Re-Set

The staff this summer is FANTASTIC. They are creative, enthusiastic, hard working, camper focused and I regularly feel like I will burst with happiness when watching them with the kids. I am proud of them and I feel honored to lead them.

But this week has been a bit of a struggle and by this afternoon, my patience with them was gone and I was at my breaking point.

Campers sign up for three individual activities to specialize in. All of the cabins meet at the flagpole and counselors all off the kids that have signed up for their activity and everyone divides up and goes off to different activities. To begin this process, I go around the circle and ask each counselor if they have all of their kids. Then the individual activities divide up, but don't leave until I confirm that each group has all the kids.

During the first individual activity block, there was some confusion about a few kids who had switched activities. During the second activity, when I asked if everyone had all their kids, they all said yes, but 2 minutes later when we divided into activity groups, we were missing some kids. At that point, I was glaring while I quietly (through clenched teeth) told the counselors to "work this out, because I am walking away".

During the third activity, when I overheard on the walkie talkie that they were missing a camper from archery and the counselor was at the beach trying to straighten out the mix up, that was when smoke started shooting out of my ears and I started YELLING at Assistant Director 'A'- "WHAT IS WRONG WITH THESE COUNSELORS??? AM I MISSING SOMETHING? ARE THEY MESSING WITH ME??"

I am incredibly strict when it comes to safety and rule number 1 of safety is to know where all of the kids are. It's the MOST basic and MOST important thing we do at camp.

After third activity, everyone headed to the field for an all-camp barbecue. I told the counselors to count their kids and leave them with 'K' and 'M' (Program Director from last year who has been helping out this week) and head into the main lodge.

I could tell everyone was nervous. We have not yet had an all staff meeting while kids are at camp. But I wanted them to understand how serious I was and that I have no problem pausing everything in order to address an issue.

"Lets all start with a deep breath, shall we?" I said calmly.

I was calm and quiet and spoke slowly. I think that is much scarier than if I was yelling. I pointed out the issues that I was seeing and listened to their concerns. I wasn't harsh or mean, but I told them they needed to get focused.

Afterwards, we met up with the kids, had a 4th of July BBQ, played some games and went back to normal.

I've done this in years past and it has been helpful. Sometimes counselors just need to pause and "re-set" in order to get focused. I am hoping that this helps.