Imagine a camp where, every summer, staff come from all over the world and take time off from their lives to spend 11-13 weeks living in community and commit to the campers 24:6.  A camp where many staff have graduated from college, where some staff choose careers that will allow them to have summers off to continue working at camp or who take a leave of absence in order to work a seasonal job.   Where the average age of staff is between 20-22 years old and where multiple people receive their 5 and 10 year pins for commitment to camp each summer.  This is the community I joined as the Program Director in 1999.   I later became the Leadership Director 2008, and now work as the Staff Training consultant.

Kingsley Pines is a unique camp for many reasons, but the most notable one is the dedication of the staff and the culture that is built among them every summer.  When you ask staff why they return to camp, they consistently remark about strong leadership, relationships built, impact they had on campers, inclusion in the camp community, and opportunities camp provides (in short, many of the same motivators for returning staff across the country.) 

However, that doesn’t tell the whole story.  Staff also share openly the impact camp has on their ability to truly be themselves; the effect an accepting, supportive, challenging community has on their life outside of camp; lessons they continue to learn from camp long after departure from the actual site; and the ways the campers have touched their lives and their hearts.  As one returning staff member stated:

"Coming to camp was the greatest thing I could have ever done. It has given me the opportunity to reach out and really make a difference in a child's life. I can let them be themselves and have fun away from the pressures of life outside camp and that's what it’s all about. It’s giving the kids a chance to take away some of the most important experiences of life even if they don't realize it yet. And it’s just so amazing and powerful to me that I need to be a part of it again." 

What makes Kingsley Pines different is the explicit statement of over-arching goals for the staff, the way the staff community gets built, and the way ongoing training occurs.  Over the years I’ve worked at camp with the director, Alan Kissack, the culture of staff has changed.  It used to be that “Camp is a fun place to work outdoors and teach youth.”  It has become a place where:

“Camp is a life changing experience, where campers learn things about themselves they didn't know when they arrived; where counselors have a positive impact on each camper, such that in 20 years each camper will remember his/her counselor's name and experience at camp.” (2 of the listed camp goals)

It used to be that staff would come, create a few close friendships, be amiable with everyone, and leave as part of a small community.  Now, staff come and connect with the whole staff, float from group to group, travel on days off in groups of 15-30 instead of 3-5, and have a much larger support network.  As one staff member put it:

“It makes a huge difference when you feel you can count on 65 people instead of 6.  We’re all on the same page, and I feel like I can go to anyone for help with anything that arises.”

The question is, how does this transformation occur?  With the changing demographic in our incoming staff (the integration of the “Millennial Generation”), we need to be more thoughtful in the way we recruit staff, in the creation and implementation of staff training, and in the way we mentor our staff throughout the summer. 

Recruiting Diverse Staff

We search for staff in new and different ways, but we also expand our search beyond the education, youth development, and outdoor recreation departments at our local colleges and universities.  There are valuable skills that people going to community colleges, doing volunteer work, or studying majors like law, biology, and business bring to our staff.  By posting jobs on a variety of websites and using new recruiting avenues, we also need to show potential staff how working at camp will help them in the following ways:

• Public speaking and communication
• Organization & time management
• Customer service
• Conflict resolution
• Anticipating, assessing and addressing problems

Our industry is also recognizing that the demographics within our country have changed, and our participants reflect economic, social, and ethnic diversity in much more visible ways.  Our staff is a reflection of that environment, made up of people from varied backgrounds, experiences, and cultures.  Having an international staff that reflects our international camper base allows us to be able to explain and demonstrate the importance of accepting others who are different from ourselves.

