How Do Other Camps Do It 09

How Do Other Camps Do It.?
Stillwood BCCA/FCC Conference, Feb 3. 2009
Facilitator: Duane Bakken – Clearwater Bible Camp

1.Staff recruitment
1.Camp director had a contact with large church – met with youth pastor (1000 youth)
2.That pastor was looking for a place to train his kids
3.Jeff Bradshaw idea – tell former staff that you're looking and if you hire their recommended person pay them $150 or do a draw(because they know what type of people we are looking for).
4.Participate in Bible Camp tour
5.Showing up to schools were your former staff are at – remind them
6.University Coop program.
7.Going around to drama, health care classes at colleges, university
8.Create a dream team definition including people who you would like – telephone calls to specific people with an invite to participate
9.Staff retreat in January – gets people excited, builds momentum
10.Facebook – invite people, starts discussions with others who may be interested
11.Internet

2.Serving Campers food
1.Use junior staff to serve the campers – buffet style (scoop from each station/bowl)
2.Self serve, if it's something that may be a favourite (fries) ration that by having a staff member serve that up
3.1 table 2 sides for up to 60
4.more than 60 2 tables 4 sides
5.2 buffet lines (leaders in training) on one side – asking them what they want to reduce waste
6.serving stations – counsellor/staff grabs a tray to bring back to their own group/tables – plates are already set at the tables (family style)
7.Ireland – groove for your food – keep trays in kitchen, rep would go up to stage at front – choose a dance move everyone getting the trays had to do the chosen dance move – gives staff time to get the food/keep it warm in kitchen
8.formal night/banquet night – have the adults in the dining hall – 200, kids on patio. Senior counsellors taught how to serve. Take their three plates at time, take to kitchen and have kitchen staff build the plates in the kitchen to take back to table. Teenagers would get it at the patio tables. (kids fed earlier with a simpler meal).
9.Last night of junior high/teen camp – do restaurant style, take their order (how would you like your potatoes? shaped like a fish)

3.Skill signup
1.On application form - pre-register
2.At team camp allow them to decide on their first day
3.Early registration (with parents) – random (reduce parents complaining), parent-free zone
4.Confirmation package – daily signups after breakfast (2 choices per block – 2 blocks per day) what if too many people sign up? Leaders are there to say 'it's full' and then the kids would choose something else
5.increase variety – put all camps through all of the options – taste of everything at camp – seemed to be the most happy
6.not every camp does skill sign up – activities are done by cabin – if someone is uncomfortable with a certain skill you find something else for them to do, or add a free block for kids who've missed out on something throughout the week)
7.Horses – 3 different levels (high involvement, some involvement, no involvement) – caters to each child

4.Staff training
1.8 days the end of June after final exams of high-school before camps begin
2.everyone gets together for the weekend before exams – then go do exams, senior leaders stay for training, run a half-full camp (kids that had been in high-school come back for training– use small first camp as training ground)
3.trying to raise the age of camp staff to move the training week ahead one week
4.pre-camp stuff – come prepared with training (first aid, online abuse) if they don't come to camp with the certificate already, they don't work – Sunrise camp
5.During spring break – by the time main staff training happens, some have already had practice on Mother/daughter etc.
6.Returning staff (routine stuff – meaning of bells etc.) made up a test and if they pass it they don't have to sit through sessions for the 6th time in a row
7.High school – CIT training program (most then come already trained). A negative is that they miss out on that bonding time.
8.Problem meeting accreditation standards (700 volunteers) – developed an online training program – can do it from home, submit their stuff. 'First 24 hour' document to ensure consistency – 80% of staff are returning so maybe you don't have to do the 'First 24 hours'
9.Take staff manual and work it into sections/levels, When you finish a level you get it signed off, and can now train other people in that level. From cleaning toilets to program director. Can go as high as you aspire to.
10.Group of senior/new do a presentation of their level to the rest of the group – makes it fun and interesting
11.Incentive – if you read the book sent ('How to...')along with the application package you get 'tuck bucks'

