Yesterday we had an all-staff in-service. I schedule two per summer and they are mandatory. Before staff are even hired, they know the dates, know they have to be available on those Saturdays and even though getting up early on a Saturday morning and working, when we have so little free time to begin with, is the last thing anyone wants to do, everyone was there and smiling (okay, well, everyone was there. The smiling part…).
I actually wasn’t even sure until Friday night what the in-service was going to cover. Sometimes I cover safety issues or review drills (missing camper, missing swimmer, medical emergency, etc), or go over programming that needs tweaking. But with over 80% of my staff returners from last year and this late in the summer, some of my typical topics might have been a little redundant.
With only 2 weeks of the summer left, my ultimate goal was to inspire them and encourage them to keep their energy high and stay focused. On Friday night, I was still struggling with the actual content of the in-service. I had a general outline, but luckily, PDS, PDP and APDA spent 3 hours brainstorming and helping me come up with an actual plan.
The in-service started with a power point presentation that highlighted emails I’ve received this summer from parents and feedback sheets the kids have filled out. There have been so many positive comments that I wanted the staff to see just how many people are satisfied by their work and hopefully feel as proud of themselves as I am of them.
At the end of the presentation was a list of professional skills that they can say they’ve gained. When people think about working at camp, they think of how much fun it is. They think about playing games and singing songs and roasting marshmallows over the campfire. It seems like the easiest job in the world. When I was 18, my main motivation for being a camp counselor that summer was to be able to be outside and get a tan while working- how hard could it be to lead a few kids to some activities at the same time?
But working at a camp provides staff the opportunity to develop an incredible amount of professional skills that will help them in any future career. At the end of the summer, I hand out a packet that includes pieces of a resume that they can use in the future. Rather than saying, “I played with kids and ran around in the woods” they can use phrases like, “Successfully guided campers in non-intrusive outdoor living experiences stressing the preservation of the natural environment.” Working at camp gives them an opportunity to develop skills like creativity, problem solving, leadership, confidence, communication, and so many more I could go on and on forever. Working at camp changes lives. The kids who come for a week- yes, but even more profoundly, the staff who spend three months growing and changing.
When I interview staff and also during staff training, everyone always says the same thing- they want to work at camp so that they can change kids’ lives, make a difference, have a summer job that really matters. But by the eighth week, they are tired, sick of archery, looking forward to going back to school, and the noble goals of changing lives are pushed aside.
So after going through all of the positive feedback and reminding them what a great job they are doing, the second part of the in-service was having them look at the list of skills they’ve gained and brainstorm specific examples of times at camp they’ve used those skills. For instance, instead of just saying, “I’ve gained the ability to problem solve.” they had to come up with an example of when they were faced with a problem and how they responded. I know they weren’t thrilled to be brainstorming but once they got going and started sharing examples, there was a lot of laughter, great stories and I could see them making the connection between hilarious camp stories and actual professional skills gained.
In the final part of the in-service, we had prepared an outline that they had to fill in.
“Dear Future Self, when I applied to camp, I wasn’t thinking about the professional skills I would gain, I was thinking about … (fill in the blank). But midway through the summer, I was surprised to find out there was more to camp, like… (fill in the blank). When I look back at my time at camp, I hope I never forget… (fill in the blank). But I also want to remember some of the professional skills I’ve gain… (fill in the blank).”
We created a “studio” in the handicap accessible bathroom, using a black bed sheet as a backdrop and an old floodlight that kept overheating and shutting off, leaving them in the pitch black in the middle of each recording. It was a pretty ridiculous project that will require some major editing, but the testimonies were incredibly powerful. I found myself getting tears in my eyes each time someone spoke. And even though they had dreaded getting up early on a Saturday morning and being forced to brainstorm, I could see that they were really moved, and inspired, as well.
Instead of saying the same old thing- “give it your all… dig deep… put on your counselor face” or threatening them to be professional and focus on the kids, reminding them of WHY they are doing this job and all they’ve accomplished was a way better motivator than anything else I could have said. They walked out of the in-service feeling proud, with a different perspective on the work they’ve done this summer and I think that the last two weeks are going to be awesome.
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