In Summer Pump Up - Your Staff Need It. You Need it

Aug 2nd, 2024

In Summer Pump Up - Your Staff Need It. You need it.

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I have been on the road the last couple weeks doing mid summer slump and end of summer sprint through the tape trainings.

At this point in the summer they mostly don’t need new skills. They need 3 things

Connection & Fun

To remember why their job matters

To see the impact they have already made because of their choices

They need to laugh, reflect, and decide to keep going.

“It’s a short summer, we have 10 days left.”

Here is an example of an hour pump up you can do. It’s all about them. All about letting them see how powerful they are. You build the container, they make it happen.

THE LOGISTICS OF AN IN SUMMER STAFF TRAINING

A lot of day camps keep staff after the kids go home, feed them dinner, do an all camp training, then split into divisions for specific divisional conversations.

A lot of sleepaway camps run half staff events after dinner and pull half the counselors for an hour one nigh then switch the next night.

One of my favorite example is at Camp North Star in Maine, Stephen passes out a pint of ice cream for each staff member to start the meeting. Ice cream makes everything better.

Set the tone - 5 minutes

Play some music as staff arrive. I like to ask staff as they come in what they have been listening to, and to play some music they might not play with kids.

Give them a quick pump up about how you are grateful to them, that their job matters, and its wild that the summer is flying by. Maybe read an email or letter from a grateful parent.

Favorite Staff Memories - 8 minutes

In groups of 4-5 give them 4 minutes to talk about some of the favorite memories they have made with just staff. What has been amazing with just the staff? Let them be selfish and love their experience. This isn’t a gotcha this is acknowledging that one of the best parts about working at camp is the friends and peer to peer connections they make.

“I am going to ask about these memories at the end so please be ready to share memories you won’t feel embarrassed to say in front of your camp director”

As they share their memories in the big group after their small group discussion reflect back to them the power of little moments, connecting, and caring about each other.

Favorite Kid Memories - 8 minutes

Now that they have shared some incredible staff memories, ask what are some of your favorite memories with kids? In groups of 4-5 for 5 minutes talk about it.

After 5 minutes, have them share with the whole group. Your goal here is to get them pumped up about what they have done, notice how their work has mattered. In each story, reflect back what they did to make it happen.

Advice to a Friend - 8 minutes

They know how to be good staff and at this point they have already told you what it looks like. The final question in their group of 4-5 is “What advice would you give a best friend from home coming to camp to help them make more memories like we just talked about?”

After 5 minutes, have them tell you what it means to be a great staff member. The takeaway here is to reflect back to them how they know what to do, they have done it, and they are doing it. We have 10 days left let’s make it incredible.

Play your favorite game - 10 minutes

At this point they are done talking. Get up and lead a classic energizer, pull out all the stops, bring the noise. Get them laughing, yelling, and hyped.

Pump Up Speech - 10 minutes

Finally, we want them to leave pumped up.

Split into groups of 8-12.

“You have 4 minutes to coach up one member of your group to give a 30 second pump up speech on why these last 10 days matter.”

Give them 4 minutes to make a plan

Bring up the speakers and with all the energy you can muster get the group cheering for each speech

You got this!