5.Staff retention – how to get them to come back
1.Love them – treat them like I was capable and I was expected to do better than what I thought I could do, I knew that I was cared for. Was given time to relax, but expected to work hard.
2.Exit interview – encourage people to go to the next level so they leave thinking about the next year already (even as they're getting in their car).
3.Christmas party for staff – keep in touch
4.Be a good mentor/example – talk to them about other things, answer their life questions, build relationships
5.Form – mid summer self-evaluation – reviewed at end of summer (they answer their own questions and we give them feedback on their answers).
6.Long distance staff – newsletters, yearbooks, send them out the same rough time as applications go out.
7.Evaluation – be very careful. one person in authority dealing with the kids was asked to do an evaluation with some of the staff and put it on computer – was stolen and passed around to staff – keep it secure.
1.Should not be kept on kids (14 yr – if he's done well this year, he may not do the same next year because they're at the age when they are changing so much – could really hurt them)

6.Church involvement
1.staff sponsorship program – send out acceptance forms and pair them up with a church home group (supper etc.)
2.go after the leadership – treat them well, befriend them, if you have the figurehead involved you open doors/influence
3.hired a youth pastor - 'camp mentor'. Broad prospective guy, his kids involved in camp, he was a sounding board, brought his youth group to do a missions trip to our camp – overnight in bush, built a new site. Saw again that we do missions where we are.
4.recruited board members from different churches onto our camp board – better representation at each church
5.serving the church – find out their needs and supply their needs whenever we can
6.once/twice a year meet with youth pastors and talk about our visions and goals and ask them (over pizza) what their needs are – get everyone on the same page

7.Outbreaks - diseases
1.bleach is your best friend – everything possible
2.cut down sicknesses by hand sanitizer mandatory at beginning of food line, have a staff member go down the line of kids and give to each camper
3.moving the hand-washing sink was not effective
4.head-lice – all the parents on the cabin have to be advised. Go to public school system and find out their policy and what they do in your area
5.have a protocol in dealing with bodily fluids – have people designated to deal with this
6.quarantine – send them home until they feel better – symptom free for 48 hours (staff too) – nip it in the bud
7.let the health authorities know – 36 hours between one camp and the next (may have to shut down for a day or two)
8.develop protocol to deal with the press – have someone trained to deal with the media to prevent bad/inaccurate publicity
9.HIV – let all the staff know ahead of time that someone with the disease is coming – inform those working directly with that person
10.do not put cups up to juice dispensers – use mugs

8.Beach Activity Rotation
1.whiteboard – doesn't work, colour coded pins tried,
2.junior campers – list of which cabins go where, or boys at waterfront, girls elsewhere
3.young camps – meet after each block and get re-dispersed – told which skill to go to (every day), older kids may not need this every day

9.Skills/activities
1.paint-ball – started out with re-ball except a foam ball (they hurt) and not using costly paint balls. Same size as a paint-ball. But can't get insurance for that so we do a re-ball target activity – outer-space theme
2.dirt-boarding – combined wake-board and a mountain-board. Use a mountain-board with braces on it – behind a Gator – need knee pads – kids love it. Need to develop a track.
3.Skim boarding – Company called '77 Skims'.
4.Men's groups – lawn tractor races – open field. Give safety specs. Build their own units and bring them out.
5.Bottle rockets – launcher.
6.Sluge? Water-slide – but it's dry. Use a plastic mat to slide on. Always full of kids.
7.Slip and slide on a hill (100' roll of plastic, shaped the sand and seeded it for a base) – rubber rafts and a fire-hose into the lake – make it straight.
8.Paper airplane books. Develop competitions. Or mousetrap powered cars – go to physics 11 class for ideas. Use cd's or records for different size wheels. Cheap and 3-4 hours worth. Parachute eggs (creating recovering systems).

10.Involvement, Conflict resolution, alumni stuff – ran out of time

11.Website: canadacampforum.forumotion.com

12.Website: thesource4ym.com

thanks for putting these up Duanne