Utilizing Returning Staff

Returning staff is our key to creating a positive culture in camp.  Returning staff infuse the group with energy, help people know the specifics of their job, bear torches for important traditions, and create new programs likely to succeed because they have a vision of how they’ll be carried out in our camp.  Most importantly, they set the tone amongst the group.  The current generation thrives on relationship building and inclusion.  Returning staff members translate the mission from directors and bring it into the day-to-day life of a camp counselor.  It’s the difference between an experienced co-counselor who pulls a new counselor aside and explains why bribing campers with candy to get them quiet at night won’t work, instead of chipping in the bag of candy they bought in town. 

Also, our returning staff play a major role in recruiting quality new staff for our camp.  They recruit people who share their worldview about youth, who fit into our camp culture, and who are an asset to our organization.  Returning staff are persuasive voices for our camp at their schools, workplaces, and volunteer organizations.  Potential staff know our camp’s name, mission, atmosphere, and associate it with a great place to work- before they’ve even visited our website.  Once new staff arrive, our returning staff who show them the ropes, become their primary support system, and help others stay focused in a myriad of positive ways. 

Community Building

Since 2002, we have deliberately created ways to empower the staff to make decisions on their own and to make connections with different staff throughout the summer.  One of the first ways we did this was by transforming our staff teambuilding session. Rather than place an experienced facilitator (often a staff supervisor, like a campus head) in charge of a group of staff, we placed the group in the hands of its members.  Having the staff participate in self-directed teambuilding (where the group follows a written set of instructions, with specific safety rules outlined and goals, but with directions open to interpretation) drastically changed the group dynamic.  It allowed our supervisors to participate in groups, to be seen as working alongside others instead of being firmly fixed as an authority figure.  It allowed quieter voices to be heard and forced groups to discuss what to do first, rather than jump straight into solving a challenge.  We also start all our teambuilding sessions by having individuals share about themselves (who they are and why they’re here this summer) in smaller groups.

Throughout the week, we continue to work in small groups, discussing and participating in activities.  Each time, the group composition changes, but the model is the same- share, get comfortable, and get engaged with those around you.  This past summer we added a new component involving 1:1 conversations to increase the level of connection to others.  It had a noticeable impact on staff relationships in their ability to hold a meaningful conversation, and also taught them a job skill they’d need- how to address an issue with a camper in a respectful, non-judgmental way.

Life Skills & Job Skills

We focus a lot of our staff training on helping the staff understand the goals we have for their work with our campers.  We also teach them ways to meet those goals in a variety of situations (within cabins, activities, mealtimes, and large group games).  Most importantly, we spend time teaching over-arching life skills that will translate to all aspects of their job.

For example, if you spend a few hours teaching staff how to handle a camper with insomnia, they become experts in helping a camper get to sleep at night.  I believe this is doing them a disservice for two reasons- one, you are taking one particular issue and over-emphasizing it, making it out to be a huge & common problem and two, they now only know how to deal with this one issue.  It’s much more helpful to help staff see trends and have them practice various approaches.  For this reason, we don’t do role-play scenarios.  Instead, small groups of returning & new staff are given a situation to depict, including the camper behaviors to demonstrate and the staff approaches to the situation.  Staff still decide how to depict the situation and embellish using their real experiences, but now you’re showing a live, customized training video instead of silently expressing your shock as staff demonstrate exactly how you don’t want things done as they improvise their best guess at a situation.  After each scenario, staff point out the specific life skills the “counselor” used- divide & conquer, 1:1 conversations, invoking the group, etc.

We take this a step further and spend time in most components of staff training practicing the following skills:

• Appreciation of individual strengths and leadership styles
• Communication
• Problem solving and prioritizing
• Conflict resolution
• Community building
• Taking initiative
• Supporting the group

Instead of spending vast portions of staff training compartmentalizing topics (working with campers who have ADHD, are homesick, are various ages, are in your activity), we spend time on broad topics (how to lead groups, how to read a group and adapt to a situation, etc.)  Instead of talking to a large group of people and sharing our expertise, we create groups and give them tasks to demonstrate the expertise present within the staff community.

