe You Can run (a version of ) Camp on Zoom...and How We Can Help
Camp Kiko Crisis Challenge: A Simulation Activity for Camp Leaders
For this reason, I have developed a new simulation activity that camp leaders can use for an in-service training: The Camp Kiko Crisis Challenge. In this challenge, you will pretend you run a camp where four campers have gone missing on a field trip. Allegations of drug use swirl and transportation to the field trip location (a remote island) make things even worse. What will you do in the face of these issues? Test your skills by trying out our new exercise
Five Under-Utilized Strategies to use During a Camp Crisis
Here are the top four underutilized tactics I have learned from our CampMinder Crisis Challenges that are essential during any sort of camp emergency that unfolds over time
Kurtz's favorite icebreaker questions
Kurtz’s Communication Tips for New Seasonal Leaders
New Camp Staff Recruitment Goals for September: Strive for Five
Staff recruitment problematic for you last summer? It was for most camp pros that I talked with. Here are 5 things that you can do this September to get a jump start on staff recruiting for next year!
September Networking Goals: Strive for Five
But ultimately, networking is the way that we can get things done. It’s the process of starting relationships that are beneficial for not just the person we are networking with, but also ourselves and for our camps. We do good work, and networking is the way that we can share what we do as well as find resources to make what we do even better.
Working with Parents: A Demonstration for Camp Staff Training
A demonstration activity perfect for staff training that helps camp counselors understand what it means for parents to leave their kids at camp!