Ongoing Leadership

We take the structure of staff training (mission and goals, meetings to inform, small group discussion, ownership and planning, 1:1 conversations, etc.) and then continue it throughout the summer.  The consistency is one of the keys to an outstanding experience for the staff.  People comment on the difference it makes to work for directors who are out “getting their hands dirty,” who know and care about how you’re doing and who actively help you improve in your job and have a positive experience, who help you come up with your own solutions and affirm your ideas, who have ideas you’d never think of in a million years, who work tirelessly to turn your off-the-wall ideas into reality, and who believe the same things you do about the value of camp.  In short, staff constantly express their appreciation for working in a place where they are given the tools they need, the freedom to do their job, and the accountability to let them know if they’re succeeding. 

We achieve this by having the leadership staff model what we expect from the counselors:

• The camp director meets every incoming camper and their guardians, goes out of his way to greet and have conversations with campers throughout their stay at camp, regardless of the status of his schedule or amount of stress.
• The camp director is consistently available for staff, providing ideas, feedback, support, clarification, etc., always with an approach of respect, fairness, and professionalism.
• Campus heads they meet daily with staff, either formally (as campuses) or informally (being truly available at meals) and listen before offering advice or feedback.
• Campus heads have 1:1 meetings with staff during the summer, just as we ask counselors do with each of their cabin members.
• Program directors meet with activity heads at the start of the summer, visit activities in progress, and give suggestions and feedback.
• Program directors work with small groups of counselors (all of whom take turns volunteering) who are in charge of all-camp events, like Unusual Career Day.
• All of non-cabin staff are involved in every aspect of camp life, from setting up  equipment to mentoring staff to rolling down the hill in inner tubes.

By doing what we ask of them from the start of training until the end of the summer, staff feel like we are part of their experience and are there as resources.  We hold staff accountable for meeting the camp goal.  We affect staff actions because we directly see them interact with others and help them adjust their approach and immediately see results.

Transition to Life “Outside Camp”

The last piece of the puzzle is helping staff create links from the experience they’ve been living all summer to whatever comes next in their life.  Moving is stressful enough, to leave a job and move, knowing that this unique collection of people will not be here to “visit” whenever you have a vacation is even harder.  Add to that the change in schedule, lack of freedom in other environments, the need to provide for yourself (meals, lodging, etc.) and returning to a community that is probably more challenging and less supportive than camp, and you have an overwhelming situation.  Staff awareness of this transition occurs at different stages in the summer, and it has an impact on the work they are doing with our participants.  It’s our job to help them figure out ways of coping, of appreciating all that camp has to offer, and of recognizing the ways camp will stay with them as they travel.

We do this by talking about it directly throughout the summer.  Midsummer, the staff meeting includes a goal-setting exercise (what have you done so far, what do you still want to do, how are you doing achieving your goals).  Late in the summer, a resource is put in all the staff mailboxes to describe all the skills they’ve used and lessons they’ve learned so far, as well as a copy of their job description with recommendations of how to translate it onto a resume.  The last few staff meetings of the summer include affirmations for all the staff members (touch circle and written notes of thanks).  The camp director meets with each staff member 1:1 before they depart to talk about their work this summer and find out their intentions for the next year “as of right now”.  All of these components add up to a less abrupt ending to another amazing summer at camp.

Conclusion

There are many ways to transform your staff into a more dynamic, invested, cohesive community.  The key is to take what you already do that works and build on it.  The strategies I’ve described here have evolved over the past 8 years and are built on the foundations that were in place before that.  We constantly revisit the effectiveness of our training and customize it to take into consideration what we know about the incoming staff and the upcoming events of the summer.  Our hope is to always have staff describe their months at camp as follows:

“I have never enjoyed myself so much as I did last year. I felt that the whole positive atmosphere and the staff in general brought out the best in me and I was able to work to a much higher ability."

Contact me: Katie Miesle     541-921-7235    katie@outstandingteam.org